Testimonies

With his usual sense of humour, Alex describes why he decided to move to Canada.

Alex describes his decision to leave home at age 16 to join the Polish Army being formed in France. He goes on to say that his time in the USSR …

Andrzej shows a drawing by Alicja Edwards and explains how this drawing epitomizes for him the entire experience of the deportation. He then reads a text about the death of …

Andrzej describes how he secured a grant and was able to obtain a degree, and then secure work in London and later in Devon.

Andrzej tells of the sadness among the Polish soldiers in Italy, when they had to surrender their arms to the British.

Andrzej describes how and when he received the medal, in May 1946

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 …

Andrzej describes the scene on the barges that took them into the depth of Siberia, and compares it with Dante’s inferno.

He was saved from being sent to Katyn with the other officers because a soldier he had known in Zakopane came up to him and told him to remove the …

Andrzej describes how they were all marched through the town of Rowne on their way to the railway station, and transport to the Gulags. A unit of Polish Border Guards …

Describes how his unit was assigned to defend Polish villagers against attacks from roving bands of Ukrainian Nationalist, in the area of Włodzimierz in Wołyn.

Maria describes the holidays in New Zealand and the locals were good to the Polish children. She also describes how another child “diddled” her out of half a crown coin …

Maria explains the song in English.

Maria describes her stay in the hospital in Persia and talks about the lady who saved her from despair.

Maria describes the different ways in which the children would find sources of food while they were in Kazakhstan.

Maria describes how devoted she was to her grandmother, and how she was present when her grandmother died.

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

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.

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

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

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 …

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

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 …