Private, Co F, 108th Infantry, 27th Division.
Killed in action near Hindenburg Line east of Ronssoy, France, September 29, 1918. Age 25.
Town: Batavia (also Cayuga County; see text)
Burial: Somme American Cemetery, Plot B Row 7 Grave 1, Bony, France
Although he appears on two Genesee County honor rolls, as well as the “Batavia’s Honor Roll” list, Stanislaw (also variously reported as Stanislaus, and Stanley) Stanek is probably most accurately described as a Cayuga County soldier. Most sources give his residence as Auburn, in Cayuga County. However, Stanek did have a brother (Jan or John Stanek) and sister (Anna or Annie Starowicz) living in Batavia (Genesee County), New York at the time of his death and at least two years prior. The 1915 NY Census shows both Jan Stanek and Anna Starowicz living with their respective families at 145 Harrison Street in Batavia. Furthermore, several sources indicate that Stanislaw Stanek indeed lived in Batavia at some point.
According to the November 30, 1918 Batavia Daily News, Stanislaw was a member of Batavia’s Church of the Sacred Heart and had “made his home” with his sister at 26 William Street, the address also given for the Starowicz household in 1917’s Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County. The Army’s casualty report listing Stanek as killed in action, released on November 29, 1918, gives his town as Batavia, and the Batavia Daily News refers to him as a Batavian. A searcher’s report in his Burial Case File also states his home as Batavia, New York. The NY Roll of Honor, however, lists him as a Cayuga County casualty (it also lists his date of death as September 28, 1918, but this is an error; all other sources say September 29).
Stanislaw Stanek was born on May 3, 1893, in Trzebienczyce, Galicia, a historically war-torn Central European region variously claimed over the centuries by Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Ukraine, and factions thereof. Between 1772 and 1918, it was a partition of Poland occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (Stanek’s NYSS lists “Galaced, Poland” as his place of birth, but “Galaced” is likely a misinterpretation or misspelling of Galicia.) Stanek immigrated to the United States in 1910, at the age of 18, arriving at Ellis Island aboard SS Samland on November 9. On the ship’s manifest, “Austria” is given as his nationality and “Polish” is listed under “Race or People.” The same document indicates (in column 18) that he intended to join his sister, Anna Stanek, at 42 Union Street in Auburn, NY. The 1911 Auburn City Directory lists both Stanislaw and John Stanek at that address. Apparently Stanislaw’s brother and sister moved to Batavia, as mentioned previously, sometime between 1911 and 1915. Documents in his Burial Case File show that Stanislaw also had an additional sister and brother, Mary and Joseph, still living in Trzebienczyce, as was his mother, Rozalja or Rosie Stanek.
On June 5, 1917, Stanislaw Stanek registered for the draft in Auburn, giving Auburn as his residence and indicating that he was working in the city as a “moulder” for the International Harvester Company. Two days later he enlisted in the 3rd Regiment of the NY National Guard. In August he was assigned to Company F, made up mostly of Medina recruits, and in the fall of 1917 was sent to Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, where the 3rd Regiment (along with the 74th) became the 27th Division’s 108th Infantry regiment. Stanek left for overseas from Newport News, Virginia, on May 17, 1918, aboard USS President Grant.
Private Stanek and six other Genesee County soldiers were among at least 192 men of the 108th Infantry who died on September 29, 1918, in fierce combat that helped break the strongest point of the infamous Hindenburg Line, a complex of defenses including 30-foot-deep concrete bunkers, the St. Quentin canal and tunnel, miles of hidden passageways, and fortified trench systems fronted by fields of heavy twisted barbed wire.
Stanek’s Company F, as part of the 2nd Battalion, was in the 108th’s leading assault wave, attacking at 5:50 a.m. toward the Hindenburg system and Bony over open ground against heavy machine-gun and artillery fire. Of 852 men and officers in the battalion ready for duty on September 29, less than 200 remained when they reached the main Hindenburg defenses. Nonetheless the surviving battalion members took the main trenches south of Bony and held the position, fighting off fierce enemy counterattacks.
A searcher’s report in Private Stanek’s Burial Case File provides no details concerning how he died. It reads only, “The death of the above named soldier was not witnessed by any member of this Command. He was found later by a burial party sent out from the 2nd Btn and the finding of his body reported to these Headquarters. He was buried at Ste. Emilie.”
Private Stanislaw Stanek’s remains were later interred permanently at the Somme American Cemetery in Bony, France.
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† Possibly not a former or contemporaneous Genesee County resident, but with close family ties and/or evidence suggesting but not confirming residency. Listed on at least two previous countywide honor rolls.
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November 29, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c5
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November 30, 1918 Batavia Daily News p6 c5
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Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York
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Source: “Stanek, Stanislaw,” Genesee County Veterans Service Agency’s World War I Deceased Veterans Files, Box 34.B.1, Genesee County History Department, Batavia, New York.
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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
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Stanislaw Stanek headstone, Somme American Cemetery, Plot B Row 7 Grave 1, Bony, France
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Stanislaw Stanek Sources:
– County Lists 1, 4; also BHR
– Jun 7, 1917 Auburn Citizen p5 c2
– Jul 31, 1917 Auburn Citizen p6 c2
– Nov 23, 1918 RD&C p4 c3-4
– Nov 29, 1918 BD p1 c5*
– Nov 30, 1918 BD p6 c5
– Nov 30, 1918 New York Tribune p14 c4
– Nov 11, 1919 Auburn Citizen p9 c4
– Sep 29, 1931 Medina Daily Journal p3 c5-6
– May 21, 1980 Medina Journal Register p12 c2
– “List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States Immigration Officer at Port of Arrival,” SS Samland arriving in New York from Antwerp 9 Nov 1910, pages 356-357, list 13, line # 0010, Stanislaw Stanek, age 18, accessed online at http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger
– “New York State Census, 1915.” Online index and images, Ancestry.com. Entries for Anna Starowicz, age 24, in household of Paul Starowicz, and Jan Stanek, age 27, in own household, citing Census Records, Batavia (Ward 5), A.D. 01, E.D. 05, Genesee, New York; page number 53, lines 8 and 12.
– “Auburn [1911] Directory,” U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989, online database, Ancestry.com. Entries for John Stanek and Stanislaw Stanek, page 421.
– Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County (1917), p 99
– NYSS
– Roll of Honor (NY State), p 19
– WWI database, American Battle Monuments Commission website (www.abmc.gov/search/wwi.php)
– World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Ancestry.com)
– 27th Division, Summary of Operations in the World War, pp 13-26
– The Story of the 27th Division Vol. 1, p 39, pp 300-313, 328a
– The Story of the 27th Division Vol. 2, pp 810, 1087, 1102
– BCF
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