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Karol’s mother had been forcibly relocated to Siberia by the Russians in 1940, and Karol was born in Osh, Kirghizia, U.S.S.R. on June 16, 1942, where she had journeyed on her way to reach the Polish army that was being formed in the southern USSR.

 

She and her children evacuated to Persia with the Polish 2nd Corps, and the civilians were then sent to a number of Polish refugee camps around the world.

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Karol and his mother Janina arrived, in Mexico and spent the next two and a half years in a Polish refugee camp in Leon, Mexico, along with half-sister Maria and half-brother Stefan, and 1,500 other Poles who had escaped the Siberian camps.

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The Polish refugee camp was equipped with schools – elementary, middle school, high school, and a technical school; a YMCA with sports and recreational facilities and a reasonable library; a cinema covered by a roof on stilts but without walls; and an open-air theatre. There was a co-op bakery, and a co-op store sold a modest supply of sundries along with foodstuffs from the settlement’s impressive farm. Established in order to make the settlement as self-sufficient as possible, the farm accomplished this with great success, combining crops native to Africa as well as – climate permitting – old favourites from Poland.

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Edward Zwerciadloski of Stonewall, MB travelled to Leon, Mexico, where he met and married Lorne’s mother and the family all journeyed to Canada, to his farm. Karol received his education in Stonewall.

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His career in radio broadcasting began in Winnipeg and continued in Regina, Saskatoon and Calgary.

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Karol passed away at age 60 on June 23, 2002 in Regina, Saskatchewan.

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Copyright: Gaska family

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