File:Ks Jan Chrobenski Memorial.jpg

English: The photograph shows the original grave of Jan Chrobeński in Uzbekistan.

Andrzej ST Grodyński (son of Stanisław SA and grandson of dr Andrzej Kusionowicz Grodyński) was evacuated from the Soviet Union, after exile to a labour camp in Siberia, through Uzbekistan before being shipped out of Krasnowock (Russian “Krasnovodsk” now Turkmenbashi). In his book, ‘The Grodyński Brigade’, Andrzej described some of the conditions of the Polish Infantry gathering camp in Kermine (locally “Karmana” now Navoiy) and the fact that “for every hundred Poles who travelled to check-in at Kermine, forty-seven of them died”. [During his stay at the camp in Kermine Andrzej was given the job of taking the bodies of those who did not survive their last train journey to the communal grave close to the station.]

Jan Chrobeński is not mentioned in Andrzej’s book, so it is not known how well they knew each other, but the fact that Andrzej kept this photograph in his possession suggests Jan’s passing had personal meaning for him. What we do know* is that Jan Chrobeński was born on 20 October 1906 in Jakubów, Jędrzejów County, then in 1936 ks Jan Chrobeński-Chrabąszcz was appointed as priest to the new RC parish of Kopciówce (in Grodno) where he began the construction of a church that was not yet completed when war broke out. He died on 26 March 1942, at the age of thirty-five, and the new grave of Chaplain Jan Chrobeński is located in the Polish War Cemetery at Jakobak (now Yakkobag), one of the large number of Polish War Cemeteries scattered throughout the wider region which together provide a glimpse of the scale of the tragic suffering endured by so many Poles during World War II.
The Scotch Mist Gallery contains photographs of historic buildings, monuments, memorials and people of Poland.