Separated by History

"The aim of the "Separated by History" project
is to document one of the most traumatic Polish experiences of the 20th century
– separation of families in the years 1939–1989 due to, among other things,
resettlements and deportations of the war period, political imprisonment, and
the decisions taken in the communist era to emigrate to the West because of
political or economic reasons.

We would thus like to preserve the memory of separated families,
establish a link between the history of the Poles at home and the history of
Polish emigration, and to encourage also the young generation, to take an
interest in the history of their relatives or acquaintances.

Every account and story is invaluable, as there are
no two identical family stories. All of them deserve to be recorded, because
they testify to the vastness of experiences and complexities of life in Poland
and in other countries of the region in the 20th century."

"Maria, the oldest daughter of Irena and Zygmunt Imiłkowski, lived with her parents and siblings – Halina, Zofia and Zbigniew – in Plewno, a village in Pomerania. Her maternal grandparents lived nearby. In August 1939, her father, Zygmunt Imiłkowski, left home to serve in the army. Zygmunt fought in the 29th light artillery regiment at Grodno, from where he returned home after a month-long odyssey."

"The Nazis had a plan to
turn Poles and other Slavs, as inferior races, into slaves. They shut down all
secondary and higher-level educational institutions, as well as cultural ones.
Members of the Polish elite were either killed or sent to concentration camps."

"In December 1941, the Imilkowski
family was deported to a camp in Potulice. Conditions in the camp were
extremely difficult – inmates suffered from hunger, disease, and cold. Worst of
all, however, were the forced separations. First, Maria's father was sent to
work in an aircraft factory. Then, her sister, Halina, who was seriously ill,
was sent to a hospital in Bydgoszcz.
She was so weak that when she returned to the camp, she had to walk with a stick.
Most difficult was the separation from her mother, who in spring of 1942 was
sent to work on the estate of a manor house. A month later, a camp trustee took
Zofia and Zbigniew away. Maria and Halina were left alone.

"

""Then they
drove us to the barrack. It was unheated, overcrowded, cold and dark. Our
family of six received an area of three square meters to share. We lay on bare
ground, on a pallet; there was no floor in the barrack at all. There were
cracks and crevices in the walls, the room was lacking windows. The sloping
roof nearly reached the ground. It was impossible to stand or sit there; one
could only stay lying down. So, all the families lay squeezed together, one
next to another: men, women and children. There was no running water or sewage
system in the barrack. The lavatories were outside. One could walk straight
only in the middle of the barrack.

The
children wet themselves and suffered from diarrhoea; there was no way to wash
oneself or dry wet underwear or clothes; there were lice, fleas and scabies."

"
From the memoirs by Maria Brylowska (née Imiłkowska), "Separation of Family Members as a Result of Historic Events", 2008

""On visiting
days, a lot of people came to the concentration camp to visit their family and
friends. It was crowded on both sides of the barbed wire, people searched
noisily for familiar faces and called out to each other. Everyone had to yell
in order to actually hear. With everyone talking like this, shouting through
the barbed wire, it seemed like it was just one great screaming match. It
was indescribable."

"
From the memoirs by
Maria Brylowska (née Imiłkowska), "Separation of Family Members as a Result of
Historic Events", 2008

""It was a hot summer’s
day when I remember my father coming home. We didn't recognise him. He was
hunched over and looked more like a beggar than the man we had last seen in
December 1941. Father came home in a grey-green American military coat, and he
had another American military coat, this one in a blue-grey colour, in a
suitcase. These were the only belongings he had brought from the American camp.
An acquaintance, Mr Dondziło, who was a tailor we knew before the war, made
coats for us children from these military coats.""
From the memoirs by Maria Brylowska (née Imiłkowska), "Separation of Family Members as a Result of Historic Events", 2008

""I was 12
years old, and I could neither read nor write. (…) After leaving the camp for
freedom, we received no help. (…) That time after the war – almost until 1956 –
was difficult and full of sacrifices for us. But I was happy that I was with my
parents and siblings, and that I could go to school.""
From the memoirs by Maria Brylowska (née Imiłkowska), "Separation of Family Members as a Result of Historic Events", 2008

"After the Red Army
entered Poland, Kazimierz's
unit was ordered to withdraw to Lithuania; where police officers were interned. This was the beginning of a long odyssey
through the Soviet Union. Kazimierz was first
taken north to Murmansk, and later across the Kola Peninsula to Archangelsk."

"After Nazi Germany invaded Soviet Union in June 1941 an agreement between Polish government in exile and Stalin was negotiated. On that basis thousands of Polish citizens were released from prisons and labor camps. Following the agreement Polish Armed Forces in the USSR under the command of general Władysław Anders were formed. Later in 1942 41 000 troops of the Anders army and 74 000 accompanying civilians were evacuated to the Middle East.

When amnesty was declared for Poles in the fall of 1941, Kazimierz volunteered to join the General Anders Polish Army, which was being formed in Tatishchev. In March of the following year, he left the USSR as a soldier. Serving in a military police unit, Kazimierz Młyńczak travelled with the 2nd Polish Corps through Iraq, Iran, Palestine, and Egypt to Italy."

"On 12 September 1942 the
Polish Armed Forces in the Middle East were
established by joining the armies of Gen. Anders and the Independent Carpathian
Brigade – heroes of the 1941 defence of Tobruk. Initially stationed in Iraq,
the troops regained their health. In 1943, due to the Allies’ plans to invade Italy the majority of units were moved to Palestine."

"The largest unit of the
Polish army was the Second Polish Corps (II Korpus Polski), consisting mostly
of units from Gen. Anders’s army. They took part in the Italian campaign in
1944, gaining fame at the Battle of Monte Cassino on May 1944, later liberating
Ancona and
Bologne."

"In August
1939, Franciszek Szwajdler was called up into the army during a family
vacation. Already in uniform, he arrived to bid farewell to his family – this
was the last time they were together.

As a result of the lost defensive war of 1939,
about 420,000 soldiers of the Polish Army were taken to German POW camps –
officers to Oflags, private soldiers and non-commissioned officers to Stalags.
Franciszek was interned and spent the next six years in POW camps in Gross
Born, Sandbostel and Blomberg."

"During the
occupation, in order to support her family, Stanisława Szwajdler, dealt in
small trade, which was strictly forbidden. Several times, she brought things
from the flat in Łódź, which after the outbreak of war, was within the borders
of the Third Reich, and thus presented a huge danger when crossing the border
illegally.

Life in the General Government for the Occupied Polish Territories
was directed by numerous orders and bans – curfew was introduced, people were
forbidden to possess radio set, to visit the places marked as “nur für
Deutsche”, and to trade food. Any violation of law was severely punished –
people might have been imprisoned, deported to Germany, or to concentration camps
– or sentenced to death."

""It wasn't easy for her to feed our growing group! There was a booth with cigarettes where she sold a few cigarettes for which she received a concession, as well as a lot of so-called ‘own-make’ cigarettes manufactured in our house. My small hands were the most suitable for the job because I was the fastest at filling the papers with tobacco. (…) Mummy and Basia made flower ornaments from organdie (brooches, hairgrips) and together, we wove string bags. Włodek, the ‘handyman’, repaired watches, electric goods and made shoes from string.""
From the memoirs by Teresa Rybicka (née Szwajdler) "My Mummy", 2007

"Tragic death of the
nearest and dearest."

"The war's end did not mark the end of the family's separation.
Franciszek Szwajdler could not go back to Poland
for fear of repercussions due to his pre-war political activity in the ranks of
the conservative National Party, which was regarded as a hostile ideology (the
same as all alternative political options) by the new communist authority in Poland."

"Franciszek stayed in Germany after
the war. Later, he left for New York, but
first travelled briefly to Poland
in order to see his daughters. Only in 1956 was he able to return to Poland,
to already adult daughters."

"Julian Stryjak spent six
years in German POW camps. In captivity, he found out that his wife had been
deported to the USSR.
He kept trying to make contact with her. Though he had little success in making
direct contact, thanks to correspondence with a cousin from Różniatowo
(occupied Poland),
he had news about his wife."

"In 1945, Julian managed
to escape during the evacuation of the POW camp in Görlitz. He travelled
through Bohemia, Germany
to France,
where he joined the Polish Army."

"In 1941, Hilaria
Borowska, her mother and her brother Tadeusz were deported to Siberia
via different routes. Only her father, Wincenty, and her younger sister, who
was caring for him, remained in Białystok."

"The Women’s Auxiliary Service formed alongside
the Anders Polish Armed Forces in the USSR, was based on the same
organizational principles and hierarchy as the army. It consisted of about five
thousand volunteers, who performed duties relating to first aid, culture,
propaganda, transport, administration, sentry duties and communication. This
force was disbanded in 1946."

"In autumn 1947, Hilaria
sailed on the "Empress of Australia" to England."

"The Stryjaks travelled
back to Poland
for the first time since the war in 1971 – after a thirty-year absence, Hilaria
crossed the threshold of her family home."

""I am sending a map of my journey there so
that you may get a grasp of it. From Teheran we travelled at the beginning of
April by train (more than a hundred tunnels) to Ahvaz;
from Ahvaz – by car to Basra;
from Basra by a
very small train (with small carriages). The chamsin was blowing all the way;
one could see nothing at an arms-length distance but the whirling and howling
red desert dust. From Baghdad it took us four
days to get to Jerusalem
by car – nothing but desert and black stones, not a single blade of grass. Only
after we had crossed the border with Palestine,did
farmland become visible. In April it was already very warm there; I wore a
light denim uniform – a skirt, a poplin shirt, and short sleeves.""
From a letter by Hilaria Stryjak to her daughter Barbara, April 29, 1975