The Life of Piotr Raczkiewicz

Piotr, characterized by extraordinary honesty and warmth, “as if he wanted to give his soul away” is how his nephew Eugeniusz Raczkiewicz describes the type of person Piotr was. Eugeniusz also remembered what he looked like and said that he looked like the pictures he recently saw of older sibling Antoni. Antoni was 5’5” tall, 145 pounds and had brown hair and gray/blue eyes. ***** Piotr was born May 13, 1897 at 5:00 in the morning. Piotr was the fourth of nine children. His father Jan was 32 years old and working as a peasant in the village of Sabaudia and his mother Katarzyna was 25 years old. His father Jan, along with witnesses Michal Kielar, age 50, and Josef Kondra, age 30, reported the birth two days later in the town of Tomaszów, about two miles away from their village. The baptism was at 3:00 in the afternoon and his godparents were Michal Kelar and Antonina Kurkiewicz. The baby was given the name Piotr in honor of Saint Apostle Piotr. ***** Piotr was 26 years old when his younger sister Mary left for the United States in 1923 and she listed him as her contact in Poland. His older siblings Jan, Józef, and Antoni had left years before that. ***** Piotr married Józefa Szczupakowska and lived in the village of Podhajce near Łaszczów. It is located at the northern edge of the Tomaszów Lubelski commune, on the Huczwa River. There are traces of early civilizations found in shards of pottery but the first historical mention is in 1409. ***** Piotr and Józefa worked as farmers, as did most people in the area though there was also a dairy plant, a steam mill and a woodmill and people in occupations such as cooper, carpenter, blacksmith, shoemaker, butcher and store owner. The area had 175 houses, 1,061 inhabitants, including 40 Jews and 114 Ukrainians in 1921. They had two sons: Jan, born in 1927 and Zdzisław Mieczysław, born in 1934. By the time Jan was born, the school established during the Russian partition no longer existed and the Polish school was well established and had moved into its own building the year before his birth. ***** The People’s Movement was active in the area and in 1937 there was a peasant strike. During World War II, there was a battle in September 1939 where the Polish troops expelled the German occupiers, but then lost control of the village again. During this time, 17 people from the village were sent to forced labor camps in Germany from 1940 to 1942. On July 12, 1943, the village was evicted by the Germans with settlers from Romania and Bulgaria put in place instead. The Peasant Battalion lost 32 members. After liberation, people returned in 1944 and school operations resumed. It is unknown to me when Piotr and his wife moved to this area or how much of this they experienced, but Piotr’s wife Józefa died in 1946. ***** Time with his siblings was important to Piotr. After church, Piotr would often enjoy a small beer with sister Paulina and brother Bolesław. Łaszczów was a trip of approximately 30 kilometers (18 and a half miles) for his brother Boleslaw. Bolesław and his family would leave home at dawn and return late at night to travel the horse-drawn cart ride over bumpy roads and through the forest to work their own land and then visit with Piotr. “The brothers met with great cordiality and joy” according to Eugeniusz. ***** In 1963, the village received electricity, in the 1960s drainage and a paved road. Andrzej Dubiel believes that Piotr attended his older sister Maria’s wedding. It was about the year 1976 and he remembered that Piotr was very old then. In fact, Piotr would have died soon after. ***** Marianna Ziółkowska is a granddaughter of Piotr. She shared that when her father Jan died on April 3, 1974, at age 47, his father Piotr came to his funeral. Jan lived with his father and his brother Zdzich (Zdzislaw) in the countryside. Jan worked as a state institution worker and Zdzislaw worked as a farmer – possibly at the farm his father and mother originally farmed. Marianna and her family lived in Pruszków near Warsaw. ***** Piotr died at age 80 on January 30, 1977 in Podhajce. Joanna Len shared, “I remember my grandfather’s death as if it were yesterday. I was seven years old.” She shared the picture of Piotr and his wife along with a picture of her and her family in front of Piotr’s body after his death. Eugeniusz shared the family shots. “These photos of families were taken by me personally with my first camera, “Smiena.” ***** History of Podhorce “Dzieje Miejscowosci Gminy Tomaszów Lubelski.” Dzieje Gmin Zamojszczyzny, 2011. Retreived July 11, 2023 from https://dzieje_gminy_tomaszow_lubelski_-_calosc_z_okladka.pdf (tomaszowlubelski.pl)