Commemoration book of the Auchimowicz Family, Nairobi, 1944

10/03/2025

The commemoration book belonged to the Auchimowicz family. Nairobi 1944. Sybir Memorial Museum collection.

This small booklet is used by Orthodox believers to record the names of loved ones of the deceased. It belonged to the Auchimowicz family, of whom Natalia Auchimowicz and her sons Leon and Jerzy were deported on the 13^th of April 1940 from Sokółka (Poland) to Kazakhstan. The father of the family, Władysław, had been previously arrested by the NKVD and sentenced to several years in the gulag. Following the amnesty, Władysław joined up to the Anders Army and went along the route of combat with it. Natalia and her sons were evacuated to the Middle East and then to Kenya. There, in 1944, the family acquired the commemoration book, which was issued by the Orthodox Polish Chaplaincy in Africa. On the first card under the inscription: ‘For the health and salvation of the Servants of God’ are listed the deceased.

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