VII - Following Faint Russian Clues

The joy of finally discovering the place of capture was slowly tempered by the nagging fact that 2 important items were not translated from the Russian Record card:  #1 entry "Camp Name" could not be made out because it was too faint. And the tantalizing entry #14 "When and Where from Came to Camp". 

Many months later I tried some software to darken, sharpen and enhance the document and re-posted to the Kresy-Siberia Group. Success!

Wow, Wow, Wow!  Not only does this Russian Record Card show place of capture as Lipica Dolna on September 19, 1939. It shows the current place of confinement “ (Camp Name)  as Lagier Putyvl ( Putivlski). It also shows "Where and when came from as " Lagier Starobielsk on Oct 21,1939. 
LAGIER is a word for Russian prisoner camp.

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So from capture at Lipica Dolna, he was transported 1,315 km to Starobielsk Lagier to the East then one month later,  543 km to Putivlski Lagier to the Northwest. Then within the next 9 days, to Torun, Poland, Stalag XXA, 1332 km to the Northwest. Back and forth, ,all by rail car and likely crowded like cattle.

My analysis of the Russian part of his journey:

     He was captured by the Soviet Red Army, turned over to the NKVD, managed by the administration of POW affairs (UPWI).
      The  Russian NKVD ( Peoples Commissariate of Internal Affairs) aka Soviet Secret Police, predecessor of the KGB, keepers of the Gulag system and mass exterminators of tens of thousands of Poles.

In addition to redrawing the map and dividing up Poland, published top secret documents (Secret Protocol #1)  show the State set up 8 collection points in Belorussia  and Kiev military districts and 2 transit camps set up for new POW's at Kozel'sk (BSSR) and Putivlski (USSR). One day after his capture, the State approved mobilization of the NKVD Calvary for the transfer of POW's from the Red Army at 2 transfer points.

A side note was Red Cross was denied access on basis saying prisoners were not POW's but counter- revolutionaries. So this denied POW's basic military prisoner rights.

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From a German initiative, starting on October 24,1939 to mid 1940, 43,000 (33%) of Polish POW's born in Western Poland, now under Nazi occupation, were transferred to the Germans In a prisoner exchange with Russians. This took place at 2 border points, the area of Brzesc (Brest) and Dorohusk. My dad was part of this exchange from the Putylv between 24 October and 23 November 1939.

 Later in 1940 the Soviets refused further prisoner transfers but the mindset of prisoners was still hopeful for "exchange and transfers". The following transfers in April and May of 1940 were to the forests to be massacred !  15,000 Polish prisoners were slaughtered in a genocidal crime. My dad missed being slaughtered by months, maybe days while others in the very same camps perished. 

A giant piece of the puzzle, where was he captured,  is solved by 3 faint and forgotten entries in a Russian record.

VIII - Name, Rank and Serial Number ?

Look at these primitive monster cannons. Note bullet ridden shield below picture

No wonder his hearing was shot

Zygmunt's military's assignment

Cannon wz.97/25 is a  Pattern 1897 French Cannon modified in Poland in 1925

Again I find the multiple language translations causing a bit of confusion, at least for me, being a non-military person to understand his rank or position during his service. There are many common threads. This is what I have gleaned from the different records:

• Gunman 2 Air Division A.P.L - .(Polish)
• 2 Air Division
• 2 Air Platoon
• 2 Flieger  - "Aviator"  (German)
• 2e Regt. Artillerie  -"2nd Regiment Artillery" (French)
•  Appointe -  A grade for foot soldiers whose long service and bravery received more pay than other privates (French)
• Gefreiter - loosely translated as acting corporal by the UK but Private First Class in Polish
• Bomb. L/Cpl - from a post war (1952) document rank, possibly a promotion after liberation

 Initially I found no information on a 2 Air Division, Platoon or A.P.L. in the Polish military.
**Update 10-20-15**  2 Dywizjon Artylerii Przeciwiotniczej (2 Squadron Anti-aircraft Artillery) 2nd Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion), an Army unit mobilized in Grodno, A.P.L is likely Artyleria PrzeciwLotnicza also known as Anti-aircraft "Flak" Artillery.

It appears his rank rose from Gunman to acting Corporal due to Polish manpower and leadership being decimated defending 2 fronts and attrition. 

Thanks to information from Polish Forums website and others.

So I can conclude Dad was in The Polish Army of the 2nd Republic, Semi-permanent Anti-Aircraft Artillery Squadron No.131, 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Squadron-Grodno, Anti-aircraft Battery #131 . Mobilized in late August 1939. This was part of a secret plan  "Plan West" mobilizing 3 defensive lines against a a nearly surrounded Poland, Dad was in the 3rd defensive line around Southeast Romania holding the region of the "Romanian Bridgehead" as long as possible. 

From the school interview papers, with my daughter Shannon came an important clue; he told that her that he fired 75 mm cannons at aircraft. First hand infomation.  So he was a gunman in the 2nd air division artillery manning 75 mm anti-aircraft guns. That is clear.

 

Wow, googling 75 mm anti-aircraft cannon came up with some scary, primitive looking weapons.

The four 75mm assigned to his battery were "wz97/25", 1897 French cannons modified by Poland in 1925. In fact the record shows  the 75mm the old (1897 models), poorly maintained, ran out of ammunition frequently causing retreat into the forests. In fact before abandoning the cannon in retreat, acid was poured down the barrels to avoid the enemy using them.

Anti-aircraft Batteries Batteries #131,#132 and #131  were engaging German aviation in the Jordan Park area of Krakow until September 5, 1939 until  the city was overrun with German soldier. The batteries to cities of Deblin, Szczucin, Mielec and Luck (Lutsk) then to the South to set up the 3rd defensive line, positioning him  in the Lviv, Berezhany area. 

At  this point, I am going to make a best informed analysis to where and why dad was been stationed when captured. There is no doubt it was in the East as explained above "Plan West". Just as his military conscription was extended due to looming invasion crisis, his unit was placed as needed along the 1500 km Eastern border in late 1939. He likely had supported South Eastern border defense, along with the civilian militia, rag-tag volunteers, defending access to the Romanian Bridgehead for the retreating survivors.

This explains fully why a military serviceman from Grodno, in the territory of Belorussia, ended up captured in Lipica Dolna in Eastern Galacia September 19,1939

These are the verified circumstances that put him at Lipica Dolna, 12 km from Berezhany. The Russian prisoner record card was the "smoking gun" I have been looking for. This closes a huge gap  in my quest for understanding.

IX - Stalags and Arbeitskommandos Labor Camps

The handbook and patch signifying you were a Polish Arbeitskommando

My Dad, Zygmunt Frackiewicz Age 26
Rare photo early in his imprisonment  at Stalag XXA in Thorn, (Torun) Poland
Entry documents state he arrived sick and weak requiring "injections"

Zygmunt Frackiewicz Prisoner # 1006

Stalag is from the German "Stammerlager", a German POW camp for non-commissioned officers and enlisted men
Arbeitskommando were labor sub-camps under POW camps for holding prisoners under the rank of sergeant and permitted under the 3rd Geneva Convention.

Though I have dates and general locations spanning 6 years, it is frustrating not having more details especially about his labor camps but I am finding this is common as forced labor was so extensive.There is also the vast number of these camps, or example Buchenwald had over 100 sub-camps, Auschwitz had 44 sub-camps and so on.

Briefly the German Reich had 17 Military Districts. The main camp or Stalag was named for a specific district and the order of camps by a Capitol letter, ie. VI-A


An unexpected bit of information came up in 2015 on a Google search by my sister Susanna. It shows a newspaper article that shows dad spent time in a Chemical plant in Blachownia/Blechhammer from June 1944 to January 1945. While an interesting new found addition to the record, this adds more complexity to the story that is not part of the POW record shown below.

The new evidence (May 2016) from the Russian Record card proved accurate data regarding the Soviet capture timeline.

• Captured in  Lipica Dolna, Sept.19,1939 by the Soviet Red Army
• Held by Soviets in  2 Lagiers, Starobielsk, then Putivlski on Oct, 21, 1939
• Stalag XXA Thorn, Poland, Fort #13, entered sometime in the last 10 days of Oct. 1939
• Stalag VI-A Hemer, entered March 28, 1940
• Assigned as Arbeitkommando to Kapellen-Moers 117 entered April 2, 1940, site of synthetic oil plant, a target of Allied bombings
• Stalag VI-J Krefeld-Fichtenhain, entered July 2, 1940 through August 1, 1944
• Assigned as Arbeitcommando unit 110P,  entered April 7, 1941              
• Stalag VI-K Senne entered Sept 23, 1944.                    
• Assigned as Arbeitcommando unit WC 51,  entered October 10, 1944.       

.So while records show him being at Stalag VI-J through August 1,1944 and entering Stalag VI-K on September 23, 1944, This time frame also encompasses the June 1944 to January 1945 record of being at the Blechhammer North O/S Hydrierwerke AG chemical plant construction and operation in Slawiecice near Blachownia Slaska. This was a sub-camp of Auschwitz.

Another censor stamp on
family photo from VI-J.
From Nazi censor 27. Note
 Swan icon on lower right.

"Gepruft"  =  Checked /Censored
stamp on back of a family photo sent 
to Camp  VI-J. 44 refers to Nazi censor 
Camp 44. Note the faint icon of 
"Turbaned Head" on  lower  right.

I discovered these odd "stamps" on back of  old photos of  Dad's family. These are the most legible, from later on in his captivity. The oldest one,(not shown) is a pic of his mom, has a faint XXA on it, worn out from looking at it, handling it.  Note the numbers refer to an Nazi censor for that Stalag.

There is also a record of being in Stalag VIIA, Moosburg, but this may have been a pass through camp enroute to work details.

The explanation must be that these were his Arbeitskommando assignments under the specific home Stalag listed but in the sub-camps. The slave labor going from more rural type labor to something more demanding for the desperate Nazi war effort, making synthetic fuel from coal.

A minimum of 11 Soviet Lagiers, Stalags and Labor Camps recorded, escaping death sometimes by days, by circumstance and by the grace of God.

X - Slave Labor at Blechhammer-Slawiece Chemical Plant

The main Auschwitz camp

Wow, finding the new piece of documentation in 2015, while adding some unexpected confusion, gives the first evidence  of what some of Dad's work commando assignments were. He was reported there from almost the onset, from clearing of the land to erecting the buildings on this complex, through the complex's operation. What were his forced tasks: agricultural, construction, breaking oil shale rock into little pieces or industrial related? The camps motto says it all "Vernichtung Durch Arbeit" (Annihilation through Labor).

The Blechammer North chemical plant was one of the labor sub-camps. less than 100 km from the infamous main camp of Auschwitz. In Slawiecice, less than 5 minutes/3km away, was a  mobile crematorium called the "pocket furnace". The mingling of the concentration camp inmates and arbeitcommandos was a fact. It must have been horrific working in the smell of burning bodies and in the shadow of death with walking corpses.

Blechammer chemical plant became a strategic target for the allies dropping over 7,000 lbs. of bombs on it. It made over 100 products from coal, primarily synthetic rubber and gasoline.  These sustained bombings resulted in an rapid evacuation of this series of camps. Masses of POW's were moved Westward to escape the now hostile Soviet advance. In other areas of Germany, POW movement was to the North and East to avoid US and British advances. These were the infamous death marches of  January 25, 1945, These were death marchs in the dead of one of the worst winters in 20 years with temperature of -13 F. Estimates of 3,500 people died from the weather extremes, lack of clothes and food, disease (typhus was rampant) and from already being in an  emaciated state. Those that were slow, sick  or could not keep up the inhumane march were shot by side of the road, hundreds lined the many routes.

Was Zygmunt Frackiewicz in the 1945 Death March?

So the record shows he was still there in January 1945, Was he moved earlier in the month? Was he marched or transported in a covered cattle car or was it in a open coal car? How did he get back to Stalag K some 870 km away in the dead of winter from a bombed out, evacuated chemical plant under the direction of Auschwitz concentration camp?

A review of a historical document "Movements of Prisoner of War in Germany 1944-45"  show there is no direct route from Blechammer to the endpoint of the  Fallingbostel Collection Center. Whatever convoluted route he took to the northwest must have incorporated marching and rail transport, there are no other options for the 870 kilometer travel.

However he made it back to Stalag K in Fallingbostel, he never talked about any of it which is hard to believe. But there is a lot about his journey that is hard to believe.

XI - Liberation after 6 years

A common sight in April and May of 1945

Continuing with his long awaited liberation, Once again history, the record and personal recollection do not align. Especially data populated by dad in the literally endless post war forms for assistance in the war refugee collection centers by the (IRO) International Relief Organization. I have recently learned some personal data was purposely skewed to fit the bureaucracy, enhance emigration chances and avoid any mention of "Soviets"

• The POW record shows his last Confinement at Stalag K (326) at Senne/Schloss Holte-Stuckenbrock, Fallingbostel area beginning September 9, 1944. Documents also show him  performing forced labor at Blechhammer Chemical plant June 1944-January 1945. Was this an Arbeitkommando work assignment?
• All forced labor ended at Blachownia/Blechhammer chemical plant January 1945, he had to return to Stalag K in the Fallingbostel complex.
• History says Stalag  K was liberated in April 2, 1945
• Zygmunt says he was liberated on May 8, 1945 by the British but populated IRO forms soon after  liberation with April 1945
• May 8 is also recognized as VE (Victory in Europe) Day 
• Documents show he was in Hannover-Buchholz in the Polish Military Centre April 16,1945, at a PWX (ex-POW) camp.
• April 6 is the date of liberationof Stalag K by US troops
• April 6 is the date of Evacuation of Stalag XI-B and Stalag 357
• April 16 is same date as the 2 Fallingbostel Stalag liberations.

To further complicate matters, from his recollections to Shannon Frackiewicz and family verbal history, he was shot by the Germans after the war ended!

Zygmunt told of being liberated by British forces (while waiting for Americans). Freed POW's were told they were free and they set off walking toward whatever refuge, comrades and assistance they could find in a foreign land. He must have been in a small group taking a less traveled route because he was ambushed and shot by Germans who did not know the war was over and hostilities had ceased.

Imagine that, no GPS, no cells phones, no taxis or Uber, no public transport, just follow a dirt road or path through the forest. This after covering thousands of kilometers as POW, with the clothes on your back, a stranger in a strange, bombed out land, freed to march again to what?
Then shot after being freed.

So sometime between April 6, 1945 and May 1945 he was shot. He must have been field dressed as documents show 3 months later, May 22,1945 - June 1, 1945 he had surgery on his right bicep that did not take well. One year after that he had another surgery by a Polish doctor. His arm was shattered.

I can speculate that if he was documented in an PWX camp in Hannover-Buchholz on April 16, 1945 in the Polish Military Centre, that he was probably evacuated/transferred from Stalag K on or about April 2, 1945. Somewhere between Stalag K and the Fallingbostel Stalags he was ambushed and shot.

        

 "Stragglers" ( the weak and the wounded) that remained behind in XI-B were later liberated by the British Army on April 16 and on May 8. Dad was transported to the Polish Military Centre-PWX camp for further surgery. Because he could speak German, he could act as a translator for the Polish folks and remained there helping with the masses of captured Germans, Displace Persons (DP) and former POW's. When the 2nd PWX camp was disbanded in June 1947, he was reassigned to the DP camp in the RPC (Regional Processing Centre) in Fallingbostel. This scenario fits the record

One more thing, family history says this hospital and military centre is where he met Elfriede Emma Dusel, his future wife and my mom. The incredible story continues........

XII - Love among the Displaced Persons Camp

Married September 15, 1951 in Hamburg-Veddel

One special family story was how Dad and Mom met after the war ended. As we understood it, simply he was shot and wounded after the war ended, she was a nurse, they were both in a German hospital, somehow met, fell in love, married and emigrated to the U.S. But this story also gets a bit more complicated if I am to understand the post war span of 7 years as refugees until they immigrated to the U.S.

Elfriede Dusel was a children's nurse, studied, trained and interned with the Wurzburg Germany Red Cross and Wurzburg Children's Hospital from March 20, 1940 to May 1, 1942. The next 5 years are unclear. Then she reappears on the record at the Bergen-Belsen/Hohne  Glyn Hughes Hospital from April 1947 to May 3, 1949. This hospital camp was  only 39 km from the Fallingbostel  D.P. (Displaced Persons) complex and actually part of it.

This aligns well with family history she related of taking care of the flood of liberated inmates of the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. This mass of humanity necessitated Elfriede help out beyond her child care duties. She told of feeding adult survivors with baby bottle and formula because they could not process real food because of years of starvation and many died anyway. This was a life long vivid image to me and sparked my early and life long interest in the Holocaust.

Then from April 1947 to November 12, 1950 she was serving at the D.P. branch at Lemgo, Germany B.A.O.R. 15  (British Army of the Rhine) then at Glueckstast, Germany I.R.O. (International Rescue Committee) Sickbay from May 1949 to March 1951, simultaneously serving in Fallingbostel  RPC (Refugee Processing Centre) some 154 km apart.

The reason for this detail on Elfriede is to match scenarios when and where dad and her could have met.


Zygmunt Frackiewicz  D.P. 3238597, I.R.O. #274221 or simply 8/1  on the "whom" field on official forms
 Records from the 504 IRC (International Refugee Committe) Resettlement Center, Gluckstadt, Camp Leader Office detail his post liberation service:

• April 16, 1945 to September 25, 1947 recovered from war injury and acted as a German translator at Polish Military Centre "PWX camp" (Ex-Prisoner of War camp) at Hannover- Buchholz, ACCU-Lager
• Transferred September 26, 1947 to December 31,1947 to second PWX camp until liquidation, also in Hannover-Buchholz, also know as "Static Camp" Block 301.
• January 1, 1948 to October 23, 1950 transferred and worked as block leader in R.P.C. (Refugee Processing Center) Fallingbostel
• October 23, 1950 to February 26, 1951 transferred and worked as block leader in  R.P.C. Gluckstadt  Schloss-Holte Stuckenbrock
• February 26, 1951 in 504 Resettlement Centre, Gluckstadt

In the interest of other researchers I add the following documented DP camps he was in :

• The Hannover DP camp in the British Zone was located in Niedersachen (Lower Saxony)
• "ACCU" camp name for  #2715 in Garbsener Landstrasse Hannover-Stocken from 1945-1948 in the PWX . Refers to "Prisoner of War Executive" within the Allied Military coordinating care/evacuation of Allied POW's (mostly Polish) after hostilities ceased
• Registered in Oerbke-Lager Registration office for emigration to USA 1950
• Osnabruck Assembly Center 269, dad was reported there April-August 1951
• Wentorf  DP camp, #2131 BAOR 3 medical center- Dad was in 1951 for blood, lung and health evaluations 

In the chaotic months of 1945, the lines between "Refugee", "Displaced Person" and "Liberated POW' were often blurred.

So there was overlap where they could have met either in 1947 at Fallingbostel D.P. camp while she was at Bergen-Belsen.  The other option is at Glueckstadt  where they both worked in the 1950-51  in the R.P.C (Refugee Processing Center).

XIII - Proud and Legal U.S. Citizens

Puzzling to me, Zygmunt spent more time in a Displace Persons (DP) camps (7-8 years) than the whole WWII as a POW!          Why?

"The Last Million" by Nasan painstakingly details the reasons. Politics after the war were as nasty as they are today without politically correct boundaries. Millions of victims of the war were without homes or country having nowhere to go. The British set up DP cities around Germany. The international community had no solution to the crisis. They set up the International Relief Organization (IRO) to resettle the homeless millions. Politics and old prejudices glaringly  impacted resettlement. The U.S. was one of the last countries to accept refugees. With few options, dad chose the U.S. because mom and I could join him immediately. 

Scrutinizing dad's D.P. records from the International Tracing Service (ITS) I find a glaring discrepancy! The bureaucratic  paper work of the I.R.O wanted to know locations, jobs, residences  for the past 10 years, in triplicate. Dutifully dad filled them out. Not a word of his Russian capture or captivity, instead he states he was in Kaisersteinbruch, Austria (Stalag XII-A) from  September 25 to October 1939 after capture. How is this possible?  I have the Russian record !

Turning again to The Last Million it is politically clear that for a chance to emigrate, there was to be no whisper or mention of Soviets or Russians or Communists or Reds. No matter the circumstance or context. The post WWII world was vehemently anti-communist.  Being Polish he was near the bottom of the list for "desirable" refugees. Mentioning he was a Soviet prisoner in Russia would close any relocation/emigration opportunities. Consequently he lied about his initial prisoner location on his I.R.O. application. And it still took 7-8 years to emigrate ! 

They married September 15, 1951 and I was born in Bielefield, Germany June 21, 1952, outside the DP camp Fallingbostel,  in temporary housing set up for the upcoming emigration. 

Dad secured a $76 loan for the journey to the U.S. from the International Catholic Migrant Loan Fund on August 14. We all got our small pox shots on August 22, 1953 then left Bremen, Germany airport 2 days on August 24 classified as "Stateless" refugees being sponsored by a Dairyman Magnus Cryberg in Cedar Falls, Iowa and landing at the old Idlewild, New York airport. Our Visa numbers were 7592-7594. I always thought we came by ship, in fact Ellis Island names a ship we supposedly were on, but airline passenger manifests don't lie.

I recall them talking about arriving with little money and knowing no English in New York and kind hearted German speaking passengers on  the public bus they were on took up a collection for them.. In fact I did not know any English before I entered nursery school and learned it by assimilation, as did my parents. No wonder my early memories are so chaotic and crazy. The contractor named Hanson put us up at a RR #4 address then we rented an 2nd floor apartment 815 W. 23rd street in the College Hill area of Cedar Falls, owned by Richard and Loretta Rechtfertig owners of "Dicks Grill", then 1924 College street then 716 Bluff and ultimately bought a home at 1115 State  Streets. All made possible by a tight knit Catholic German community helping displaced refugees.

Dad worked as a construction laborer until retirement with a documented 50% disability in his  right arm from the war injury. Just imagine that scenario today! Damn he was a tough, hard working man living the American dream.

And yes, we waited our turn in line, learned English and studied for the honor of being U.S. citizens. On October 9, 1959 we all became U.S. citizens,  They were so proud! We got letters from Iowa Senators and Representatives congratulating us. The small flags we received were special and in constant display.

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