

Bernard CZORTEK
Polish 2nd Corps

Bernard Czortek was born in Warlubie, Poland on 31 July 1926. At the onset of the war, he was part of the Home Army (the Polish Underground). For these activities, he was arrested by the Russians and deported to Siberia.
He was loaded onto a cattle train and travelled like this for weeks, given some water, stale bread, and watery soup, only a few times. When someone died, their bodies were cast out next to the tracks and left there.
When they reached the work camp in Siberia, he was told that this is where he would eventually die, but in the meantime, he had to work in order to earn his daily ration of bread. Children as young as 13 were set to work in the forests – cutting branches from the trees that had been cut down.
Aside from the extreme cold in winter, and extreme heat in summer, he had to contend with hordes of mosquitoes and black flies, as well as infestations of bed bugs in the barracks. There were no medical facilities in these camps, and diseases ran rampant, leading to a high death toll.
In June 1941, Germany turned on its ally, Russia. Stalin then quickly changed tactics and allied himself with the west so that the allies could help him defeat the Germans. This led to the signing of the Sikorski-Majewski agreement that called for the freeing of Poles imprisoned in POW camps and work camps in the USSR, and the formation of a Polish Army in the southern USSR.
The news of this ‘amnesty’ did not reach every camp, but where it did become known, the men and boys soon made plans to make their way south to join the army. For most, this meant walking thousands of kilometres and only occasionally getting on a train for part of the journey. Many did not make it, and those who did were emaciated skeletons by the time they got there. This was the condition in which Bernard volunteered to join the Polish Army.
General Anders was in charge of the army, and he tried hard to get the Russians to provide the food and equipment they had promised. When this became more and more impossible, he negotiated the right to evacuate the army to Persia, where the British would provide what was needed.
The evacuation took place by ship over the Caspian Sea to Pahlavi in Persia (now Iran). The ships that were used were oil tankers and coal ships, and other ships that were not equipped to handle passengers. They were filthy and lacked even the basic necessities, like water and latrines. The soldiers and civilians filled these ships to capacity for the 1-2 day trip. When there were storms, the situation got even worse – with most of the passengers suffering sea sickness.
As part of the 3rd Carpathian Brigade, Bernard fought in the Battle of Tobruk in northern Africa, then as part of Motor Battalion “C” he fought in the Italian Campaign, including Monte Cassino.
In 1947, Bernard emigrated to Canada, signing up for a 2-tear contract working on a farm in Crossfield, Alberta. He later moved to Toronto, where he met and married Margaret, and raised a family. Bernard passed away in Toronto on 22 April 2020.
Copyright: Czortek family