Testimonies – Polish refugees in New Zealand

Maria describes how her mother wrote to different camps and found her husband in the Starobielsk prison.

Maria describes how her mother could have asked people to sign a petition to release her husband, but she chose not to endanger them in this way.

Maria describes the way they had to live when they arrived at the kolkhoz.

Maria tells how her mother took to fortune-telling in exchange for food during the winter months, thereby allowing them to survive.

Maria describes how the hut was buried in a snowstorm and they were saved 3 days later, when others dug them out.

Maria tells how she and her brother were examined in an American hospital in Persia.

Maria describes the terrifying way they were unloaded from the ship in India.

Maria describes the daily routines at the camp.

Maria tells how her cousins were smuggled out of Poland by Jews leaving for Palestine, in thanks for having saved their children.

One night, every child in the room witnessed what seemed to be a boy possessed by the Devil

Arriving in India, the children walked the kilometer or so to the camp. Walking beside each child was an Indian, who carried the child’s small suitcase. It was quite a …

On their first morning in Pahiatua, the children experienced rain for the first time in many years. They rushed outside to enjoy it.

Describing how frightening it was to board the ship, and how they ended up crawling up. Also describes the voyage to Pahlevi.

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 …

Describing how her mother would sneak out of the camp to go to the local village and sell things at market, both for herself and for others in the camp.

Eugenia describes how she and a friend went to pick mushrooms in the forest and got lost. Luckily they managed to find their way back to the camp.

Describing how the Russian teacher could not get the children to sing on Good Friday. The children knew instinctively that this was not done.

Jan explains how he and his friends got jobs at GM and earned good pay during their holidays from school.

Jan explains how they traveled from Isfahan, then boarded the ship for India, and an incident on board regarding washing the decks.

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, …

Jan explains how his stepmother and sister were at a different camp where really sick children were being treated. They were receiving more food there, than Jan and his brother …

Jan tells us how he learned of his father’s death, and how the dead were buried in communal graves.

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.

Describing how the new Russian teacher immediately tried to indoctrinate the children by providing them with gifts of sugar, coffee and tea from “Father Stalin”. He taunted them by asking …

The New Zealand soldiers who cared for the children at the camp were very surprised at their bottomless appetites.

Describing how, when Poland was invaded, an enemy plane left the formation and shot at her mother in the field. The plane circled several times before giving up

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.

Maria describes how the soldiers attacked their home, and how they had to hide because they were shooting at her, her mother and siblings.