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Michal SZCZEPANSKI

Polish 2nd Corps

Michal was born to Kazimierz and Zuzanna Szczepanski on 10 October 1916 in Poland.

Michal’s family were forcibly deported to Siberia by the Russians. Travelling in the most primitive circumstances a goods train, it took several weeks to reach the work camp in Siberia. There, they laboured for nearly 2 years, with little food and no medical care.

Released by the ‘amnesty’ that freed Poles who were imprisoned in the USSR, the family journeyed south to find the Polish Army being formed there. Michal volunteered to join the army, as did his father and two brothers. His father Kazimierz and younger brother Mitch were buried in Iraq.

Michal trained with the Polish 2nd Corps in the Middle East then fought in the Italian Campaign, including the Battle of Monte Cassino. He was awarded the Monte Cassino Cross, as well as the 1939-1945 War Medal, and the Defence medal.

After the war, Michal joined his mother and sisters (Janina and Zuzanna) and brother Edward in England.

He met and married Weronika in England and they emigrated to Winnipeg, Canada in 1950. There, he met his wife Weronika and they raised three children. Michal worked for many years in the sheet metal food equipment industry where he was known for his skill in that trade. He enjoyed a long retirement, enjoying the outdoors at the cottage; gardening and picking the bounties of the forest.

Michal was a long-standing parishioner of St. John Cantius' Church. He also belonged to the Polish Veterans Association Branch #13, and was an active member of the St. John's Seniors Club.

Michal Szczepanski passed away in Winnipeg on 19 May 2007. at the age of 90 years. He was buried at the Holy Ghost Cemetery.

Copyright: Szczepanski family

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