Kresy-Siberia Virtual Museum Special Exhibitions

Polish Naval Memories of World War II 1939-1947

“This multi-media special exhibition explores the contribution of the elite Polish Navy to the Allied war effort during the six years of the war at sea 1939-1945 and until 1947 with the PRC in G.B. Whilst many of the details of the Polish Navy during WWII are well known (the battles, the destroyers, the submarines), the stories of the veterans are not. This exhibition tells the story of the Polish Navy in WWII through the witness testimonies, memories, photographs and stories of the brave men who served in her.”

Polish Refugees in New Zealand 1944-1951

The Second World War devastated Europe and set up great tidal movements of millions of refugee; among them were Poles who had been forcibly deported to the German Reich and Russia’s Soviet union. An uprooted and displaced generation of Poles were forced to find other countries to take them in. Three distinct waves of this movement reached New Zealand: the ‘Polish Children’, the ex-Servicemen, and the Displaced Persons. (p11)

Poland’s Holocaust

A Family Chronicle of Soviet and Nazi Terror – by Chris Gladun

This exhibition documents the horrors of Nazism, but as importantly it is a study of a chapter of history long misunderstood and even denied: Poland’s suffering under Stalinism and Communism.

Soviet Mass Deportations

In total 1 to 2 million Polish people were deported into the depths of Russia. They faced forced labour, squalid living conditions, starvation and disease. At least half died.

Eastern Borderlands (1918-1939)

The end of WW1 in 1918 saw the birth of the Second Republic of Poland, along with its multi-ethnic “Kresy” or eastern Borderlands.