Testimonies – Soviet Mass Deportations

The scary part is that we did not know what they were going to do with us. We were in a cattle wagon with wooden bunks that would sleep about …

February 10th 1940. At midnight they came and took father away, and at 2 a.m. they came back and took us. We were not allowed to take anything with us. …

We have to say that we were in cattle cars on the train – there were wooden bunks on two sides, you could fit 8 people on the top and …

We have to say that we were in cattle cars on the train – there were wooden bunks on two sides, you could fit 8 people on the top and …

We have to say that we were in cattle cars on the train – there were wooden bunks on two sides, you could fit 8 people on the top and …

Everything happened in a similar fashion to my wife’s story – we were loaded into cattle cars & when we were crossing the border we all sang religious hymns – …

Everything happened in a similar fashion to my wife’s story – we were loaded into cattle cars & when we were crossing the border we all sang religious hymns – …

This fragment was taken from an interview conducted by Joanna Dudzic of Manchester UK. In this clip, Józef gives a summary of his life, before, during and after the war.

After the invasion, the Polish schools were changed to Ukrainian. This meant that we Polish children were laughed at and the teacher would mock our Polish history and culture.