My grandmother, Walentyna Tywoshewska said she was from Tarnopol, a "little village outside of krakow". In 1943, she was sent to Donbass mines by the Germans in Russia. After 6 months, she was brought to Achen, Germany as a polish laborer. On the map, tarnopol is nowhere near krakow. She married my grandfather, a US soldier in Germany, Frankfurt. Her marriage certificate from the Burgermeister, states birthplace as Tarnopol. Her father, Jozef Tywoshewski, died in 1933. Mother, Marie Kashawz, was lost, literally, in WWII Labor camps. Brother and sister died at Aachen in bombing in april 1944. On the German marriage license, her name is also spelled in (), Tynoshenko. Sounds Ukranian. What's up?
Tarnopol is a town in Ukraine now, but for centuries, until 1945 Tarnopol was Polish. According to Wikipedia “In 1939 it was a city of 40,000; 50% of the population was Polish, 40% Jewish and 10% Ukrainian”.
It looks like your Grandmother’s name was spelled incorectly on documents. Tywoshewska doesn’t sound right. Most likely her last name was Tymoshewska, in Polish spelled Tymoszewska.
If your Grandmother’s family was sent to a labor camp then they weren’t Jews (Germans were sending Jews to concentration camps, not labour camps). There were very few Ukrainians living in Tarnopol at that time. Therefore most likely your Grandmother was Polish, and her last name was Tymoszewska.
Tarnopol is about 450 kms from Krakow. The closest larger town to Tarnopol is Lvov, but not many people, especially from outside Europe know where Lvov is, then the next large city to describe location of Tarnopol would logically be Krakow.
