Stanisław Mielnik was born on May 8, 1902 in the Hutsulshchyna, as the son of Ignacy and Julia née Furdzik. In 1924, at the age of 22, he married Olga Sołtys from Lviv in Białystok. The young couple went to live at 9 Jagiellonska Street in Białystok. What is interesting, their house survived the war turmoil and still exists today. Stanisław and Olga had two sons: Juliusz and Andrzej.
Initially, Stanisław worked as a teacher in Dojlidy Górne near Białystok, where his wife also taught. His brother was a professional officer and veterinarian, and Stanislaw himself served as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Reserve, also actively involved in Military Training. In August 1939, Stanislaw Mielnik was mobilized to the KOP Machine Gun Battalion “Osowiec”. He died on September 26, 1939, shot by the Soviets in the town of Piszcza in Volhynia. According to data of the Red Cross, the execution took place the day after, on September 27, 1939.
After the entry of Soviet troops, Olga Mielnik was interrogated by the NKVD several times and in June 1941, she was deported together with her son Andrzej deep into the USSR. The older son, Juliusz, avoided deportation.
Olga and Andrzej initially were taken to the Altai Krai, where they stayed until November 1941, living in a kolkhoz near Biysk. After the so-called amnesty in November 1941, they moved to Barnaul, where they remained until March 1942. Then they went to Jambula. Olga and Andrzej were evacuated to Persia, and in August 1943 they were transported to a civilian camp in Karachi, India, and then to Masindi in East Africa. Andrzej applied to a flight school, and at the end of 1943 he began attending the Polish Technical School for Minors at RAF Halton in Great Britain, where he completed several years of training in August 1947. After the war, he adopted British citizenship.
Many objects related to the main character of today’s post were delivered to the Sybir Memorial Museum. In the photographs taken just before the outbreak of the war, you can see the march of the ZHP Military Training Unit along Kilińskiego Street in Białystok, and also Stanisław with his son Juliusz during the construction of the Piłsudski Mound in Krakow. Other artifacts donated to the Museum include: documents and souvenirs from Andrzej Mielnik’s time at school in Halton and service in the RAF (f.e. orders, medals).
