Jan Zupa was born on 11-12-1916 in Poland. When the war broke our he was mobilized and he fought in the September Campaign. He was captured by the Russians and sent to a POW camp in Siberia.

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When they reached the work camp in Siberia, they were told that this is where they would eventually die, but in the meantime, they had to work to earn their daily ration of bread.

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Aside from the extreme cold in winter, and extreme heat in summer, they 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.

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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 labour camps in the USSR, and the formation of a Polish Army in the southern USSR.

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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.

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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.

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Anders insisted on taking as many of the civilians that had reached the army as possible. There were 2 mass evacuations: in March/April 1942, and in September 1942. Then Stalin changed his mind and closed the borders. Those who had not been evacuated were now stuck in the USSR.

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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.

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Jan joined the 2nd Polish Corps and evacuated to the Middle East with the army. He later switched to the 1st Polish Armoured Division and was sent to Scotland for training. In 1944, the Division crossed to France, and Jan fought through all the battles of the European Campaign with the Division (France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany) including the liberation of Breda.

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The Division spent 5 months in Breda before moving on to further battles. Jan met and fell in love with Maria de Feber in Breda and he promised to come back to her.

After serving in the occupation forces in Germany, Jan did return to Breda, where he married Maria and raised a family.  Jan died in Breda on 10-11-1987.

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Source: 1st Polish Armoured Division Facebook post

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