Babimost, 17 July 1989
Zofia Kaźmierczak
[…]
Editorial Board of the “Zorza” weekly
Appeal for the Completion of the Katyń List
I hereby submit personal data of my brother-in-law Czesław Maszner, who died in 1940 in Katyń.
1. Czesław Maszner, names of parents: father Longin Maszner, mother Gertruda Maszner
née Radom, born on 20 July 1911 in Kiełpiny, Wolsztyn district, Poznańskie Voivodeship.
2. Higher education; profession: teacher, MA in mathematics; he graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He worked in the general secondary school in Jarocin, Poznańskie Voivodeship, where he taught mathematics.
| 3. | Military rank: second lieutenant in the reserve. He was assigned to the army service columns. |
| 4. | – |
| 5. | He was summoned to the army service columns in Małkinia (I’m not sure as to the name of the place, but I know that it was far away in the east of Poland). On 28 August 1939, my sister and his wife, Marianna Maszner née Nawracała, together with their little six- month-old son Bernard, born on 23 February 1939, walked him to the train station in Stara Tuchorza from Kiełpiny, as they were spending the summer there at their parents’. |
| 6. | My brother-in-law sent the first postcard, a Polish one, from Równe; we received it towards the end or at the beginning of December 1939 in Kiełpiny. At the same time, he sent similar postcards from Równe to his sister, Tekla Maszner, to the pharmacy in Wolsztyn; his brother, Jan Maszner from Kiełpiny, also received such a postcard from Równe. After the war, in 1946, a resident of Kiełpiny, Private Ciesielski, returned home from England. He told us that he was incarcerated in the camp in Równe together with my brother-in-law Czesław Maszner. They were separated towards the end of 1939, i.e., privates were separated from officers. Private Ciesielski begged my brother-in-law, “Maszner, rip these stars off your uniform, there’s no telling what they’ll do to you.” My brother-in-law replied, “I won’t betray my homeland.” Private Ciesielski got into the Anders’ Army, while my brother-in-law never returned. My sister got the last letter in January 1940; it came from Kozelsk. I remember a fragment of this letter, quote: “I’m all right and in good health. The war spared me. What is my son doing?” I don’t remember any more. We don’t have any other letters, and my sister died on 28 March 1988 in Wolsztyn. |
This is everything that I know in the case.
I enclose the photograph of my brother-in-law with his brother, a priest.
Yours sincerely,
Zofia Kaźmierczak