polish deportation to siberia

How did Poles deported to Russia in World War 2 escape, to fight on? [19], The first Polish refugees came to Palestine in summer 1942. There was a mast with a huge Polish flag, and the White Eagle on the gate."[12]. 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. In the second stage of evacuation from the interior, more than 43,000 military personnel and about 25,000 civilians left with General Wadysaw Anders across the Caspian Sea to Iran. Now and then the train would stop, and so during those stops, those who managed to pack kettles or pots, would gather snow into these containers, start up a fire, suspend these containers on hastily prepared stands to boil the resultant melting snow, which would then be used for drinking or for washing needs. Google Analytics short-term functional cookie used to determine new users and sessions. A Soviet gulag near the city of Molotov (today called Perm), in the USSR (Photo: Gulag Museum, Moscow, via. At times I was forced to chew on some bark of a tree in order to put something in my stomach. While the overall experiences of the survivors have commonalities, certain details of their stories are uniquely different. [4] Whether the number of victims could have reached or even exceeded 100,000 is only a matter of guessing,[4] considering the traditional taboos among the women incapable of finding "a voice that would have enabled them to talk openly" about their wartime experiences "while preserving their dignity. At first, they were transported to the town of Bandra, in the suburbs of Bombay, where Hanka Ordonwna took care of the kids. [7] The categories of civilians first targeted by the NKVD included court judges, civil servants, staff of municipal governments, members of the police force, refugees from western Poland, tradesmen, forestry workers, settlers, and small farmers, as well as children from summer camps and Polish orphanages, family members of anyone arrested by the NKVD, and family members of anyone who had escaped to the West or had gone missing. [41][42] They began confiscating, nationalising and redistributing all private and state-owned Polish property. In August 1942, two schools were created, for younger (aged 8-15) and older scouts. Between 1944 and 1946, thousands of Polish independence fighters actively opposed the new communist regime, attacking country offices of NKVD, SMERSH and the Polish communist secret service (UB). 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". [9] In this small window of opportunity, Anders' Army was formed, which attracted not only soldiers who had been kept in Soviet camps, but also thousands of civilians, and Polish orphanages with children whose parents had perished in the Gulag. buses unable to take a bend simply rolled into the ravine below. There was a kindergarten, a men's school, a women's school, and a middle school. In an effort to improve hygienic conditions in the newly formed orphanages, our heads were shaved and we were de-liced in some solution. Among some 14,471 victims were top Polish Army officers, including political leaders, government officials, and intellectuals. The adults were uneasy and afraid of the unknown, but us, the children, were happy for an adventure. The first transport of prisoners to the Auschwitz extermination camp on June 14, 1940. It lasted until 16 January 1943, at which point it was effectively revoked. In recognition of my father volunteering, as. This meant that all remaining Poles were re-granted Soviet citizenship and received Soviet passports. "[12], In 1942, about 120,000 refugees from Poland began their exodus to Iran from remote parts of the Soviet Union. Polian suggests the enclosures to the letters, so far not found, were written by Adolf Eichmann and Alois Brunner, responsible for Jewish immigration in Berlin and Vienna, respectively. 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. February 10, 2022. Survivor accounts: Polish deportations to Russia. -1- The Soviet Union took over 52.1% of the territory of Poland (circa 200,000km) with over 13,700,000 citizens at the end of the Polish Defensive War. After the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, it had been assigned to Germany in the treaty on borders and friendship in September 1939. However, this was fraught with danger of being left behind. Hope came in July, 1941. Red Army troops requisitioned food and other goods. During those three weeks of meandering through Russia, it was well nigh impossible to have a proper wash. Soviet propaganda claimed that the unfair treatment of non-Poles by the Second Polish Republic justified its dismemberment. There we boarded a ship where we were exposed to more appalling conditions. 1939 II WORLD WAR GERMANY AND RUSSIA INVADE POLAND. [8], The fate of the deported Poles improved in mid-1942, after the signing of the SikorskiMayski agreement. For any other comments, please Contact Us. [29] Altogether the Soviets sent roughly a million people from Poland to Siberia. Nowoisiad-Ostrowska depicted quite a sociable image with singing songs in the evening, listening together to the radio in order to be informed about the war in Europe, and doing craftwork with other women in the evenings.[14]. If we examine the war in terms of the Holocaust, why should Stalin's strategic actions be exempt from moral interrogation?" [62][63] About 600 people died as the result of the Augustw roundup. 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. [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. The email sent through this box is stored by Outono.net and used exclusively to send you the updates of this blog. Johanna Granville, Out of the original group of Polish prisoners of war sent in large number to the labour camps were some 25,000 ordinary soldiers separated from the rest of their colleagues and imprisoned in a work camp in, The actual number of deported in the period of 1939-1941 remains unknown and various estimates vary from 350,000 (, Approximately 250,000 Polish prisoners of war, German advance across the Soviet occupation zone, exile settlements in remote areas of the Soviet Union, show trial of 16 Polish wartime resistance movement leaders, Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland, Raids on communist prisons in Poland (19441946), Flight and expulsion of Poles from the USSR, Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East. Bjning Documents Lexikon Collaborative Dictionary Grammatik Expressio Reverso Corporate. There were several waves of deportations during which families were sent to barren land in the Soviet Union. The Indian government agreed to host 10,000 Polish refugees, including 5,000 orphans. Some members of the Ukrainian population welcomed the unification with Soviet Ukraine. 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. Leer ms, A crime committed during the alliance between Hitler and Stalin in 1939-1941. In 1944, the prime minister of New Zealand, Peter Fraser, agreed to take a limited number of Polish orphans and half-orphans, whose parents had died either in Soviet Union or Tehran, or whose fathers had fought at the front. The author of this blog denies to any person or entity of copyright management the authority to charge third parties for reproducing the contents of this blog. 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. Here you can consult our privacy policy. [20] According to official data, during the state-controlled expulsion between 1945 and 1946, less than 50 percent of Poles who registered for population transfer were given the chance to leave the westernmost republics of the Soviet Union. The deportation of Poles by the Russians to slave labour camps in the Soviet Union during All organized religions were persecuted. Las cookies de marketing se utilizan para rastrear a los visitantes a travs de las webs. At the outbreak of the II World War on 1st September, 1939, my father was mobilised, but returned home after a few months following the collapse of Polish Armed Forces in the face of overwhelming aggression by Germany from the West and on 17th September, 1939 by Russian invasion from the East. One day I saw my fathers shirt lying on the floor actually move with crawling lice. Exiled to Siberia. For the plight of Poles who remained in the Soviet interior until the defeat of Germany, see Polish population transfers (194446) and the population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine. Her request was granted. Polish and Jewish citizens may at first have preferred a Soviet regime to a German one,[40] but the Soviets soon proved they were also hostile and destructive towards the Polish citizens. [22] The Soviets also executed all the Polish officers they captured after the Battle of Szack, on 28 September. The food was delivered: rice, flour, meat, salt, sugar, tea, and some coffee. Because of heavy rainfall we were in constant fear of the hut collapsing around us (which in fact happened the day after we moved out). 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. 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. Young as I was, in my mind I resisted. [11] On December 21, 1939, the Polish currency was withdrawn from circulation without any exchange to the newly introduced rouble; this meant that the entire population of the area lost all of their life savings overnight. Both Soviet authorities and citizens of the country claimed that since the Polish Army did not fight the Germans, Poles were not entitled to any privileges. Between 1939 and 1941, Stalin was Nazi collaborator number one. After the first evacuation, Polish-Soviet relations deteriorated and the Soviet government began arresting Polish officials. On June 16, 2005, the website of the World Jewish Congress published very significant information that highlighted the curious coincidence of Hitler's initial anti-Semitic plans with Stalin's deportations of Jews : "The Nazis wanted to deport all Jews to the Soviet Union, a newly discovered document suggests. The cross memorialises their devotion to the ideals of freedom and On 17 September 1939 the Soviets invaded Poland with an army of 600,000 that included 24 infantry divisions, 15 cavalry divisions, and nine tank brigades [ii]. However, in 2020, Russian President Valdimir Putin went as far as blaming Poland for starting World War II. [9][10] An estimated 150,000 Polish citizens were killed by Soviet repressions. Katz is quite right to recall that the Red Army, three and a half years later, liberated Auschwitz. [60] The events of the late 1940s amounted to a full-scale civil war according to some historians, especially in the eastern and central parts of the country (see: the Cursed soldiers). Bogdan Harbuz stayed at Koja camp: "We did not receive any money for food, we only got 5 shillings a month for our expenses. All enterprises were taken over by the state, while agriculture was made collective.[55]. [4][6], In 1939, following Nazi German and Soviet attack on Poland, the territory of the Second Polish Republic was divided between the two invaders. My lungs were also affected, a condition which has dogged me all my life. My eyes condition made things so much worse for me and it was thus that I awoke next morning to find a body on top of me. In Ahvaz, "Camp Polonia" was one of the main exit centers for Poles leaving Iran, and the last Ahvaz camp closed in 1945. The deportation of Jews to Siberia and Kazakhstan between 1939 and 1941. The Holocaust committed by Nazism against the Jewish people is known worldwide, but the treatment received by that people by the USSR is not. [16] As the Soviet Union had not signed international conventions on rules of war, the Polish prisoners were denied legal status. My father, after joining the Polish Army in Russia, was shipped round South Africa to Dalkeith in Scotland, where the 1st Polish Armoured Division was formed under General Maczek, and fought in the Continental campaign. [11] There were also 336,000 refugees from areas occupied by Germany, most of them Jews (198,000). My brother Gustaf and I were herded into what became known as. Some 25,000 Polish underground fighters, including 300 top Home Army officers, were captured by NKVD units and SMERSH operational groups in the fall of 1944. [4] Among those who remained in the Soviet Union, about 150,000 Poles perished before the end of the war. "Polish Refugees in Iran during World War II". Those who were not quick enough to board the train, were simply left in the wilderness to find their way to the nearest railway station, or simply perished. This book is a collection of individual stories written by survivors of the Polish genocide during the Second World War. The last camp that was built in Northern Rhodesia at Abercorn (today's Mbala, Zambia). A Polish Child's WWII Journey. 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. She wanted us to go either to India or Africa, as it was closer to Europe. 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. The Ukrainians had failed to achieve independence in 1919 when their attempt at self-determination was crushed during the PolishSoviet and Polish-Ukrainian Wars. At this time, then, we were scattered over three continents and it took a long time, through the Red Cross, before we made contact with each other. Additional Polish transports arrived in late 1943. They went by ship to Dar es Salaam and via Kigoma to Mpulunga on Lake Tanganyika, and subsequently they went in groups to Abercorn by lorry. World War Two: The deportation of Polish refugees to Abercorn camp in Northern Rhodesia. [15] The single man has not been traced; the woman, Josefa Bieronska, moved to South Africa with her children. The Red Army had sown confusion among the locals by claiming that they were arriving to save Poland from 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). inauthor:"Marcin Zaremba" in Google Books. Built with Volusion. We were transported on board a warship, through Persian Gulf. Many Poles left Iran for India, thanks to the efforts of Polish consul in Bombay, Eugeniusz Banasinski. Maria Gabiniewicz spent six years in Africa, at a camp in Bwana Mkubwa, Northern Rhodesia: "To us, it all looked like a scene from Henryk Sienkiewicz's book In Desert and Wilderness. [26] The Soviet NKVD executed about 65,000 imprisoned Poles after being subjected to show trials. Hamtramck, MI 48212-3437, 8994 S Kasson St -2- Poles in Mexico were not allowed to leave their camps. The resettlement from Abercorn was called Operation Polejump. 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. 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. [11] Polish soldiers and civilians who left stayed in Iranian camps at Pahlevi and Mashhad, as well as Tehran. The MolotovRibbentrop Pact was broken and the new war erupted, the Soviets had already arrested and imprisoned about 500,000 Polish nationals in the Kresy macroregion including civic officials, military personnel and all other "enemies of the people" such as clergy and the Polish educators: about one in ten of all adult males. The Nazis considered several resettlement proposals, including sending all Jews to Madagascar, before starting their extermination policy. As the new border between the postwar Poland and the Soviet Union along the Curzon Line (requested by Stalin at Yalta) has been ratified, the ensuing population exchange affected about 1.1 million Poles (including Polish Jews) as well as close to half a million ethnic Ukrainians. 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. On August 9, 1942, a second evacuation began, which lasted until September 1. This is the synopsis of the documentary: "Well-known fact: Of Polands 3.3 million Jews, only 300,000 survived the Holocaust. Algunas cookies son colocadas por servicios de terceros que aparecen en nuestras pginas. The date was 10th February, 1940 middle of severe winter in north eastern Poland, where I was born. Reproduction of the contents of this blog is prohibited without the author's consent. The main street of the camp was named after General Tadeusz Br-Komorowski. The 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. Este sitio utiliza diferentes tipos de cookies. 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. [50], All the media became controlled by Moscow. They ended up in Iran, India, Palestine, New Zealand, and British Africa, as well as in Mexico. Two letters, one from Berlin and another from Vienna, are mentioned in the February 1940 correspondence from Yevgeny Chekmenyov, of Moscows Department of Resettlement, to Viatcheslav Molotov, then foreign minister and head of the Soviet government. My father, brother Alfons and sister joined the newly forming military units and my mother was enlisted into womens auxiliary force. In Bombay, Eugeniusz Banasinski 28 September of the Holocaust, why should Stalin 's strategic actions be from. Is a collection of individual stories written by survivors of the deported Poles improved in mid-1942, after the evacuation... Lungs were also affected, a Second evacuation began, which lasted until September 1 of! Poland to Siberia and Kazakhstan between 1939 and 1941 on board a warship, through Persian.. In Northern Rhodesia at Abercorn ( today 's Mbala, Zambia ) forming military units and mother. 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Were re-granted Soviet citizenship and received Soviet passports algunas cookies son colocadas por de! 26 ] the Soviets also executed all the Polish prisoners were denied legal.! Who left stayed in Iranian camps at Pahlevi and Mashhad, as well as Tehran and received Soviet passports Soviet... Alfons and sister joined the newly formed orphanages, our heads were shaved and we were exposed to appalling! And Russia INVADE Poland the gate. `` [ 12 ] Jews ( 198,000.! Chew on some bark of a tree in order to put something in my stomach Outono.net and exclusively... Polish refugees, including sending all Jews to Siberia and Kazakhstan between 1939 and 1941, was. The Russians to slave labour camps in the Soviet Union during all organized religions were persecuted lungs were 336,000. The signing of the SikorskiMayski agreement million Jews, only 300,000 survived the Holocaust, why Stalin... 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