Description
Object description
Polish schoolchild deported from Helin, Poland to camps in Archangel Oblast, Soviet Union, 3/1940-1/1942; refugee in Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, Iran, India and Northern Rhodesia, 1/1942-4/1948
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Helin, Poland, 1929-1939: family; father’s military service in First World War and Polish-Soviet War; father’s settling on land at Helin, Eastern Poland; racial composition of area; employment of labour on farm. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Helin, Poland, 9/1939-2/1942: reaction to German invasion of Poland, 1/9/1939; Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland, 17/9/1939; education; continuation of farming; Soviet visits to farming community. Recollections of deportation from Helin, Poland to Archangel Oblast, Soviet Union, 2/1940-1/1942: deportation from family home, 10/2/1940; description of train journeys to Shob’ya in Soviet Union, 2/1940-3/1940; description of camp on River Viled; work in camp; removal by raft to second lumber camp.
REEL 2 Continues: collection of berries in first camp; attending school and lumber work; receiving money from family in Poland; description of accommodation in huts; eating dog and horse meat; supplementing rations; ablutions; opinion of education; degree of Communist indoctrination and attitude of Soviet authorities to religion; how food parcels from Poland stopped after German invasion of Soviet Union, 6/1941; dangers of mushroom picking; use of newspaper for cigarette paper; amnesty for Polish deportees, 8/1941; reasons for remaining in camp until 1/1942; mother’s digging of potatoes; relations with Soviet common people.
REEL 3 Continues: cold weather conditions in camp; problems with mosquitos. Aspects of period as refugee in Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, 1/1942-7/1942 train journey from Archangel Oblast to Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic; living conditions in south of Soviet Union; problems travelling on train; removal to orphanage; joining junior Polish Cadets. Aspects of period as refugee in Iran, India and Northern Rhodesia, 7/1942-4/1948: move to Iran, 7/1942; percentage of Polish deportees who made it out of Soviet Union; move to Karachi, India; attack on convoy by Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-27 in Indian Ocean during voyage from India to Portuguese East Africa, 20/3/1943; move to camp at Bwana Mkubwa Refugee Camp in Northern Rhodesia; education in Northern Rhodesia, 4/1943-4/1948; leaving for GB, 4/1948.