Telechany

Table of Contents (?)

Site Page Counts
Public: 510
Restricted: 677

Telechany

Telechany is about 150 km (93 mi) north-east of Brest
Map: Based on inter-war Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny 300K scale maps,
courtesy of mapywig.org

A small portion of a 1:100k scale 1930's Polish military map,
courtesy of mapywig.org

A Personal Account of Telechany
Mr. Jacek Gutowski of Warsaw Poland supplied this information about Telechany in July of 2005:

My grand-father's name was Marian Gwiazdowski. He was killed somewhere in an unknown place when captured by the NKWD in 1939. The only information we have is a short letter he gave to a railway-man when they transported them somewhere to the USSR. My grand-mother's name was Ludmila Gwiazdowska. They were both teaching in the ground-school in Telechany. She survived the war in the Gulag in Siberia and then returned to Poland after Stalin's death. She died one year ago. Her children: one year old Alicja Gwiazdowska (my future mother) and her brother Marian Gwiazdowski (just one week old) were also send to Siberia as enemies of the Soviet government. They returned to Poland in 1948 with false documents as children of other Polish woman. They survived the hell but my mother suffers until nowadays from mental and physical diseases originated from the Siberian trauma. Long and horrible story.... Marian is still alive. He is in quite good condition.

The name Telechany comes from the Tatar language and it means probably a tomb of Khan. Except the Jewish, Polish and Belorussian people also some Tatars lived in the area before 1939. My grand-mother told me that co-existence of all the people of different cultures and religions were very friendly before the Soviet invasion in 1939. In her memory it was a very quiet, idyllic place having this special climate of the Polish eastern provinces that we call the Kresy (the Margins).

The below photos were made during World War I, when German troops stationed in the area in 1914-1918 just behind the East front line. The German army built a narrow gauge railway which connected Telechany with the Brest - Moscow railway and was a window to the outer World for the inhabitants of the town until 1939. It was then used to transport Polish people in 1939-1940 to the Soviet camps (Gulags), and then to transport Jewish people to the Nazi extermination camps.

	Catholic church and bell tower in winter scenery Photo Credit: Tomek Wisniewski Collection
	Market place of the town Photo Credit: Tomek Wisniewski Collection
	Church and cemetery Photo Credit: Tomek Wisniewski Collection
	Poor Jewish Family Photo Credit: Tomek Wisniewski Collection
	The Germans on their quarter Photo Credit: Tomek Wisniewski Collection

Page Last Updated: 17-Nov-2016