Family of man who was kidnapped by the Nazis set to inherit £75,000

06 December 2023 , 11:57

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Danny Curran, founder of Finders International, outside the Polish embassy in London (Image: Fiona Hanson © Copyright 2019)

The family of a Polish man who was kidnapped by the Nazis during the Second World War are set to inherit his estate worth £75,000.

Jozef Domanski was just 14 years old when he was taken by the Nazis to work on farms in Germany in 1940. During this time, he had no contact with his family, who were moved to Lodz in central Poland.

After the war in 1945, Jozef ended up moving to Britain and living in Kidderminster in the Midlands, where he worked at a textile factory for many decades. He never returned to Germany, or saw his family again in person - with letters being the only form of contact he had with them over the years.

Jozef suffered an accident in 1980s which prevented him from being able to write and eventually, stopped all his contact with his family. He sadly died in 2012, aged 86, single and without children - and because he also didn’t leave a will, his estate was seemingly “intestate”.

The "workbook ID" issued to Jozef Domanski by the Nazis when he was a teenager

This sparked a search for any remaining family members, who would be entitled to his estate. The local authorities enlisted the help of probate research firm Finders International, who worked with international forensic genealogical firm GEN Sp. z o.o. which handles many Polish cases linked back to the war. The main person Jozef would write to was his sister, Helena Sadowska, who was eventually tracked down but died aged 90 before his case could be settled and any inheritance payments made.

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Before her death, she told Finders and GEN: “I would trade Jozef’s bequest for one more moment with him. My last memory was saying goodbye to my lovely and quiet older brother amidst the shouts of Nazi officers. It’s a pity we never saw each other again, but Jozef didn’t want to get us into any trouble by making too much contact. I’m grateful to the many parties involved in helping us close the painful family chapter.”

Skype call in 2019 with Helena Sadowska, sister of Jozef Domanski

As of last month, his £75,000 estate was ready to be paid out to 12 beneficiaries, including his niece, the daughter of his sister Helena. Sadly, she never met her uncle. Danny Curran, founder and managing director of Finders International, recently visited the Polish embassy in London to raise the awareness of a large generation of older UK-based Polish people who are dying without immediate known next of kin. He worked with Paul and Benjamin Ratz of GEN to track down the relatives of Jozef.

He said: “Solving Jozef Domanski’s case highlights the intricate and often difficult work heir hunters have to piece together - to understand how an individual lived and died. In Jozef’s case, it’s incredibly sad that the horror he faced as a teenager at the hands of the Nazis, having been removed from his family and his reluctance to return because of the fear of Soviet reprisal, kept him from having a normal family relationship. Beyond the details of the inheritance we feel the value in this case lies in telling the story of the dire cost of displacing innocent citizens against their will.”

Paul and Benjamin Ratz of GEN Sp. z o.o.

Geoff Odds, chair of the International Association of Professional Probate Researchers, said: “This story demonstrates the trend of increased cooperation between heir hunters across borders. Since the Second World War, not least with millions of displaced people, but due the ease of global travel both in speed, cost and availability, we are seeing an ever-increasing number of cases where individuals have died in countries other than their birth. Many of their next of kin still live in their birth countries, and the job of tracing them presents ever more challenges and opportunities for heir hunters across the world.”

Levi Winchester