85 years ago, in February 1940, a knock on the door in the middle of the night signalled the start of the deportations of more than one million people from Poland to the Soviet Union. Some of those who survived Siberia eventually settled in the UK after the Second World War.
This weekend it was my privilege to be the guest speaker at the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) in Hammersmith, London. The aim of the event is to raise awareness and commemorate a tragedy from the Second World War: the deportation of more than one million Polish people to the Soviet Union. This February marks the 85th anniversary of the start of this event.
After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, which started the Second World War, the Soviet Union also invaded Poland just a few weeks later, and occupied the east of the country.
In February 1940, families living in the east of Poland were woken in the middle of the night by Soviet soldiers banging on the door. At midnight, 1am, 2am, they were put on a sledge at gunpoint, then taken over the snow to the train station, where cattle wagons were waiting for them. Inside there were no seats, no beds, no toilet, no windows. Nothing except a stove on each truck, but no coal to light it with. They were told that they would be taken to another village in Poland, but it wasn’t true, they were instead taken to labour camps and gulags in Siberia.
The train journey lasted for more than a week. Once in a while they were given watery soup, maybe some bread or cereal. Many died, especially small children and the elderly. Their bodies were just thrown out and left in the snow.
In Siberia, everyone aged 15 or older was put to work. Manual labour like felling trees, digging canals, laying railway lines. 6 days a week, 12 hours a day. Living in basic wooden huts or barracks, often families were separated. And if you didn’t work, you didn’t eat. But there was never enough food. Illness was high and survival was low. More than one million Poles would be deported to the USSR throughout 1940 and 1941.
There are a handful of survivors still alive, living in London and other parts of the UK. They are now in their 90s or older, and around a dozen of them attended the commemoration in Hammersmith, along with family members and representatives from the Polish Embassy.
They had managed to survive the Siberian labour camps and gulags, and had made their way to the UK during the war. Unable to safely return to Communist Poland after the war, they had settled in the UK and raised families here. I was sitting next to one of them, Eugeniusz, who is over 100 years old now. He was full of life and really reminded me of my own grandfather, who was also a deportee.
My grandfather was taken from his home at 15 years old to cut down trees in Siberia. His mother and brother died in the labour camp, but he managed to survive, and when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, he embarked on a journey halfway around the world, via Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the Middle East and India. He became a paratrooper in the UK, and was dropped at Arnhem in Operation Market Garden.
Amongst all the stories about WW2, the Polish deportations remain not well known to many people. At the commemoration, meeting others with similar experiences and shared histories, there was sadness and confusion about why the plight of these victims has not been better recognised and remembered.
But the numbers don’t lie. More than one million Poles were taken. During the war, it was kept secret due to the Soviet Union being an ally. Perhaps it was an uncomfortable truth. The 85th anniversary in February this year is an appropriate time to more widely recognise these tragic events.
Nicholas Kinloch is the grandson of Stanislaw Kulik. Stanislaw’s story can be read in “From the Soviet Gulag to Arnhem: A Polish Paratrooper’s Epic Wartime Journey”. Written by Nicholas Kinloch and Published by Pen and Sword.
Photos: Nicholas Kinloch
