Listy z łagru Issaka Antoniego Donigiewicza

Abstract

Issak Antoni Donigiewicz’s Letters from a Soviet Prison Camp

The article focuses on the story of Issak Antoni Donigiewicz (1891-1943), a Polish Armenian born in Kuty in the region of Pokucie (Pokuttia), who was a banker, restaurateur and social activist. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he became involved in underground activities against the Soviet Union which at that time occupied the territory of Eastern Poland. In 1940 the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) arrested Donigiewicz and sent him to a Soviet prison camp in the Urals (Ivdel) where he would spend the rest of his life. The author has included and examined the original correspondence (28 letters) sent by Donigiewicz to his loved ones in the period from 7th February to 8th June 1941. The letters stand as a moving testimony to the emotional bonds within the Polish Armenian family and the struggle of an individual to survive under conditions of extreme persecution during the Soviet totalitarian regime.