Born: August 8, 1916, Lwów, Poland
Died: December 11, 2004 in Chicago, Illinois, USA
Buried : Maryhill Cemetery, Polish Veterans Section, Niles, Illinois, USA
Family: father general Stanisław Dzierżanowski; mother Janina Nurkowska. Father arrested on 4 October 1939 by the Soviets imprisoned in Zamarstynów in Lviv, deported and murdered in Kiev by the NKVD – is on the fourth Katyn list. He is buried at the Kyiv/Bykivnia Polish war cemetery. Mother Janina and brother Stefan (17) died in Kazakhstan of exhaustion and hunger. Sister Aniela Furmańska-Komosińska survived and moved to London, where she died in 1998 at the age of 90. Brother Roman Dzierżanowski, lieutenant of Polish Army, oficer of 14th Jazłowiec Lancers’ Regiment wounded near Wólka Węglowa, decorated with the Virtuti Militari Cross in the main headquarters of the Home Army during the WWII. In 1945 he went to Germany and later to Chicago, where he worked as a department manager in factory for hydraulic materials. He died in 1995.
Married: Kazimierz Kasprzycki
Medals: Golden Badge of Honour of the Polish School Society (Polska Macierz Szkolna) for outstanding achievements in the field of Polish diaspora education.
Fates before joining Anders Army : Daughter of general Kazimierz Dzierżanowski. Graduate of Sacrė Coeur gymnasium in Lviv. 1935-1939 – student of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (geography and PE) (with professor Stanisław Pawłowski). During WWII deported by the Soviets on 13 April 1940 with mother, sister and brother to Kazachstan near Semipalatinsk.
Military history: After amnesty in 1941 she joined the Polish Army in USSR. The lounge operator of 6 Lviv Division in Iraq (assigned to the sapper units). In December 1942 sent to Polish Women’s Aviation Service (Polska Lotnicza Służba Kobiet) in England.
Post-War: On 22 February 1944 she married Kazimierz Kasprzycki (captain of Polish Army, 7th Heavy Artillery Regiment (7 Pułk Artylerii Ciężkiej) in Poznań, 1st Armoured Division). Two daughters and a son. In 1956 emigration to USA, family settled in Chicago. She worked as an accountant in the Montgomery Ward office, then for 18 years at Belmont Community Hospital as a ward, later as a technician in the intensive care unit.
Member of the Association of Polish Teachers in America. For 18 years teacher at the Polish School of Tadeusz Kościuszko in Chicago. Scout activist – she founded and led a scout team, an instructor at scout camps. Member of the education department at the Headquarters of the Scout Command in the USA.
Hobbies: reading books, hiking, being in the countryside with grandchildren. A faithful Catholic, she belonged to the community at the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart of Polish Jesuits in Chicago.
author : Barbara Kasprzycka Chałko
and Kazimierz Kasprzycki, Poznań 1939;
source: archives of Barbara Chałko
