Walenty Jabłoński, doctor and an exile in Siberia, is dead - Instytut Pileckiego
Walenty Jabłoński, doctor and an exile in Siberia, is dead
We are sad to learn of the death of Walenty Jabłoński, an exile in Siberia, participant of the Union of Siberian Exiles in Białystok. He was deported to a kolkhoz in Kazakhstan in 1952, where he was saved from starvation and death by Tassybaj Abdikarimow.
Walenty Jabłoński (born in 1930 in Kozłowicze near Grodno, today Kazlovichy in Belarus) came from a wealthy family who owned 55 hectares of land. For this reason, the Jabłońskis faced repression from both the Soviets and the Germans. After 1944, the Jabłońskis continued to live in their family home, which was located on the border of the Soviet Union. Walenty's father was arrested by the NKVD in 1948, and his trial began only in 1951. He was exiled to Siberia, and the Soviets deported the rest of the family to southern Kazakhstan in 1952. At the time, Walenty Jabłoński was a student of medicine at the university in Vitebsk, where he was arrested on 17 April 1952 and put on a transport heading east. They arrived at the kolkhoz in Kazakhstan, near the present-day border with Uzbekistan, at the beginning of May. Then began the back-breaking labor.
The Jabłoński family found themselves in an especially difficult situation: they neither had sufficient food nor any items necessary for life. A 14-year-old Kazakh named Tassybay Abdikarimov came to their rescue. Although the boy's situation was no better, he shared food with the desperate family and helped to take care of the sick Walenty. With his help, the Jabłoński family survived the atrocious conditions and lived to see the amnesty. Some of them returned to Poland in 1956. Tassybay continued to tend to the graves of Walenty's father and siblings, as well as the graves of other Poles who were ultimately unable to return to their homes.
Tassybay Abdikarimov and Walenty Jabłoński had the opportunity to meet again in Warsaw in 2019, when, at the initiative of the Pilecki Institute, Tassybay was awarded the Virtus et Fraternitas medal by Polish President Andrzej Duda. The medal is given as a symbol of memory and thanks to those who aided Polish citizens and who voluntarily protect the memory of Poles who did not survive the war or their forced deportation.
Walenty Jabłoński provided academic information about the Soviet deportations of Poles from the Grodno region in the 1950s. In 2013, he initiated and co-organized an expedition of members of the Union of Siberian Exiles to Kazakhstan to search for the graves of deportees. Thanks to him, Polish burial sites were given crosses and the places where the exiles lived were marked with commemorative plaques. He was the winner of the Honorary "Witness to History" Award in Białystok in 2017.
See also
- Competition for the Post of Full or Associate Professor in the Humanities
News
Competition for the Post of Full or Associate Professor in the Humanities
Competition for the Post of Full or Associate Professor in the Humanities at the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor.
- Dr. Joanna Lubecka | "A German Criminal and the Polish Court. Proceedings Before the Supreme National Tribunal in Kraków"
News
Dr. Joanna Lubecka | "A German Criminal and the Polish Court. Proceedings Before the Supreme National Tribunal in Kraków"
Dr. Joanna Lubecka’s book [A German Criminal and the Polish Court. Proceedings Before the Supreme National Tribunal in Kraków] was awarded the Witold Pilecki International Book Award for the “best academic historical book” of 2022.
- Andrzej Brzeziecki | "Major Żychoń’s Big Game: An Intelligence Ace Versus the Third Reich"
News
Andrzej Brzeziecki | "Major Żychoń’s Big Game: An Intelligence Ace Versus the Third Reich"
The book "Wielka gra majora Żychonia. As wywiadu kontra Rzesza" [Major Żychoń’s Big Game: An Intelligence Ace Versus the Third Reich] won the Witold Pilecki International Book Award for the best historical reportage of 2022.
- Tomáš Forró | Donbas: Wedding Apartment in the Hotel War
News
Tomáš Forró | Donbas: Wedding Apartment in the Hotel War
In 2022, due to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the Awards Committee of the Witold Pilecki International Book Award established a special category. The award went to the book authored by Tomáš Forró.
- Virtus et Franternitas Medals presented
News
Virtus et Franternitas Medals presented
The third edition of the Virtus et Fraternitas Medal Gala took place on 15 June 2022. This time, at the request of the Director of the Pilecki Institute, the President of the Republic of Poland bestowed medals on a total of 23 people.
- Information concerning the 6th issue of the "Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies" yearbook
News
Information concerning the 6th issue of the "Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies" yearbook
The editors of the “Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies” yearbook invite you to submit articles in Polish or English. The deadline for applications is 31 July 2022.
- Totalitarianism Across History and Disciplines | conference
News
Totalitarianism Across History and Disciplines | conference
We invite graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from all disciplines to submit proposals for papers regarding any aspect of totalitarianism, from a broad theoretical and historical perspective. The deadline for applications is 15.09.2022.
- Lemkin Center | University of Warsaw declares cooperation with the Pilecki Institute
News
Lemkin Center | University of Warsaw declares cooperation with the Pilecki Institute
In connection with the establishment of the Lemkin Center, the Pilecki Institute and the University of Warsaw have signed a framework agreement for cooperation.
- You can help by gathering testimonies from Ukrainian refugees!
News
You can help by gathering testimonies from Ukrainian refugees!
We are appealing to volunteers for support in collecting the accounts of the Ukrainian people.
- Raphael Lemkin Center for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine
News
Raphael Lemkin Center for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine
In response to the Russian attack on Ukraine and reports of Russian military actions against civilians, the Pilecki Institute has established the Raphael Lemkin Center for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine.
- Jan Maletka Deserves Commemoration. A Response to Adam Leszczyński
News
Jan Maletka Deserves Commemoration. A Response to Adam Leszczyński
- Christina Lamb | „Our Bodies, Their Battlefield. What War Does to Women"
News
Christina Lamb | „Our Bodies, Their Battlefield. What War Does to Women"