To the Editorial Office of the “Zorza” weekly
Warsaw, Mokotowska Street 43
I am sending information concerning my father, who was detained among prisoners of war in the camp in Starobelsk – he is listed in many publications.
Karol Krzetuski, Doctor of Laws, born in Brody on 14 July 1859. He graduated from the secondary school in Brody, and then from the Department of Law at University of Vienna. He was an official of the Akcyjny Bank Hipoteczny [The Joint Stock Motgage Bank] in Lwów, and was then moved to the bank’s branch located in Kraków (c. 1900). Having been appointed city councillor for the region of Nowa Wieś, in addition to his work in the bank, he engaged in extensive social work. He published the book “Polityka bankowa” [“Zarys systemu polityki bankowej”], and edited its second edition just before the war.
As an officer of the reserve, holding the rank of captain, he took part in the war in 1914. When the Polish Legions were being formed, he asked to be transferred from the Austrian army, but with no success. He went to the front after several months spent in what was back then [known as] the Kraków Fortress. In 1915/1916 he fought first on the Italian [front] and then on the Russian front.
In 1917 he returned to Kraków, where he took up the post of deputy commander of the Emperor Franz Joseph Barracks, and that is where he was during the liberation of Kraków. He actively engaged in this operation and immediately assumed command over the barracks. Once the Poles had assumed authority in Kraków, he was transferred to the reserve and appointed major.
During the interwar period he simultaneously worked at the bank and took part in the works regarding the city of Kraków. He actively engaged in politics and participated in the so-called dinner meetings of the “Czas” [daily newspaper]. These were the meetings of various groups, including the future founders of the Alliance of Democrats. I gave the notebook with the report from the first meeting of the Alliance of Democrats established in Kraków to the local Alliance of Democrats as a memento.
Some time later, father quit his job at the bank, having decided that it offered little chance for progress. He started a number of companies, such as the “Asbit” roof tile factory, then the “Polski Glob” joint-stock company, bonded warehouses, and finally the Land Purchase Bank [Bank Parcelacyjny]. The conditions were not favorable, especially after the Germans announced the customs war.
Dealing with politics his whole life, father anticipated the incoming storm – to the extent that when the order was issued for all men to leave Kraków, father immediately applied to be enlisted in the army (he was 70 years old at that point). He had prepared his uniform (none of us knew about it), packed his old military chest, and set off!
I forgot to mention that he also worked as a lecturer at the Higher School of Economics [at the time it was called the Higher Institute of Economics], and he frequently voiced his opinions in the press. He had countless interests, jobs, and activities.
I learned about this 1939 journey from the account of his colleague, who had escaped before the Russians closed down the camp (between Łuck and Równe). Having struggled through a pointless march to aid Warsaw – he thought that the Geneva convention offered sufficient protection for prisoners of war – he did not have enough strength to go back. I must add that father, having suffered from a severe sciatica, brought along for this journey not only a saber, but also a cane!
The first message concerning father was the account from his journey towards the east, during which he mobilized a unit numbering 500 people, took up the position of commander as the eldest (!), and distributed among this group the money from the wagons which they had found on the way. Then, almost all of them were captured.
We received a telegram from Starobelsk, and then three postcards – the last one was from the beginning of April. My husband […] and I submitted this postcard to the archive of the National Ossoliński Institute in Wrocław.
In 1945 we moved from Kraków to Wrocław, where my husband was the government plenipotentiary for the administrative district of Lower Silesia, and the founder of the State Higher School of Fine Arts.