Fuel for this was cows dried dung which we collected from fields. One day I saw my fathers shirt lying on the floor actually move with crawling lice. The NKVD deported not just Poles and Balts, but tens of thousands of Jews to Siberia and Kazakhstan between 1939 and 1941. [n] The NKVD and other Soviet agencies asserted their control in 1939 as an inherent part of the Sovietization of Kresy. People kept their own gardens, with vegetables. Thus we all became separated from each other, and I remember crying myself to sleep every night, as it was the first time in my life that I was apart from my mother and the rest of the family. [b][45], While Germans enforced their policies based on racism, the Soviet administration justified their Stalinist policies by appealing to Soviet ideology. orphanages, separating boys from girls. At the end of WW1, he fought with the Polish army against the Red Army on the Eastern front and after the treaty of Riga, settled back into civilian life and managed the Puslowski estates at Pieski, Albertyn and later Zawiszcze, near Pinsk. Maria Gabiniewicz, one of the refugees, later wrote: "We managed to leave the Soviet Union in the last transport. NKVD agents issued Soviet passports to Poles in February-May 1943. Tehran was a gate, through which we were sent, in groups, to different parts of the world. Having arrived at the railway station, we were brutally bundled into waiting cattle trucks, fitted out with wooden shelves/bunks in order to pack in as many people as possible, some 50 70 people in one truck. There is some controversy as to whether the Soviet Union's policies were harsher than those of Nazi Germany until that time. Living in Africa was very difficult for the Poles who were unfamiliar with local customs and languages and were not used to tropical weather. Entdecke Eine polnische Frauenerfahrung im Zweiten Weltkrieg - 9781350178090 in groer Auswahl Vergleichen Angebote und Preise Online kaufen bei eBay Kostenlose Lieferung fr viele Artikel! Additional Polish transports arrived in late 1943. In 1941 Joseph Stalin On top of not being able to see in the dusk, I suffered from eye infection, which caused swelling of my eyelids and heavy yellow discharge. The World War II began with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the USSR, after signing a pact of those two totalitarian dictatorships that turned them into allies indeed. As I mentioned previously,we were then crowded into almost unheated cattle trucks, and started our journey into the depths of Russia, which lasted about three weeks, as on occasions were shunted backwards and forwards, and during the course of which, a great number of people died either from exhaustion or were lost in transit. The demarcation line across the center of Poland was shifted to the east, giving Germany more Polish territory. In 1941 Joseph Stalin ordered all inhabitants with a German father to be deported, mostly to Siberia or Kazakhstan. The next transfer took place in 195559, after Stalin's death. The Jews who were deported to Siberia and other remote parts of the USSR, and especially those who lost their lives in that deportation, deserve to be remembered and honored and deserve justice just like the Jews murdered by the Nazis. Somehow, at some point, my brother Gustaf found me and brought me a piece of bread (his ration for the day I later learned). In Northern Rhodesia, 245 evacuees were accepted for permanent residence. Each camp had its own school, clubroom, and theatre. Polska konspiracja na Kresach Wschodnich II RP (Wrzesie 1939 Czerwiec 1941). [64] Joanna Ostrowska and Marcin Zaremba of the Polish Academy of Sciences estimate that rapes of Polish women reached a mass scale following the Winter Offensive of 1945. Algunas cookies son colocadas por servicios de terceros que aparecen en nuestras pginas. 5.1 million or 38% of the population were Polish by ethnicity (wrote Elbieta Trela-Mazur),[11] with 37% Ukrainians, 14.5% Belarusians, 8.4% Jews, 0.9% Russians and 0.6% Germans. We were brought into a region called Czelabinskaja Oblosc to a place called Czepajewka posiolek hard labour camp. [11] All Polish territories occupied by USSR were annexed to the Soviet Union with the exception of the area of Wilno, which was transferred to Lithuania. In January 1948, the Commissioner of the East African Refugee Administration wrote a letter about the deportation of the Polish refugees from the Abercorn camp. At first, they were transported to the town of Bandra, in the suburbs of Bombay, where Hanka Ordonwna took care of the kids. Illnessestyphoid, dysentery, no restrooms in cars. Survivor accounts: Polish deportations to Russia. This caused particular discomfort and pain in the mornings, because during the night while asleep, my eyelids would become glued to the lower lashes and it was a very long and painful process to prize them apart. This was a small fraction of the approximately 1.7 million Polish citizens who had been arrested by the Soviets at the beginning of the war. They were going from Kigoma to Dar es Salaam and from there by ship to the United Kingdom, where their next of kinoften husbands and sons who had been fighting in the warwere getting courses and training for civilian jobs. All enterprises were taken over by the state, while agriculture was made collective.[55]. The area amounted to about 200,000 square kilometres, which was inhabited by 13.5 million formerly Polish citizens. Not finding any arms, the soldiers then gave us a very short time to pack what we could, arrested the whole family, put us on their sleighs and took us to the nearest railway station. Classes began on September 1, 1942. [13], Initially, the Soviet occupation gained support among some citizens of the Second Polish Republic. [18] In late 1942 and early 1943, Polish camps in Iran were located at Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, and Ahvaz. The Ukrainians had failed to achieve independence in 1919 when their attempt at self-determination was crushed during the PolishSoviet and Polish-Ukrainian Wars. But, actual conferral of citizenship required individual consent and residents were strongly pressured for such consent. ), This page was last edited on 2 January 2023, at 22:55. Yes, even me a child of under 5 years old. While drilling in As luck would have it, he was at home when the Russian soldiers burst in, which was just as well, because they would have arrested the rest of us anyway, and we would not have had him with us to take care of us. LUDNO CYWILNA I SIEROTY POLSKIE PO AMNESTII 12 SIERPNIA 1941 ROKU. The formerly sovereign Lithuania was moved into the Soviet sphere of influence and absorbed into the USSR as the brand new Lithuanian SSR among the Soviet republics. Find out how you can use this. Perhaps that is why (in adulthood), much to the annoyance of our children, I developed an absolute phobia for neatness and tidiness. "In the 1939-1941 period alone, Soviet-inflicted suffering on all citizens in Poland exceeded that of Nazi-inflicted suffering on all citizens. . [41][42] They began confiscating, nationalising and redistributing all private and state-owned Polish property. -3- Among some 14,471 victims were top Polish Army officers, including political leaders, government officials, and intellectuals. Following the Soviet invasion of Poland at the onset of World War II, in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Pact against Poland, the Soviet Union acquired more than half of the territory of the Second Polish Republic or about 201,000 square kilometres (78,000sqmi) inhabited by more than 13,200,000 people. Even before the 1941 deportations, it was already agreed that the evacuees were going to East Africa only for "a special or temporary purpose." [15] 22,000 Polish military personnel and civilians were killed in the Katyn massacre,[2][19] but thousands of others were victims of NKVD massacres of prisoners in mid-1941, before the German advance across the Soviet occupation zone. , , , , , , , . In August 1945, the number of Polish refugees in Northern Rhodesia was 3,419, of which 1,227 stayed in camps in the capital Lusaka, 1,431 in Bwana Mkubwa at the Copperbelt,164 in Fort Jameson at the border with Nyasaland, and 597 in Abercorn in the Northern Province. [12] By this new and final arrangement often described as a fourth partition of Poland,[2] the Soviet Union secured the lands east of the rivers Pisa, Narew, Bug and San. Their migration began was encouraged by local noblemen, often Polish landlords, who wanted to develop their significant land-holdings in the area for agricultural use. They immediately set about Most Poles were forced to stay in the Soviet Union. It must be said, that ordinary Russians were, on the whole, friendly and very sympathetic to our plight, but they had to be very discreet about it. All organized religions were persecuted. Las cookies no clasificadas son cookies que estamos procesando para clasificar, conjuntamente con los proveedores de cookies individuales. Here you can consult our privacy policy. The ship was small and we were squizzed practically like sardines. In the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, which took place in September 1939, the territory of Poland was divided in half between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. After twelve days, we reached the port of Beira in Mozambique. In an effort to improve hygienic conditions in the newly formed orphanages, our heads were shaved and we were de-liced in some solution. According to depositions by Jzef wiato and other communist sources, the number of members of the Polish underground, rounded up by order of Lavrentiy Beria of the NKVD and deported to Siberia and various gulags in the Soviet Union reached 50,000 in 1945 alone. ", The Nazis consulted Moscow to deport the Jews to Siberia. The Red Army had sown confusion among the locals by claiming that they were arriving to save Poland from the Nazis. I was just a skeleton, simply skin and bones, and I lost touch with my family for quite a while. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not Anyone who believes that Stalin's alliance with Hitler is irrelevant to the Holocaust must have answers to such questions". The eastern half of Poland was annexed by the Soviet Union. Political Migrations on Polish Territories (19391950). I will never forget the journey on trucks through the mountains from Ashgabat to Tehran. Initially aimed primarily at possible political opponents, by January 1940 the NKVD's campaign was also directed against potential allies, including Polish Communists and Socialists. The deportation of Poles by the Russians to slave labour camps in the Soviet Union during Este sitio web utiliza cookies para mejorar su experiencia. They were so bad that we were continually covered in lice and bedbugs. As a result, I fell further and further behind our group walking to the nearest tent shelter, and I dont know what would have happened to me if my mother had not found me. Nothing looked like Poland, but adults in our camp did their best to emphasize our roots. Las cookies de marketing se utilizan para rastrear a los visitantes a travs de las webs. At Isfahan Polish orphanage, a children's camp was opened, where 2,300 children and 300 adults stayed and eight elementary schools were created. Many Poles left Iran for India, thanks to the efforts of Polish consul in Bombay, Eugeniusz Banasinski. I was always. It became so bad that I, owing to lack of any vitamins so essential at that time of my life, partly lost my sight and was unable to see in the dusk. . could not buy very much at any rate there was not much to buy as the shops (some distance away from us) such as they were, were mostly empty. Only the Communist Party was allowed to exist, with organizations subordinated to it. To say that hygienic conditions of our living quarters were less than primitive is to make a gross overstatement. The Soviets exploited past ethnic tensions between Poles and other ethnic groups living in Poland; they incited and encouraged violence against Poles, suggesting the minorities could "rectify the wrongs they had suffered during twenty years of Polish rule". Most of the content on this site is created by our users, who are members of the [26] The Soviet NKVD executed about 65,000 imprisoned Poles after being subjected to show trials. The deportation of Jews to Siberia and Kazakhstan between 1939 and 1941. In addition to that, Article 6 of the Statute considers a crime of genocide, among others, the "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." All Rights Reserved. They ended up in Iran, India, Palestine, New Zealand, and British Africa, as well as in Mexico. My mother, elder brother and sister were made to work on the surface of the mines, and my brother Gustaf and I, being the youngest two, were forced to attend Russian school, where indoctrination procedure was put in hand. The subscriptions of this blog can only be accessed by its author. Families housed in communal barracks had to endure undescribable living conditions, when people were dying every day from a variety of causes. As I have already said, my father was made to work in mines, mining mainly malachite where, on one occasion, he sustained a bad accident. The housing was primitive: dwellings made of clay, with roofs made of grass and banana leaves. And that is why my father was marked down for arrest and deportation to hard labour gulags (forced labour camps) in Russia, as he was considered to be a danger to the Russian nation and as a punishment for his volunteering. Young as I was, and hungry as I was, I realised that he needed more than I, so I gave him my portion saying that I have already had my ration. Asumiremos que est de acuerdo con esto, pero puede optar por no participar si lo desea. (And that is another moment that has always stayed with me). versttning med sammanhang av "mass deportation" i engelska-ukrainska frn Reverso Context: Subsequently, a mass deportation ensued, accompanied by violence and killings. If we examine the war in terms of the Holocaust, why should Stalin's strategic actions be exempt from moral interrogation?" That in itself was monstrously hideous, exposing children, women and men to perform their private bodily functions openly. Polish evacuees had to travel by train to Krasnovodsk, where they took a ship across the Caspian Sea to Iran. [49], Simultaneously Soviet authorities tried to remove traces of Polish history in the area by eliminating much of what had connections to the Polish state or even Polish culture in general. It was a hellhungry, sick people, children in rail cars, filled with louse. There were a lot of accidents, where Regarding the ethnic composition of these areas: ca. Poles did not stay in the Soviet-controlled Iran for long for several reasons, including the hostility of Soviet authorities who occupied northern Iran (see Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran), as well as the threat from the German armies that had already reached the Caucasus (see Case Blue), and finally due to poor living conditions.[13]. My brother Alfons also became a soldier in the 2nd Corps and fought in the North African campaign, and then the Italian campaign, taking part in the assault on Monte Cassino. [15], The number of Poles who died due to Soviet repressions in the period 1939-1941 is estimated as at least 150,000. We were mentally shaped by such organizations, as Sodality of Our Lady, and The Eucharistic Crusade. The first transport of prisoners to the Auschwitz extermination camp on June 14, 1940. However, my country was still being threatened and attacked by Russia, and, faced with this renewed danger, the Head of Polish Armed Forces, Marshal Josef Pilsudski, appealed for volunteers to fight against this new aggression.My father, then 16 years old, volunteered. I remember one day my mother gave me a slice of bread and my eldest brother, who had to work very hard, another. Survivor accounts: Polish deportations to Russia. We were then moved to some kind of barracks, with blankets hung up to separate family units. Thousands and thousands of other Poles were strewn from the arctic circle in the north (Archangel) to the extremes of Syberia, European Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgystan, and other places, and set to work, in appalling conditions, felling forest trees, transporting and working timber, or, as my father, working in mines. The Soviet Union never officially declared war on Poland and ceased to recognise the Polish state at the start of the invasion. Iran and the Polish Exodus from Russia 1942. Cedar, MI 49621-5106. None survived. It was set up in 1942. Hamtramck, MI 48212-3437, 8994 S Kasson St as a reward, he was given a parcel of land by the newly formed independent Government of Poland. It was here that I went down with severe dysentery and it was here that dead bodies were found in water wells. It is a miracle that we survived, with thousands dead.[12]. La ley establece que podemos almacenar cookies en su dispositivo si son estrictamente necesarias para el funcionamiento de este sitio. [3][5], Approximately 100,000 Polish citizens were arrested during the two years of Soviet occupation. [34][35][36], The Poles and the Soviets re-established diplomatic relations in 1941, following the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement; but the Soviets broke them off again in 1943 after the Polish government demanded an independent examination of the recently discovered Katyn burial pits. Hope came in July, 1941. There we boarded a ship where we were exposed to more appalling conditions. The main street of the camp was named after General Tadeusz Br-Komorowski. It lasted until 16 January 1943, at which point it was effectively revoked. People were dying like flies. World War Two: The deportation of Polish refugees to Abercorn camp in Northern Rhodesia. The stench was terrible. Some had to travel by land to Ashgabat. Furthermore, there were schools in Egypt, at Tall al Kabir and Heliopolis. In January 1944, the Polish staff in all East African camps had been reduced. Google Analytics campaign and traffic source tracking cookie. The NKVD and other Soviet agencies asserted their control in 1939 as an inherent part of In Chekmenyovs letter, found in the Russian national archive, Molotov's advice is sought on how to answer the German request. Polish Deportees Cut Timber in a Siberian Labour Camp, 1940 In September 1939, Germany and Russia invaded Poland and divided it between them. Mentally shaped by such organizations, as Sodality of our Lady, and intellectuals had travel. Para clasificar, conjuntamente con los proveedores de cookies individuales not just Poles Balts... In terms of the Second Polish Republic actually move with crawling lice at... Period alone, Soviet-inflicted suffering on all citizens in Poland exceeded that of Nazi-inflicted on! 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Poland was shifted to the Auschwitz extermination camp on June 14, 1940 cookies individuales a German father to deported... Region called Czelabinskaja Oblosc to a place called Czepajewka posiolek hard labour camp the Jews to and. A place called Czepajewka posiolek hard labour camp touch with my family quite. With local customs and languages and were not used to tropical weather lost touch my... If we examine the war in terms of the invasion crawling lice period alone, Soviet-inflicted suffering on all.. 2 January 2023, at 22:55, India, Palestine, New Zealand, and I lost with! With thousands dead. [ 12 ] organizations, as Sodality of our Lady, and intellectuals the polish deportation to siberia hellhungry...
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