Helena was born in 1919 in Homel, Russia, to Polish parents shortly after Poland regained its independence. Homel (Gomel) is now in Belarus, highlighting the ever-changing borders of the Kresy borderlands. Helena spent the first 5 years of her life speaking Russian. In 1935, her family moved to Dubica where Helena completed her education in Polish. She attended girl guide rallies and joined the PWK women’s Military Training Corps. In 1938, Helena went to the University of Lwów where students studied foreign trade, law, geography, and the science of commodities.

 

After Germany attacked Poland on 1 September 1939, Russian troops entered Poland from the East on 17 September 1939. Shortly after, her father was imprisoned and never heard of again. The family were evicted from their property to cramped conditions on the banks of the River Bug.

 

In February 1940 Helena, her mother, and three brothers were transported in railway cattle trucks to forced labour in Kazakhstan. Helena was 21 years old. In Martuk, a large village in the vast steppes of Kazakhstan, she worked in a coal mine, whilst her brothers worked on farms shepherding. They endured poor nutrition, being issued with only a daily ration of heavy black bread and they suffered from scurvy. Sleeping was an ordeal with bed bugs and other insects in the bedding.

 

On the 22 June 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, leading to the agreement between Stalin and Sikorski that ‘amnestied’ the Poles being held in the USSR. Poles were allowed to leave the Soviet labour camps to join the free Polish Army being formed in the south. Helena describes her 2-week long journey from Martuk to Lugowoje where General Anders had set up a recruitment camp and where the 28th Regiment was formed on 28 January 1942. From there the army moved to Guzar where Helena joined the Polish Women’s Auxiliary Service (PWSK). From Guzar they sailed across the Caspian Sea, a perilous journey where the ship almost sank when a terrible storm lasting 6 hours lashed the ship mercilessly. Eventually, the boat docked in Pahlevi, Persia (now Iran).

 

They were free at last! They travelled to a British camp in Teheran and from there to Palestine. From Palestine, Helena was given the opportunity to complete her studies in England and what followed was a perilous journey to England on the RMS Empress of Canada, almost losing her life when a torpedo struck and they had to abandon ship. They spent 48 hours in a lifeboat clinging to life in more ways than one.

 

Eventually they were picked up, taken to Freetown in South Africa and from there sailed to Liverpool arriving on 10 April 1943. From Liverpool, Helena was sent to Edinburgh where she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAFs). On 5 January 1946 she moved to RAF Chedburgh in Suffolk. It was here she met Jan Dziedzic, a Polish Officer who had flown bombers during the war. After marrying in 1947, they settled in Stanstead, Essex where they set up a successful mushroom farm with their family

 

​

​

Copyright: Dziedzic family

 

​