Edwin Dutkiewicz papers

Edwin Konrad Dutkiewicz (1925-1981) was born in Bydgoszcz, Poland to Stanisław Dutkiewicz and Pelagi Kocikowska and was raised Catholic. At the age of 14, Edwin was taken as a forced laborer and was assigned to Organisation Todt and later sent to Finland in 1943. From August 1943 through September 1944, he was assigned to a camp in Kuusamo, a location near the border of the Soviet Union that was used as a supply depot for German and Finnish troops. After the Finnish armistice with the Soviets in September 1944, Dutkiewicz was moved by the Germans with a group of other forced laborers to Norway. Following liberation, he stayed in Norway, first at a displaced persons camp in Bodø, and later in Oslo, until he was able to immigrate to the United States in May 1947. He married Tordis in 1948 and had two children, Edwin Jr. and Denise. The Edwin Dutkiewicz papers consists of biographical material, a diary, and photographs relating to Edwin’s time as a forced laborer in Finland and Norway with Organisation Todt during World War II and his life in Norway as a displaced person after the war. Biographical material includes a Polish passport, fragments of Edwin’s identification card issued by Organisation Todt, which he tore up after the war, and a postcard from the displaced persons camp at Bodø. Edwin’s diary, which he began in 1941, describes his pre-war life and childhood in Poland, his experiences as a forced laborer, life in a displaced persons camp in Norway after the war, and his immigration to the United States. The diary continues from the postwar era until 1980. Photographs depict Edwin during his childhood, including his parents and brother, before the war and during the war in Poland as well as Edwin with other displaced persons in Norway following the war. Also included is a photographic slide of Adolf Hitler standing with another Nazi leader.