Dependence on Documentation
Mary Szostak-Sitko and Taylor Lenze
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Left: Emil’s papers for joining the army, September 15, 1931
Right: Emilian Identification card, July 19, 1933 Zloczow
Official documents, precious and percarious, were defining markers in Emilian (Emil) Marian Szostak life. The above Polish papers (the identification card from July 19th, 1933, and army joining papers from two years earlier) record him as having been born on August 6, 1913, in Przemyślany, near Lwów. He already wears a military-styled uniform in his pass picture, reflecting that as a young adult, his life was characterized by military, paramilitary and war.
Living in Złoczów as a young adult, Emil attended Kazimierz Wielki University in Lwów, where he was documented as a student. While attending the university however, his daughter writes that “Emil attended military maneuvers each summer (1935-1939)... joined the army just days before the start of the war, … [and] was captured after a bloody battle where his commanding officers were killed. Emil spent the next two years and seven months in a concentration camp (Karny Obóz) Bretzbach, in Germany.”
In German he got a brutally permanent identification document, that of his prisoner identification number tattooed on his wrist: 10682. His life wouldn’t end with this number though: just before Easter 1941 he escaped to Niegowić and began working in the “‘gmina’ office.” Here he must have had new falsified papers to protect him from being caught.
Despite the extreme circumstances, or perhaps because of them, love flourished. On March 20, 1943, he would meet his future wife, Zofia, at her cousin’s wedding. “Although Zofia stated they didn’t have much romance, Emil did cancel his then engagement to another person,” proving that there must have been a strong connection between them. By this time both were part of the Polish underground in the Bochnia region of Kraków. Their wartime “dates” were usually based around the Polish Underground activities. “Both of us were wedded to the danger and courted death,” Zofia recalled in 1999, referring to this period of their lives.
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The complex, clandestine bureaucracy of the Polish Underground made life difficult for Emil even in post-war “peace” but also possibly saved his life. “After the Nazis left Poland, the Russian authority wanted to rid Poland of members of the AK. They didn’t want to risk any acts of heroism and Polish loyalty.” Emil was one of the unlucky soldiers caught and imprisoned in Bochnia by the “UB” (Urząd Bezpieczeństkwa). Just several days later however, a member of Polish Underground freed him, and he rejoined his underground unit.
As persecution continued however, the underground units disbanded and the members went into hiding, assuming new names, identities and documentation. Many members who were arrested were executed and or sent to Siberia. Poland was still unsafe for Emil.
Zofia spoke for Emil and herself when she explained, ‘we loved Poland and believed that one day Poland would be free. Yet, when the war ended, times were no better. One enemy replaced another. Communist-run Poland was very dangerous for anybody who was in the Polish Underground.’”
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Caption: Various pages of Emilian’s ID cards from 1938 and 1943
In the summer of 1945, Emilian and his wife moved to a town called Sztum, but by November, their hideaway had been discovered and they had been ordered to be arrested. Again the Underground quickly intervened to warn the couple to flee before the police could arrive. They escaped with no possessions, not even closing the door behind them.
The struggle for and dependence on documentation would only intensify from this point on in their lives. Zofia tried to procure a “Przepustka” to travel to another part of Poland but the required seal had been changed and she was unable to legally move. Emil and the other partisans required false Red Cross documents, which weren’t readily available before they could legally travel.
Their escape route was tortuous. First they headed through Malbork, then across the Vistula River on a ferry to Tczew. From here they rode the train to Kraków where they obtained some documents for the other members of their Underground unit, but ran out of time to procure documents for themselves. Instead they hurried to Cieszyń (in the Sląsk Region of Poland) and across the border to Czechoslovakia on December 2, 1945.
In Prague however, documentation again became a problem. Their supposed contact there failed and instead a Czech guard drove Zofia to Pilzno for documents. Lacking necessary documentation and fleeing for their lives, the couple must have experienced some of their most intense hours, waiting in limbo to see whether they would be given documentation and allowed to pass through or arrested on the spot. The elderly guard asked Zofia many questions about why she was leaving, but ultimately helped them across the border to US occupied Germany.
Documentation played a part in the couple’s love also. In Germany, Emil went to the Murnau Camp for Polish officers who were also ex-POW while Zofia stayed in the Freiman camp for civilians. Documentation, now easier to acquire legally, allowed the pair to mary: in December 1945, Zofia got an official pass from the guardhouse to go to a Polish priest in the Grafenaschau camp for a street-clothes, no frills wedding.
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Caption: “Daddy as a Young Man”
Paperwork wasn’t always so easy though. After a conflict with a shady camp officer, Zofia had to enlist Emil’s help to retrieve her documents back from the office where they were being wrongfully held.
Documentation could also be flexible though, and Emil and his wife were experts by now at being creative. When Emil learned that the Second Corps of the Polish Army was located in Italy, Zofia forged signatures to allow all the group members to travel to Verona.
After many more relocations they traveled through France to England in the fall of 1946 , where five years and a daughter later, they had to choose between official documentation--US Citizenship or Polish. They chose the US and two and a half months later received their visa and moved to Detroit, Michigan. Zofia, Emilian and Ursula (their small daughter), became citizens on November 7th, 1956. Now the family had US documentation as citizens.
Emil would go on to have three more daughters and many grandchildren. Though once a law student in Poland, he worked hard and cheerfully in a factory job at the Wolverine Bolt Company to support is family. On September 9th, 1978 he passed away after long declining health at Holy Cross Hospital in Detroit.
Primary Source: The Doll in the Rubble by Mary Sitko
Text Source: https://www.mimemorial.com/obituaries/persons/S/Zofia
Photo Source: Mary Sitko’s files