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Re: Ghost Villages

 

Colin,
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This is amazing. I have forwarded it to our management committee Aneta, Krystyna and Stefan - and cc'd you.
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I hope that Mr Piotrowski is enthusiastic about the idea and hopefully will lend his support.
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If you post this topic on the forum please attach these photographs. The way to do this is not to post directly from the yahoo group but send an email (as you have done to me) with the photographs as an attachment. The email address is kresy-siberia@...
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As you may see from the recent activity around information gathering on the topic of the exodus to Persia in March 1942 the group can be amazing at galvanizing around an idea.
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I have traced my own Pacewicz family back through the Katerbury parishe registers in Wolyn to the late 18th century. This parish was wiped out by the UPA in 1943 , including the towns of Krzemieniec and Lanowce where my grandparents were from, so it is very likely than Pacewicz family that were not deported to Siberia perished at the hands of the Ukrainians... so I am very passionate about this.
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Great stuff,
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Anna
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Anna Pacewicz, Director
Kresy-Siberia (Australia) Limited
M 0414 258 022
63/24 Buchanan Street,
Balmain, 2041 , NSW
"Established to inspire, promote and support research, remembrance and recognition of Polish citizens' struggles in the Eastern Borderlands and in Exile during World War 2."

From: Colin Forsyth
To: Anna Pacewicz
Cc: "Piotrowski, Thaddeus"
Sent: Sunday, 24 March 2013 2:11 PM
Subject: Re: Ghost Villages

Here is a simple example of then/now. GhostVillage01 has the German map overlayed on the current satellite imagery. GhostVillage02 is just the satellite imagery. As you can see, there is almost no sign that at one time?there were maybe 100 or more people living here. As I zoom in closer, I can see some faint signs. It would be even better if at some time in the future, a group could go there and confirm some of these signs on the ground.?

The old maps also show locations of cemeteries. From what I can tell, the cemeteries are still there, but are now overgrown with trees. I've seen this in a few locations.

-Colin



On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 8:59 PM, Colin Forsyth <colinforsyth68@...> wrote:
Hi Anna,

I will post it in the forum. ?The maps I found were on the following website:?

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Google translate is amazing... I can easily go from German, Polish to English.?

I would be very interested in turning this into a larger project and coordinate volunteers for capturing the data. There are some powerful free mapping tools available these days to manage large?collaborative efforts. I will search through the forums to find data and minimize duplication of effort and also locate possible volunteers. ?

It would be useful if the following things exist somewhere:

List of villages that have been recorded as being destroyed
A database with stories tied to place names
A table of place names with both Polish and Ukrainian spellings

Maybe we can have something up by early summer.

-Colin



On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 7:01 PM, Anna Pacewicz <annapacewicz@...> wrote:
Dear Colin,
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This would be an amazing project to undertake, particularly with this year being the 70th year anniversary of the massacres. It's a really unique dimension to add to the accounts of survivors.
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We are awaiting to hear from MSZ (Polish Government) as to whether we will receive a grant for a survivor testimony project on the Wolyn massacres. But, regardless of funding I would like to do something this year with Kresy Siberia to commemorate the genocide. If we have no funding it would need to be something that we can do with volunteers, perhaps raising some money via our members. I have several ideas already... would you be interested in collaborating on this?
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May I also ask, would you be happy to post this email onto our Kresy-Siberia Yahoo forum - we have over 1,000 members, many with a wealth of knowledge, experience, passion and I'm sure you would receive many helpful comments and suggestions.
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There are maps of Wolyn on this very good website:
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Also we have several maps of Wolyn in our virtual museum:
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(I find the easiest way to search is in Hall of Memories section of KSVM, go to All Items and then type "map" into the search field).
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Please keep in touch on this,
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Best regards
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Anna
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Anna Pacewicz, Director
Kresy-Siberia (Australia) Limited
M 0414 258 022
63/24 Buchanan Street,
Balmain, 2041 , NSW
"Established to inspire, promote and support research, remembrance and recognition of Polish citizens' struggles in the Eastern Borderlands and in Exile during World War 2."

From: Colin Forsyth <colinforsyth68@...>
To: "Piotrowski, Thaddeus" <Thaddeus.Piotrowski@...>; Anna Pacewicz <annapacewicz@...>
Sent: Sunday, 24 March 2013 10:32 AM
Subject: Ghost Villages

My background is geography, specifically Geographic Information Systems. For the past 18 years I've been working making maps using the computer. ?I've recently found many highly detailed maps available online made by the Germans between 1939 and 1944 covering Wolyn. These maps have the Polish names of the villages and also often have the locations of houses, churches and many other buildings. I've been able to overlay these maps using free tools like Google Earth.?

It's shocking to see how many Polish villages are completely missing now. But, by combining the new satellite imagery with the old maps, it's possible to find signs of them.... I'm wondering, has anyone put together a map and catalog of the villages destroyed? I think this could help show what happened...?

Just doing a quick search for a missing town on the map, I found an account of what happened in Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn. On page 188 there is mention of the town Marianowka being "liquidated". I see the town on the map, and there is nothing left in the recent satellite image. There are faint signs of roads and yards though. Disturbed soil and vegetation can maintain signs visible from the air for hundred and even thousands of years.

-Colin Forsyth
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