Eugenia was born on 12 March 1939 in the forestry settlement of Choinka, about 3km from Krzywoszyn, about 20km south of Baranowicze in the eastern territories of Poland, which is today in Belarus.

 

Her parents were Antonina Piotuch (nee Barancewicz) and Michał Piotuch.  Antonina was born in 1900 in a 19th century founded Polish Colony called Małe Horodyszcze, south of Baranowicze.  Her father was born in 1897 on the outskirts of Minsk (also now in Belarus). At that time, both these areas were part of Russia.

 

The family moved to Bohusze, closer to Antonina’s extended family at Małe Horodyszcze when Eugenia was 6 years old. Michał was a forest ranger and looked after the forest close by. Eugenia went to a Belarusian school in Bohusze. The Miszanka River was nearby with a flour mill on it. There was a major access road from Warszawa to Barancewicz to Moscow nearby. Antonina had a younger sister ‘Eva’ who was married to Jozef Zywica and they lived in the town of Nieśwież about 20 km away.

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Michal, Antonina and Eugenia were forcibly deported from their home to Siberia, in the first of four mass deportations carried out by the Russians during WW2. It was during the night of February 10, 1940, that the NKVD (Russian secret police) and Russian soldiers entered their home. They gave the family an hour to pack up and be loaded onto a sleigh. They were taken to the main railway station in Baranowicze where they were loaded onto goods wagons. While the door of their wagon was still open, Antonina heard the voice of her youngest sister Ewa calling for her, but the guard hearing the commotion, slammed the door closed. She never saw her sister again.

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The train started and everyone in the car wept and prayed. They travelled for several weeks until they arrived at the end of the railway line in Archangel. Eugenia remembers each person was given fried meat on a stick which impressed her as she had never eaten meat on a stick before. Half of the Poles were left at Camp Dorovatka , and the other half were transported further, with horses and sleds. Eugenia and her family rode all day in these open sleds in minus 40C temperatures, until they reached the camp, Posiołek Połdniewica. Posiolek Połdniewica was located in Szarynskij rejon, Gorkowskaja Oblast. ​

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At first Eugenia’s father worked in the forest, but in the summer he was transferred to building a school and new barracks in the camp. An epidemic of typhus broke out in the spring, and a number of Poles died. They were constantly hungry because a portion of bread per day was not enough. On Sunday, people from nearby collective farms brought herbs and other food products, and the Poles exchanged their surplus clothes for this food. Some local girls later attended a dance in beautiful Polish nightgowns, thinking that they were ballroom dresses.

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After the ‘amnesty’, thanks to the help of the Polish Government-in-exile in London, most families at the camp accepted an offer to travel south by train to where the Polish Army was being formed. They left Posiołek Połdniewica at the end of November 1941.

 

One time on route when the train stopped, Eugenia’s father and a friend went to look for food. They were surprised when they saw sausages on display at a butcher’s shop. They were willing to spend all their money for some sausages. They went into the store, politely greeted the butcher and asked for the sausages. The butcher smiled and said, “Friends, these sausages are made from wood - I have nothing in the store". The two men went outside and couldn’t stop laughing at their mistake.

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Often there were mountains of salt at the train stations and the Poles took as much as they could. In Uzbekistan, progress was slow and the train often stopped in the fields. From nowhere the Uzbeks would appear and they were able to trade one cup of salt for two cups of rice.

 

On Christmas Eve they reached their destination at a station nearest Bukhara in Uzbeckistan. They camped a few days outside the railway station. Eventually they were taken to a collective farm in Wabkent.  Each family was assigned a one-room hut (made of straw and clay bricks), with one door, and no windows at all. Eugenia’s father, Michał found a large piece of glass and installed a window on a wall in the hut. They were sent to work on a collective cotton farm. Their work was to level the farm by moving soil from one area to another.

 

In time, Eugenia’s father went to join the Polish Army and Eugenia had to partner with her mother to move soil which was difficult for her as she had a crippled left arm. There was very little food and life was very difficult for mothers and their children. Therefore when representatives of the Polish Government, opened an Orphanage for Polish children nearby, Eugenia and other children from the collective farm were enrolled.  Antonina and other Polish mothers knew that their survival would be improved at the orphanage as they would receive food twice daily.

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Several weeks later the mothers were asked if they would agree to allow their children to leave the area and make their way to Persia.  Most agreed and many children were separated from their mothers. Eugenia was never to see her mother again. She died in Bukhara probably in 1943 waiting for a transport to return to Poland.

 

A military truck drove the children and their carers to a railway station closest to Bukhara. Then they travelled by train to the port of Krasnowodsk. There they waited a few days near the beach by the Caspian Sea.  Eventually they were loaded onto a ship. There was no normal gangway to board the ship, only a wide plank of wood. The children were very afraid to walk on this plank with a large drop on each side. To help the children cross the plank, one of the carers went across first and then lay down, stretched her hand out, and told the children to crawl on the plank and not look down. This is how they boarded the ship. The children were directed into the ship's interior. It was a cargo ship and it was hot and very stuffy down there. But it was necessary so that the Russians would not know how many children were leaving with the Polish Army.

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Eugenia can't remember how long they sailed on this ship. She was too sick and weak, and she can't remember coming off the ship in Pahlavi, Persia (now Iran). She remembers that soon after arriving in Pahlavi they had their hair shaved - they were bathed and deloused. All children were given a man’s shirt and that is what they wore for the next few days. Their own clothes and often their possessions were burned. They lived in large tents by the sea. The food was good, but Eugenia couldn't eat. She could not even gather the strength to go with her group to welcome General Władysław Sikorski when he visited the Polish refugees on the beach in Pahlavi.

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Eventually Eugenia was transferred to Teheran and placed in the First Camp. Her father was already with  the Polish Army in Palestine. Her father asked a friend who was coming to Teheran to search for his wife, Antonina and their child, Eugenia. It had been nine months since the family had split up. Eugenia’s father told her later that when the friend asked in the camp office whether Antonina and Eugenia Piotuch were in Tehran, he was told that Antonina had never come to Tehran and that Eugenia was on the deceased list. While he was still speaking with the person in the office, a lady entered with a list of children released from the hospital that day. Eugenia’s name was on the list. Her father had found her.

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After many months recuperating in Teheran, Eugenia was sent to Isfahan where she joined other Polish children. Here she lived with other Polish girls and boys until September 1944 when together with 733 children and about 100 carers, she travelled to New Zealand and settled at the Polish Children’s Camp in Pahiatua. Her father eventually joined her in New Zealand after the war. Eugenia remained in New Zealand for the rest of her life.

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Copyright: Smolnicki family

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