大象传媒

I lived in the district of Wolyn in Poland on a farm with my parents and my five brothers and sisters. I was the oldest. On 10th February 1940 the Russian Police came to our farm and told us to get out and leave everything behind. We were taken to the local school where we were put on sledges and taken to the railway station along with hundreds of other Poles.

We were crammed in to animal carriages in appalling conditions. Once a day the carriages were opened to get some air and we were given hot water and porridge. The journey took over a month. We were taken to a camp called Vostoczy in Russia. The train stopped at the bottom of the hill and we were made to walk through the snow to the camp. I remember it being terribly cold.

The guards took the men away to go and work in the forest, cutting trees. Children over 14 had to go and help and cut off branches. The younger children were taken away to be educated in Russian. There was a picture of Stalin on the wall that children had to pray to. I was punished for not doing so.

Conditions were bad and food was scarce. In the evenings we were allowed to buy portions of porridge. To eke it out we would add in snow and bread, it tasted wonderful. As a family we survived in the camp for 2 years until 1942. Eventually the British and Russian Governments came to an agreement over the Poles; they were free to leave.

There was no organised way for people to move. My family had to make our own way. We were given a state owned cow that died. However I had been secretly storing the lard from the fat of the cow. We were able to sell this along the way to help with transportation and bribe people as we made our journey towards the free Polish settlements in the South. The journey was dangerous, on one occasion we were saved by a passing train when we were being menaced by wolves.

Illness was a huge problem, 4 of my brothers and sisters died. In Uzbekjstan one of my brothers died and there was nowhere to bury him. My father fell very ill when we got to the Caspian Sea. My mother stayed with him and my surviving sister and I were put on to a boat travelling west across the Caspian Sea. My sister was very ill and they wanted to throw her overboard. I had overheard these orders and the fuss I made resulted in my sister being saved.

My sister and I were taken to a camp, Pahlevi near Tehran. We lived in a little shack. We were all given the same clothes and given the luxury of chocolate. Our heads were also shaved. At this point I was reunited with my mother. She had taken another barge over. She鈥檇 had to leave my father behind. To this day I never knew what happened to him.

We were then taken to a different camp where we were given medicine. A Polish general came to the camp and I was enlisted to the Polish Army. I came over to England via Uganda and South Africa on a ship called the New Amsterdam. I arrived in Redcar where I was trained as a wireless operator. I stayed there until the end of the war.

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