If today it is very necessary to continue remembering the abominable crimes of Nazism against the Jewish people -especially in view of the resurgence of antisemitism in our society, now disguised as "antizionism"-, also it is to rescue from oblivion the crimes committed by communism against the same people, crimes that do not deserve to be presented, under any circumstances, as a "salvation", since their typology corresponds to some of the the most horrendous crimes that exist. Had these Jews remained in Poland rather than suffering and dying on the steppe or in the gulag, would Jewish resistance to the Germans have been more significant? The Indian government agreed to host 10,000 Polish refugees, including 5,000 orphans. Soviet officials openly incited mobs to conduct killings and robberies (19391945). [48] The result of the staged voting was to legitimize the Soviet annexation of eastern Poland. On January 15, 1940 the Lww University was reopened; its professors started to teach in accordance with Soviet curricula. Nothing looked like Poland, but adults in our camp did their best to emphasize our roots. [5], The evacuation of the Polish people from the USSR lasted from March 24, 1942, for one week, and then again from August 10, 1942, until the beginning of September. These deportations affected not only ethnic Poles (largely Catholic), but also Polish Jews. The documents of the era show that the problem of sexual violence against Polish women by Soviet servicemen was serious both during and after the advance of Soviet forces across Poland. The fourth and final wave occurred in June 1941, deporting 300,000. From Abercorn a single woman with a daughter and a son, whose father had gone missing in the war in Europe, and one male were allowed to stay. The [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. I cannot remember how long it took us to reach port Pahlavi in Persia (now Iran). () The Soviet-imposed myth about "Communist heroes of resistance" enabled them for decades to avoid the painful questions faced long ago by other Western countries." If you have not registered yet, click here to sign up. From the meagre money that my family were paid, we. Polish experts lower nation's WWII death toll. Sanitary conditions again were almost non-existent. [3][5], Approximately 100,000 Polish citizens were arrested during the two years of Soviet occupation. We were brought into a region called Czelabinskaja Oblosc to a place called Czepajewka posiolek hard labour camp. [citation needed] In Uganda, the biggest campswhich housed some 6,400 people, including 3,000 childrenwere at Koja (Mukono District by Lake Victoria) and Masindi, Western Uganda. World War Two: The deportation of Polish refugees to Abercorn "The complex story of Polish refugees in Iran", "Iran and the Polish Exodus from Russia 1942", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evacuation_of_Polish_civilians_from_the_USSR_in_World_War_II&oldid=1096111774, Articles using infobox templates with no data rows, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Over 30,000 military personnel and about 11,000 children evacuated from March 24 until the first days of April 1942, Over 43,000 military personnel and about 25,000 civilians evacuated by sea from August 10 to September 1, 1942, This page was last edited on 2 July 2022, at 11:09. World War Two: The deportation of Polish refugees to Abercorn camp in Northern Rhodesia. [3] Thanks to a remarkable reversal of fortune well over 110,000 Poles, including 36,000 women and children, managed to leave the Soviet Union with Anders' Army. 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. In 1989, the Soviet Union apologized for its crimes against Poland. Exactly 80 years ago, deportations of Poles to Siberia began. They ended up in Iran, India, Palestine, New Zealand, and British Africa, as well as in Mexico. [23], The Soviet authorities regarded service to the prewar Polish state as a "crime against revolution"[24] and "counter-revolutionary activity",[25] and proceeded to arrest large numbers of Polish intelligentsia, former officials, politicians, civil servants and scientists, intellectuals and the clergy, as well as ordinary people thought to pose a threat to Soviet rule. We were mentally shaped by such organizations, as Sodality of Our Lady, and The Eucharistic Crusade. Polska konspiracja na Kresach Wschodnich II RP (Wrzesie 1939 Czerwiec 1941). The Pogrom of Ludmiwka: a silenced killing of Jews at the hands of communists Between 1939 and 1941, Stalin was Nazi collaborator number one. [66], Bodies of Polish prisoners-of-war by the mass graves of the, Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (19391946), Aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Poland, Dismantling of Polish governmental and social institutions, Installing Soviet satellite state in Poland. But this should not make us forget a fact: Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court considers deportations crimes against humanity and war crimes. -5- He was aware that he might be arrested, so he took to hiding in various places, hardly ever sleeping at home. 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. This meant that all remaining Poles were re-granted Soviet citizenship and received Soviet passports. The eastern half of Poland was annexed by the Soviet Union. 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]. There was no supply of water either for drinking or washing. Upon agreement between Prime Minister Wadysaw Sikorski and the government of Mexico, some 10,000 Polish refugees settled in Mexico. After the Polish Army had left the Soviet Union, the attitude of the Soviets towards the remaining Poles worsened. In the first stage, more than 30,000 military personnel and about 11,000 children left Krasnovodsk (Turkmen SSR, present-day Turkmenistan) by sea for Bandar Pahlavi. 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. There were only four toilet facilities on board, so with people and children suffering from dysentery and other stomach disorders, it simply was impossible for everybody to avail themselves of toilet facilities. However, in 2020, Russian President Valdimir Putin went as far as blaming Poland for starting World War II. They were boys and girls aged 14 to 18, who while in Soviet Union were members of a scout organization of the Polish Army. A decisive battle was fought on the banks of river Vistula, just outside Warsaw, when, despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, the Polish forces completely routed and destroyed the Russian army. La ley establece que podemos almacenar cookies en su dispositivo si son estrictamente necesarias para el funcionamiento de este sitio. Anyone who believes that Stalin's alliance with Hitler is irrelevant to the Holocaust must have answers to such questions". In February 1940 the Soviet Union started to deport Poles to exile in Siberia. There were four major deportations: Polish military settlers, policemen and foresters. Families of officers imprisoned in the Soviet Union and Poland, in hiding and abroad. Refugees from German occupied Poland who had not accepted Soviet passports. [9][10] An estimated 150,000 Polish citizens were killed by Soviet repressions. In January 1944, the Polish staff in all East African camps had been reduced. Red Army troops requisitioned food and other goods. Iran and the Polish Exodus from Russia 1942. We were required to carry our own baggage, which consisted of one or two blankets, but I was so weak that I found it incredibly hard to cope. Soon afterward, Moscow began a program of mass deportations of ethnic Poles as well as some Polish Jews, deep into the Soviet interior. Este sitio utiliza diferentes tipos de cookies. My father, brother Alfons and sister joined the newly forming military units and my mother was enlisted into womens auxiliary force. On one occasion when there was actually fire burning in the cast iron stove, the train moved off with such a sudden jerk, that I, standing next to it, put my hand on the hot pipe leading into the roof of the truck to steady myself, badly burning my hand. This is the synopsis of the documentary: "Well-known fact: Of Polands 3.3 million Jews, only 300,000 survived the Holocaust. Approximately 90% of them were non-Jewish Poles, with most of the remaining ones Jewish. 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. (S 6/02/Zk)", REPRESJE 1939-41 Aresztowani na Kresach Wschodnich, "Formy, skala i konsekwencje sowieckich represji wobec Polakw w latach 1939-1941", Represje 1939-41 Aresztowani na Kresach Wschodnich, "Ivan Franko National University of L'viv", The establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, 1944-1949 By Norman Naimark, "Wyzwoliciele czy okupanci? Twelve people in total shared one small room. 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. In an official letter from the British Authorities it was said: "It has been agreed that the welfare work in the Polish settlements must continue and the minimum staff stays to ensure this must be retained." They immediately set about , , , , , , , . Las cookies de anlisis ayudan a los propietarios de las webs a comprender cmo interactan los visitantes con las webs recopilando y facilitando informacin de forma annima. February 9, 2020 April 13, 2021. The arrested members of the Polish intelligentsia included former prime ministers Leon Kozowski and Aleksander Prystor, Stanisaw Grabski and Stanisaw Gbiski, and the Baczewski family. The Ukrainians had failed to achieve independence in 1919 when their attempt at self-determination was crushed during the PolishSoviet and Polish-Ukrainian Wars. While in Russia, says Asher Scharf, protagonist of this lively documentary, I thought, Im going to write a book. About the forced marches, the hard labor, the illness and death, the bedbugs that, like the Soviets, were more clever than we gave them credit for. Asher recounts, When I got back to Poland, I realized I had been in heaven., This thesis is very surprising. Start by marking The Mass Deportation of Poles to Siberia: A Historical Narrative Based on the Written Testimony of the Polish Siberian Survivors as Want to Read: Want to Read saving Want to Read There was a mast with a huge Polish flag, and the White Eagle on the gate."[12]. A Polish Child's WWII Journey. One of the administrators lived in a building that also had a community centre where films were shown. I do not remember the names of towns we went through, but at some point we crossed southern Ural mountains into the southern Asian Russia, the beginning of Syberia. There was a kindergarten, a men's school, a women's school, and a middle school. Fuel for this was cows dried dung which we collected from fields. [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. Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. "[12], In 1942, about 120,000 refugees from Poland began their exodus to Iran from remote parts of the Soviet Union. This book is a collection of individual stories written by survivors of the Polish genocide during the Second World War. 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. [17] Despite political instability and famine in Iran at that time, Polish refugees were welcomed by the smiles and generosity of the Iranian people. Doy mi consentimiento para el uso de las siguientes cookies: Las cookies necesarias ayudan a hacer que una web sea utilizable al activar funciones bsicas, como la navegacin por la pgina y el acceso a reas seguras de la web. We were not first the Poles in Africa. She wanted us to go either to India or Africa, as it was closer to Europe. It lasted until 16 January 1943, at which point it was effectively revoked. [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. There were several waves of deportations during which families were sent to barren land in the Soviet Union. The Mass Deportation of Poles to Siberia, 1863-1880 pp.151-175 Andrew A. Gentes Four thousand Poles were sentenced to the penal labor category of Siberian exile. She would share some of our food with those who were not so lucky. Thousands of Poles took advantage of this, although not all managed to get out, because news did not reach them in time, before Stalin stoped it. Receive the free daily newsletter in your email: The mail subscription service to Counting Stars will allow you to receive in your mailbox a daily email with the new posts published in this blog. After the hell that we survived, Tehran was a different world. Additional Polish transports arrived in late 1943. 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 children and the adults were then transported to the North Island, to a town of Pahiatua, where Polish Children's CampPahiatuawas opened in former military barracks. 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. Some 4,254 dead bodies were uncovered in mass graves in Katyn Forest by the Nazis in 1943, who invited an international group of neutral representatives and doctors to examine the corpses and confirm the Soviet guilt. Other solders rushed through the house looking for hidden arms. We were very poor, there were no jobs, kids had their classes in the open, there were no books." The date was 10th February, 1940 middle of severe winter in north eastern Poland, where I was born. A Soviet gulag near the city of Molotov (today called Perm), in the USSR (Photo: Gulag Museum, Moscow, via. It has been seventy years since as many as 2 million Poles were deported against their will to some of the most inhospitable regions in the world: Siberia, Kazakhstan, and parts of Soviet Asia. The email sent through this box is stored by Outono.net and used exclusively to send you the updates of this blog. A smaller-scale evacuation to Ashkhabad-Mashhad followed, including the large and final group of civilians. The journey was an inhuman nightmare. He was rescued by his co-workers who dug him out with their bare hands. Approximately 250,000 Polish prisoners of war were captured by the USSR during and after the invasion of Poland. This was about one in ten of all adult males. Altogether, in the two evacuations of 1942, 115,742 left: 78,470 soldiers and 37,272 civilians (13,948 children). Either for drinking or washing 3.3 million Jews, only 300,000 survived the Holocaust must have answers such... Refugees, including the large and final group of civilians the meagre money that family. Adults in our camp did their best to emphasize our roots food with those were. In the Soviet Union apologized for its crimes against Poland of all adult males to in. `` Well-known fact: of Polands 3.3 million Jews, only 300,000 survived the Holocaust must answers... 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