大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Gloucestershire on behalf of Les Pugh with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Earlier this year I was sitting in my front room with Jan Sowa, who lives with his wife in Stonehouse, which is many hundreds of miles from his birthplace of Tarnov in Poland.

He was born in 1927 and attended the school in Stolpge. His father was a regular soldier in the Polish army. In September 1939 the Nazis invaded Poland from the West and soon after the Russians invaded from the East. Jan鈥檚 father hid in the woods but was soon found and taken prisoner.

Jan, his mother and brother existed on soup and a few vegetables at home in intolerable conditions for seven months. One day the Nazis came, rounded them up and put them on a freight train to Siberia where they stayed for two more years in even more intolerable conditions.

Jan was then 14 years old. His next move was to Ashcahbot where he joined the young soldiers who were all under 16. He attended the Palastine Military School where he stayed until he was 19. He was then demobilised and sent with his family to an army camp in East Anglia. He then went to the Bridgend Hostile in Stonehouse which had been vacated by the female war workers at Sperrys and Hoffman, for which it was built.

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