From Natalie Kolodziejczyk:

My Grandmothers name is Maria (sometimes known as Marisha or Marianna) Kolodziejczyk, she was born on 22nd January 1921 in a village called wojcice near Blaszki, Kalisz Poland although she has used 21st January as her birthdate and the year as 1926.
Of my Grandmothers teenage life all I know is that on Archive documents from Kalisz it shows that my Grandmother went to11 ul wysoka Lodz in September 1938 it was a type of cake shop. We think possibly it was around 1940 that she was taken to Germany but we are not sure, we do not know either if she went to Germany from Lodz or if she went back home and then went to Germany. We heard from various family little pieces and understand that my Grandmother came back from Germany after 1 year and gave birth to my Father,,however if she went to Germany in 1940 that would not tie up with my Fathers birthdate as June 1942 , we have also been told that my Grandmother came back WITH my Father,We have also been told my Grandfather was the owner of the place my grandmother first worked in Germany, someone else said he was a german farm labourer which somehow doesnt seem right and someone else said he was a German Officer who owned the place where she worked. My Grandmother went back to Germany in August 1942 and worked for a Mr &Mrs Luchau from Celle on a small farm until May 1945, she then went to Osnabruck and met and married my Stepgrandfather Jan Rydelski who was in the 1st Independant Parachute Brigade,they married in a Polish village castro polona in Eversburg osnabruck in August 1946 ( this is when my Grandmother used the year 1926 as her birth year)After a while they came to England. My Father was then brought here in 1959 having never seen his mother in 17 years. What I am desperate to find out is where my Grandmother was the first time in Germany. I think it was in area of Bremen but I have no idea where. There is of course a lot more to this story and I will gladly answer any questions anybody may have we are so close but so far away still from finding out the truth but I will never give up.

Kindest Wishes
Natalie Kolodziejczyk / ENGLAND

“In search of family truth – Grandfather from Europe”

Translation of #GA.PA Gallery:

From Natalie Kolodziejczyk:

My Grandmothers name is Maria (sometimes known as Marisha or Marianna) Kolodziejczyk, she was born on 22nd January 1921 in a village called wojcice near Blaszki, Kalisz Poland although she has used 21st January as her birthdate and the year as 1926.

Of my Grandmothers teenage life all I know is that on Archive documents from Kalisz it shows that my Grandmother went to11 ul Wysoka Lodz in September 1938 it was a type of cake shop.

We think possibly it was around 1940 that she was taken to Germany but we are not sure, we do not know either if she went to Germany from Lodz or if she went back home and then went to Germany. We heard from various family little pieces and understand that my Grandmother came back from Germany after 1 year and gave birth to my Father ,, however if she went to Germany in 1940 that would not tie up with my Fathers birthdate as June 1942, we have also been told that my Grandmother came back WITH my Father, We have also been told my Grandfather was the owner of the place my grandmother first worked in Germany, someone else said he was a german farm laborer which somehow doesnt seem right and someone else said he was a German Officer who owned the place where she worked.

My Grandmother went back to Germany in August 1942 and worked for a Mr & Mrs Luchau from Celle on a small farm until May 1945, she then went to Osnabruck and met and married my Stepgrandfather Jan Rydelski who was in the 1st Independant Parachute Brigade they married in a Polish village castro polona in Eversburg osnabruck in August 1946 (this is when my Grandmother used the year 1926 as her birth year)
After a while they came to England. My Father was then brought here in 1959 having never seen his mother in 17 years.

What I am desperate to find out is where my Grandmother was the first time in Germany. I think it was in area of ​​Bremen but I have no idea where.

Of course, this family story is much broader and I am ready to answer any possible further questions, but for today I am so far from finding the truth; I can promise one thing that I will never give up to find her.

With kindest regards,

Natalie Kolodziejczyk / ENGLAND

Dear Helen!
Dear Natalie!
So happy to join you!
Greetings to all your families,
have a beatiful Polish/English Easter.
Cordially,
Tadeusz
www.narodowa.pl

Hello

I have been searching the internet for ages trying to find something about my mother’s past in Poland and was amazed to find Natalie’s questions on your website as her family is so similar to my mother’s. My mother was born in Blaszki in 1923 and was taken to Germany during WWII. She worked on a farm in Bergen which is very near to Celle where Natalie’s mother was. My mother met and married an english soldier at the end of the war and I believe she stayed at Osnabruck for a while before she came to England. I would very much like to contact Natalie as between us we may be able to build a picture of what happened. Perhaps everyone from that area was taken to the same area in Germany? Perhaps they actually travelled together.

Can you either let me know her e-mail address or give her mine or tell me how to post a message to her.

Best wishes and many, many thanks for your help.

Helen

2.
Dear Natalie !

We would like to send you our advice re your family searching in Poland. We appreciate your efforts to find your Grandfather !
You have done very big job, collecting so many information on your family from Poland. After checking all information and “sources” available for us the most important now, we think, is to find the place when your GMother was for the first time in Germany.
We see from your Father’s birth certificate from Gmina Blaszki / village Wojcice from 1959, that you have, the following data: 4th of June 1942 and “Father unknown”, so we can understand that he was born in Poland.
Now, to find your GFather we would like to tell you the best “source”, we think, taking into consideration the history of Europe and II World War here:
According to your family story your GMother Maria Kolodziejczyk “In or around 1940 she was taken to work for the Germans” so you must know, that many Poles (not only) were forced at that time to work in Germany or Russia during the II WW named as “Mandatory Work”. According to special agreements between German and Polish Governments all these people have been registered and even the special financial compensation program have been developed. You can search all detailed data in Germany or in Poland. From our side below please find full address of special Polish Government Office where you can ask for searching all data possible to obtain (we are stating a full name of the Office and the Evidence and Archive Division):

Office for Combatants and Victims of Oppression .
Bureau of Records and Archives
Director Grzegorz Mroczek
ul. Wspolna 24
00-926 Warszawa
Poland

Website: www.udskior.gov.pl
e-mail: udskior@kprm.gov.pl

Please send e-mail asking ALL data about your GMother working in Germany in 1940 (for the first time !) – mainly the records on ALL places and names in Germany from 1940 (please state all data you have) but our advice is to send also a special letter asking the same. Please enclose to this letter copies of all family documents you have – to prove that you have family rights to obtain these records.

Dear Natalie,

Good luck in your search !

We are always ready here to publish your next asks and to help as much as we can, hoping that all people are ready to share with others their memories, momentos, experience, knowledge and feeling.

Cordially,
tadeusz
#Gallery of Family Memories and Momentos “Narodowa GA.PA”
www.narodowa.pl

Warsaw/ 9th of Jan 2004