Wincenty Gołębiewski 1909 - 1944

Born 19.7.1909 in Bieżuń
Died 8.11.1944 in Linz

Biography

We are questing for the completion of a story told years after as a result of a selection performed by the Germans at Dulag 121 camp in Pruszków in Poland Wincenty Gołębiewski went missing. Zbigniew Gołębiewski – his grandson is searching for information about his plight.

Wincenty Gołębiewski, a son of Stanisław and Teofila born Szrejna, was born on 19 July 1909 in Bieżuń, a place situated near Sierpiec in the north of Masovia in Poland. Since 1928 he was employed at the Polish Post in its different locations, in Poznań, Podhajce, Przeworsk, Łódź and finally Łowicz. 1930 he married Leokadia born Kominowska and had four children: the sons Eugeniusz (1932), Jerzy (1934), the daughter Maria (1937) and the youngest son Zygmunt (born at beginning of 1940). His son Jerzy died 1947, the remaining siblings are still alive.

During the second World War he lived with family in the town Łowicz in a house at 36 Podrzeczna St. Starting from 1940 he was active in the local Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) Division being the underground armed forces of the Polish State. As an employee of the post office in Łowicz he dealt with repossession of denunciations to local Gestapo using his excellent knowledge of German.

On 5 December 1943 he was forced to leave Łowicz and his family and flee to Warsaw because of exposure. There he stayed at Wola district at Młynarska St. at a friendly family Balewicz (the father of which was a printer). In Warsaw he continued being active as a member of AK – helping to disguise Jews after the fall of the uprising in the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw which was punishable by the Germans with death penalty.

According to the information of his sister Jadwiga Koper, while fleeing from Łowicz he used falsified documents for the name Aleksander Mrożek (his schoolmate deceased in 1942) or Aleksander Mroziński (probably an imaginary character born on 15 August 1908 in Podhajce, where grandfather used to work for a few years before the war). Since that time until now his original documents: Kennkarte/identity card and Ausweis/pass for the territory of Reich remain family owned.

In August 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising Wincenty Gołębiewski fled with the Balewicz family from a slaughter of civilians at Wola district to further districts of the city and finally was captured with all Balewicz family members on 2 September 1944 and directed to an transit camp for civilian expellees from the city – Dulag 121 , in a place near Warsaw called Pruszków. There he was separated from the Balewicz family and transported by train for forced labour to Reich.

Thanks to the contact with the Director of Museum Dulag 121 in Pruszków in Poland and the support of the author of a thematic book I got hold of an inventory of transportations from Pruszków on 2 September 1944, in which I found the name Aleksander Mroziński, born on 15 August 1908 in Podhajce, itemised as number 715 on the list of men transported to KZ Gross-Rosen.

According to further information acquired from the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in Warsaw the transport from Dulag 121 Camp at Pruszków to Gross-Rosen arrived on 5 September 1944 and Aleksander Mroziński was given the number 104 815. Shortly after that on 20 September he was transported to a consecutive location in Austria – KZ Mauthausen, where he arrived on the same day and following a few days of quarantine on 25 September was moved to work to the subcamp Linz III.

Moreover, the Institute of National Remembrance referred that the camp report “Todesmeldung” of 11 November 1944 states that Aleksander Mroziński died on 8 November 1944 at 2 p.m. in subcamp Linz III due to pneumonia and blood circulation disorder, and was later cremated at the camp crematorium, his ashes remaining probably at KZ Mauthausen territory.

Last message of Grandfather Wincenty Gołębiewski was a handwritten card to the family with the information about the deportation to Reich, delivered in the fall 1944 from the town of Skierniewice to Łowicz by an unknown person. Since that time, he was missing. On 8 January 1947 his wife Leokadia obtained at the local court in Łowicz the declaration of death of her husband Wincenty Gołębiewski.

The National Institute of Remembrance confirmed that the Special Registry Office in Arolsen had issued the death certificate for Aleksander Mroziński on 23 November 1955 based on the original documents from KZ Mauthausen.

Suspecting that the character of Aleksander Mroziński is a purely fictitious one on the basis of war circumstances, I have undertaken in mid-2018 a verification procedure at the City Council in Podhajce and the Archive of Records at nearby city Tarnopol – the seat of the province for Podhajce, whether any records of a person under this name, born on that date or in that place exist at the archive books, parish or official records. I obtained a negative response from these three independent sources. The date of birth being a major Christian Holyday to Virgin Mary seems to be invented by the religious Grandfather in creating a fictitious character under a deceased friends name.

What is more, at present there is not a single person under such a name or a similar name in the 2.700 people city of Podhajce, which has been checked at my request by the President of the Polish Society of Friends of the Podhajce Region (Towarzystwo Miłośników Ziemi Podhajeckiej).

The Gołębiewski family is still searching for any information about the wartime plight of father and grandfather Wincenty, using most probably the name Aleksander Mroziński.

Maybe you can help uncover his last days at KZ Mauthausen and subcamp Linz III?

If so, let us to know by e-mail to zgoleb@gmail.com.

 

Zbigniew Gołębiewski, grandson

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