Hall of Testimonies

Describing how he had to work in the fields at age 6 1/2 !!

She was in an orphanage with mostly Russian children, and describes how there were 20 of them sleeping in one room, 4 to a bed (not really a bed, rather …

She remained in Irtysz (sp?) and she had frost bitten legs – her toes were black. The head of the orphanage was a Polish lady, and she helped cure her …

They were deported in the spring, and describes the train as having wooden benches at each end to sleep on, a hole in the floor for a toilet, and that …

His father was unwell on the train journey south. He got off at one station, to get food and water for the family, and they never saw him again. Red …

Describing how he played the Polish hymn for soldiers at the railway station and they showered him with bread and money.

Describing the scene when they reached shore and what happened then.

This is the life story of Ludwik Cytera as discovered and written up by his grandson Christopher Cytera.

Dioniza describes all that the children learned from scouting, and how it helped them develop and grow.

Dioniza describes the different scouting groups that were set up at Pahiatua camp.

Dioniza reads a saying that she was given at her graduation, and explains how it helped her whenever she faced a challenge.

Dioniya describes what life was like at the Pahiatua camp, as well as the reaction when they learned about Yalta and that they would not be returning to Poland.

Dioniza describes the sea voyage on the ship, General Randall.

Dioniza describes when her mother died in the Teheran hospital, and then how she felt when she and her sisters all ended up in different locations.

Dioniza describes how they learned that they were free to leave, and how they organized the trip south,.

Dioniza describes the work that the adults and the children did at the camp.

Dioniza describes the brutality with which the Ukrainians terrorized them as they searched for weapons. They took her father away, and they heard a series of shots, but thought that …

Dioniza describes what she recalls of the beginning of WWII in her village.

Dioniza describes how the school children attended services at the Ukrainian church, until the Catholic church was built and a priest arrived in the village.

Already on the ship to New Zealand, Mrs Kozera the Chief Scout made plans to commemorate the Warsaw Uprising at a special campfire held in Pahiatua soon after the children’s …

Bernarda describes how she met her husband at the hospital, where he was sent after being injured at Monte Cassino, and they married. She spent some time in Palestine where …

Bernarda describes how people would die and their bodies were left on the side of the tracks, with no proper burial. Her parents would not have survived the trip south, …

Bernarda describes how the Russian people who preceded them to the camp, and were still stuck there, were in the same situation as they were – sometimes their conditions were …

Ewa describes how she met her husband in France, and how she learned of her uncle’s death from released POWs who were in the same camp with him.