The next transfer took place in 195559, after Stalin's death. Polish Deportees Cut Timber in a Siberian Labour Camp, 1940 In September 1939, Germany and Russia invaded Poland and divided it between them. Article 7 defines deportation as "forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law.". The NKVD and other Soviet agencies asserted their control in 1939 as an inherent part of Probably all Poles know about this fact, I myself mentioned those deportations here.I have also mentioned the fate of some of the children who survived Siberia here.But I decided today to tell you about Polish connections with Siberia, which began as early as the 16th century, which is why I present, They were so bad that we were continually covered in lice and bedbugs. There we boarded a ship where we were exposed to more appalling conditions. Cedar, MI 49621-5106. The cross memorialises their devotion to the ideals of freedom and The first Poles were deported to Siberia already in the 17th century - they were prisoners in many wars thst the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth conducted with Moscovy, and later the referenced. All Rights Reserved. My family father Adolf Miluk, mother Anna Miluk (nee Szpula), brothers Alfons and Gustaf, sister Nadzieja and I Helena, were just sitting down to breakfast, when there was a loud and urgent knock on the front door. Leer ms, A crime committed during the alliance between Hitler and Stalin in 1939-1941. Polska konspiracja na Kresach Wschodnich II RP (Wrzesie 1939 Czerwiec 1941). My lungs were also affected, a condition which has dogged me all my life. The last camp that was built in Northern Rhodesia at Abercorn (today's Mbala, Zambia). [2] There were four waves of deportations of entire families with children, women, and elderly people aboard freight trains from 1940 until 1941. He was wounded in Germany. [41][42] They began confiscating, nationalising and redistributing all private and state-owned Polish property. The Soviet Union never officially declared war on Poland and ceased to recognise the Polish state at the start of the invasion. That in itself was monstrously hideous, exposing children, women and men to perform their private bodily functions openly. 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. 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. This book is a collection of individual stories written by survivors of the Polish genocide during the Second World War. 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. While drilling in The area amounted to about 200,000 square kilometres, which was inhabited by 13.5 million formerly Polish citizens. [62][63] About 600 people died as the result of the Augustw roundup. Nothing looked like Poland, but adults in our camp did their best to emphasize our roots. Perhaps that is why (in adulthood), much to the annoyance of our children, I developed an absolute phobia for neatness and tidiness. Illnessestyphoid, dysentery, no restrooms in cars. More than one million Poles died a slow death in the gulags of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin or on their long and desperate journeys to and from the camps. 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. 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. Tehran was a gate, through which we were sent, in groups, to different parts of the world. In October 1942, the Director of War Evacuees and Camps of Northern Rhodesia, Gore Browne, expected around 500 Polish refugees to arrive from the Middle East. Young as I was, in my mind I resisted. Because we were travelling in animal trucks, there were hardly any sanitary provisions. [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. [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. -2- Bogdan Harbuz stayed at Koja camp: "We did not receive any money for food, we only got 5 shillings a month for our expenses. According to the proposed legislation, nobody would receive less than PLN 2,400, or 536 Euro. Feature photo: German and Soviet soldiers fraternizing in Brest, where their forces met during the joint invasion of Poland (colorized photo by Mirek Szponar). Click here to login. The chairs of Marxism-Leninism, and Dialectical and Historical Materialism, aimed at strengthening Soviet ideology, were opened as well. 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. Whilst waiting for a boat to take us to India, we were housed in horse stables. The Soviet forces murdered almost all captured officers, and sent numerous ordinary soldiers to the Soviet Gulag. [6][7] The Soviets did not classify Polish military personnel as prisoners of war, but as rebels against the new Soviet government in today's Western Ukraine and West Belarus. Of the survivors, approximately 80% escap La web no puede funcionar correctamente sin estas cookies. World War Two: The deportation of Polish refugees to Abercorn camp in Northern Rhodesia. My brother Gustaf and I were herded into what became known as. They worked as farmers, and their first transport came through India in October 1943 with 720 people, most of them women and children. 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]. [11] Polish literature and language studies were dissolved by Soviet authorities. Katz is quite right to recall that the Red Army, three and a half years later, liberated Auschwitz. 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. The subscriptions of this blog can only be accessed by its author. After the first evacuation, Polish-Soviet relations deteriorated and the Soviet government began arresting Polish officials. Transports of scouts, which went to Palestine, were directed to Camp Bashit. I remember my father was so starlted that he dropped the loaf of bread he was slicing. Its estimated that Polish deportees were held captive in the USSR on average for 66 months, meaning that the average sum to be received by the survivors could amount to PLN 13,200, or around EUR 3000. The resettlement from Abercorn was called Operation Polejump. There are certain moments in ones life that stay in ones mind forever. We were brought into a region called Czelabinskaja Oblosc to a place called Czepajewka posiolek hard labour camp. For any questions or concerns related to this service, you can send me an email through this contact form. Google Analytics campaign and traffic source tracking cookie. "Polish Refugees in Iran during World War II". deportation of Poles to Siberia. At Isfahan Polish orphanage, a children's camp was opened, where 2,300 children and 300 adults stayed and eight elementary schools were created. [14] Their enthusiasm however faded with time as it became clear that the Soviet repressions were aimed at all peoples equally.[15]. It is a miracle that we survived, with thousands dead.[12]. ", The Nazis consulted Moscow to deport the Jews to Siberia. Further Polish transports went to India by sea, from the port of Ahvaz to Bombay. Meantime, my mother, who by then was also in Teheran, found my brother Gustaf and me, and asked to be released from the womens service in order to be with us. The story of the horrifying crime carried out by the Russians during WWII on the people of Eastern Poland wasnt well known and still isnt. How can the forced deportation of up to 1.7 million men, women and children of whom only a third survived not be common knowledge? [37], Deportations, though, continued in June 1944, around 40,000 soldiers and Polish Underground State officials who refused to join the Soviet-controlled Army were relocated to the most remote areas of the USSR. Las cookies son pequeos archivos de texto que los sitios web pueden utilizar para hacer que la experiencia del usuario sea ms eficiente. Hamtramck, MI 48212-3437, 8994 S Kasson St [28] The wave of arrests and mock convictions contributed to the forced resettlement of large categories of people ("kulaks", Polish civil servants, forest workers, university professors, "osadniks") to the Gulag labour camps and exile settlements in remote areas of the Soviet Union. [20][21] On 24 September, 1939, the Soviets killed 42 staff and patients of a Polish military hospital in the village of Grabowiec, near Zamo. Members of the NKVD, Stalin's political police, who collaborated with the German Gestapo between the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the German invasion of Russia on June 22, 1941. [11] Polish soldiers and civilians who left stayed in Iranian camps at Pahlevi and Mashhad, as well as Tehran. Families housed in communal barracks had to endure undescribable living conditions, when people were dying every day from a variety of causes. [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. Anyone who believes that Stalin's alliance with Hitler is irrelevant to the Holocaust must have answers to such questions". 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. Note that you need to include Polish characters when searching i.e. Each camp had its own school, clubroom, and theatre. 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. As a result of the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland (as agreed by the Nazis and Soviets in their pact of August 1939), 1.2 million Poles were deported by the Soviets to Siberia and to other remote places in the USSR. 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. [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. I cannot remember how long it took us to reach port Pahlavi in Persia (now Iran). One day I saw my fathers shirt lying on the floor actually move with crawling lice. You must login to comment. [56] Pre-war Poland was portrayed as a capitalist state based on exploitation of the working people and ethnic minorities. Wanda Nowoisiad-Ostrowska, quoted by historian Tadeusz Piotrowski (The Polish Deportees of World War II), remembered that Abercorn camp was divided into six sections of single-room houses, a washing area, a laundry, a church, and four school buildings with seven classes.
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