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Jerzy Jeremiasz Lopatto and His Notebook

Maria Emilia Zajączkowska-Łopatto

mila.lopatto@gmail.com
Związek Karaimów Polskich (Poland)


Abstract

Jerzy Jeremiasz Lopatto (1896-1978) was the fifth child of Jozef Lopatto and his wife Raisa nee Juchniewicz. He graduated from cadet school in Odessa, fought at the front in World War I, was twice seriously wounded and fought alongside his brother Aleksy on the “Na Moskvu” (“To Moscow”) armoured train. In 1924 he came back to Vilnius, where he married Zofia Kobecka in 1926 and started his own land drainage office. In 1934 he moved with his wife and three sons to the Szylele estate in Mejszagoła district. He was a good landlord and a kind neighbour. He established a farmers’ association representing local landowners. On 3rd August 1940 NKVD arrested him in the middle of the night and sent him to Lukiszki prison in Vilnius. Accused of being a member of the Polish OZN Party (“Camp of National Unity”), being the landowner of 140 hectares of land, he was sentenced to 8 years in a corrective labour camp and was transported to Vorkuta. He was released from the labour camp in September 1941 after General W. Sikorski had signed an agreement in London with ambassador Iwan Majski restoring Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations and forming a Polish army in the USSR (the Sikorski–Majski Agreement). Jerzy Łopatto was issued a certificate valid for 3 months, confirming that he was of Polish nationality and was going to Buzuluk, where Polish armed forces were being assembled under the command of General W. Anders. He enlisted as a senior private. After leaving Soviet territory on 30th March 1943 he began writing his “Notebook”, entitled “Unsent Letters”, in which he described his wartime experiences to his wife and sons. This notebook consists of 154 pages written with a fountain pen. He describes the long journey he made: prison in Vilnius, work at the labour camp, the journey to Koltubianka, and then through Guzar in Uzbekistan to Pahlevi in Iran, and from there onto Iraq, Palestine and Egypt, from where in turn he was assigned to England. After having completed suitable courses, he was admitted to the Battalion of Airport Construction No. 5029/P/ of the Royal Air Force in Portreath/Cornwall and transferred to the British occupation zone in Quakenbrueck. The closing entry in the notebook was written in Quakenbrueck on 31st December 1946. There, in May 1946, his eldest son Emanuel found him and from there the young man was sent to his uncle in Florence. Sergeant Jerzy Lopatto P-707496 was on duty as a technical manager in the Polish Air Forces under British command in England from 21st April 1944 to 12th March 1947 and was demobilised as a result of being transferred to the Polish Demilitarization Corps (R.A.F). Having waited in vain for his wife and two under-age sons to reach Western Europe Jerzy Lopatto eventually decided to return to the family in Wroclaw in Poland in order to take care of them.


Keywords:

Jerzy Łopatto, Lukishki prison, Vilnius, the Vorkutastroj forced labor camp, Koltubianka, the Second Polish Corps, the Royal Air Force, British occupation zone, Quakenbrück

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Published
2015-12-30

Cited by

Zajączkowska-Łopatto, M. E. (2015). Jerzy Jeremiasz Lopatto and His Notebook. Karaim Almanac, 4, 217–265. https://doi.org/10.33229/ak.2015.04.14

Authors

Maria Emilia Zajączkowska-Łopatto 
mila.lopatto@gmail.com
Związek Karaimów Polskich Poland

Turkolog, dokumentalistka, archiwistka. Od kilkunastu lat zajmuje się opisywaniem historii rodzin karaimskich Wileńszczyzny. Opracowuje biografie karaimskie na podstawie źródeł archiwalnych oraz własnych zbiorów korespondencji. Publikuje w wydawnictwach Związku Karaimów Polskich.



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