Diakon Czesław Pukacz - Life on the Uzbek collective farm
Czeslaw describes how they lived while they were at the collective farm.
Aleksandra (Jarmulska) Rymaszewska - Saved from the firing squad
Describing how she would have been shot by the Soviets, for stealing a railway tie, if it had not been for some quick thinking on the part of a fellow …
Wojciech Narębski - Poles in Buzuluk
Andrzej Wieslaw Dębicki - Finding Poles in Uzbek Village
Describes how the younger, healthier soldiers were given money and transportation in order to scour the Uzbek countryside, looking for Polish citizens among the villages, so that they could provide …
Maria Nowotarska Kołodzińska - Leaving the camp on a raft
Maria explains how they heard about the ‘amnesty’, describes how her family built a raft to take them down the river, and how her father saved her from drowning.
Jan Kołodziński - Journey to Iran on trucks
Jan describes the journey over the mountains, in the back of lorries, and how he would have frozen to death if a kind lady had not lent him a blanket.
Jan Kołodziński - Brothers death in train accident
Jan describes how his 17 year old brother, who had gone to get food for the family, tried to jump onto the train that was moving away from the station, …
Eugenia (Piotuch) Smolnicki - They saved a Polish youth in the Russian Army
On the journey south to join the Polish Army, they met up with a Polish youth who had been conscripted into the Russian Army, and her father decided to save …
Eugenia (Piotuch) Smolnicki - Children boarding ship and crossing to Pahlevi
Describing how frightening it was to board the ship, and how they ended up crawling up. Also describes the voyage to Pahlevi.
Czesław Borek - Accused of escape - defended by NKVD officer
Czeslaw explains how he and a friend were wrongly accused of having escaped from a work camp, and an NKVD officer defended them against this accusation.
Regina (Rozwadowska) Gasztold - Father found them in Teheran
Regina describes how, by pure chance, her father found them in the camp in Teheran
Wanda (Jabłońska) Gillon - Amnesty and leaving the camp
Wanda describes how the families grouped their valuables in order to pay for transportation to the southern USSR.
Stanisław Lasek - Brother and sister die on the trip south
Stan describes how his brother Wojciech died on the train and his body was thrown onto a cart – the family have no idea where he was buried. The next …
Stanisław Lasek - Going south was a mistake
Stan explains how his father’s decision to take the family south was a mistake. In the north, they had access to mushrooms and berries in the forest that helped them …
Maria (Sztela) Juralewicz - Learning that mother died in Buchara
Irena describes how a former neighbour from the Kresy was a witness to her mother having died in Buchara, Uzbekistan.
Maria (Sztela) Juralewicz - Father dies on the train
Irena describes how their father suddenly died on the train, on the trip south, hours after her mother was left behind at one of the stations.
Jan Kazmierow - Catching turtles in Turkmenistan
Jan describes how he and his brother Tomasz kept up their health in Turkmenistan by catching and eating turtles.
Krystyna Teresa Andrecka - Hardships endured through USSR
Krystyna retells the hardships of her mother and grandmother’s journey from USSR to Persia, being packed in wagons, starving and having to eat grass and dogs to survive.