Bronislawa Turkiewicz was born on 27 November 1898 in Samborze, Poland. She was the daughter of Jan Radecki and Katarzyny (nee Malik).

 

She married Franciszek Andrej Turkiewicz in Przemysl on 18 February 1933.

 

They had three children, Ryszard born on 16 December 1925, and twins Marta and Maria born on 17 May 1937.  Maria died in infancy.

 

The family lived in Przemysl, county of Lwow, in eastern Poland. And they were a happy family.

 

Her husband was Sergeant Franciszek Turkiewicz, Badge #3295, head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Polish State Police in Przemysl, He was arrested by the NKWD on 29 September 1939. She saw him briefly in jail, but he vanished a short time later and was never heard from again.

 

His name appears as a murder victim on the Katyn West Ukraine List, with no known grave.

 

Bronislawa and her children were deported on 3 April 1940 to Selo Nowo Aleksiejewka, Kustanskaja Obl. (Kostenay province in Northern Kazakhstan).

 

When Bronislawa refused to accept Soviet citizenry, she was sent to a labour camp and Marta (age 3) was put in an orphanage where she contracted smallpox. On her release six years later, Bronislawa searched the Soviet Union and found Marta.  They returned to Przemysl in 1946 and resided at ul Smolki 6 until Bronislawa’s death on 17 December 1957 of complications contracted in the prison camp.  She is buried in Przemysl near her mother, Katarzyna Malik.

 

 Marta  wrote of their ordeal:

“When my mother and I were in Kazakhstan, we were assaulted and robbed by two Russian women. My mother was hit with an axe on her head, while I was being strangled. My mother‘s screams were heard by people living nearby and we were saved by them. All those traumatic experiences later affected my and my mother’s health. I wish that there were no wars or genocide ever again.”

 

Her daughter Marta married Franciszek Kuziel. After her husband’s death, she lived with her son Boguslaw in Olsztyn. Marta’s daughter Barbara, married to Jacek Freyer, and her son Radoslaw, lives in England.

 

 

Copyright: Turkiewicz damily

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