Janina Chodkiewicz-Muszynska was born on 6 February 1930 in Poland. Her family came from the Province of Wilno, in a small town called Prozoroki. In 1939, Janina’s father, Leonard Chodkiewicz (b. 1894) worked in an administrative position with the municipality and was also a part of the Polish Reserve Army, as was common for men at the time. Janina’s mother, Wanda (b. February 11, 1907), stayed at home with her five children: Eliza (b. August 8, 1928), Emma (b. March 27, 1931), Emanuel (b. July 12, 1932), Wilhelm (William) (b. September 25, 1935) and Janina.

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On 17 September 1939, the family witnessed Soviet tanks roll into their town, two weeks after the Germans had attacked Poland. Her father, along with many other Polish men, was taken away by the Soviets for “interrogation,” and was not seen by his family again until September, 1942, in Tehran, Iran.

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On 13 April 1940, the remaining Chodkiewicz family members were deported to Siberia by the Soviets, travelling for three weeks in cattle cars.

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The conditions of the “human cargo” jammed in the cattle cars defies 0description. Deprived of food, heat and the most basic sanitary conditions, thousands perished during the trips. Thousands more died shortly after arrival. The trains did not stop to allow for proper religious burials. The victims were simply tossed out as death trains rolled onward to their destinations.

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The clergy was not among the women and children. They, along with officers, professionals, and others, were arrested in autumn and winter of 1939 and executed in cold blood in early 1940. Thousands of remains were found. Each one had their hands tried behind their back and a bullet in the back of their skull. Some were buried in the mass graves of Kharkov, Tver, the Katyn forest (4,421bodies), Ostashkov (6,311), and Starobielsk (3,820). Thousands of others perished in remote sites, some still unknown. Most of the victims were officers, professors, teachers, doctors, diplomats, civil servants and religious leaders.

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In 1943, the advancing German army announced the discovery of the mass graves in the Katyn forest (West Belarus). The Stalinist regime blamed the Germans for the atrocity. Polish Government in Exile asked for investigations by the International Red Cross. The Russians refused to agree. Successive Soviet regimes perpetuated the lie for 50 years. The British Government kept numb for decades, and indeed strongly discouraged the Poles to make representations or to speak about it. By 1993, the Russian Government, new democratically elected, finally admitted the crime and issued a formal apology.

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The family’s destination was the village of Dolon by the Irtysh River, less than 100km south of the city of Semipalatinsk, close to the Chinese and Mongolian borders. Wanda was soon put to work with the other women at a nearby cement quarry. The family and other Polish deportees around them lived in poverty. While in Siberia, the Chodkiewicz children attended Russian school, apart from the youngest, Wilhelm, who was left on his own while his mother had to work.

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On 22 June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union, altering the fate of Poland and its people, as the two powers had originally agreed to partition Poland between them. With the Soviets now needing manpower to defend the Western Front, Polish men and women who had previously been imprisoned in labour camps, like Leonard, were granted “amnesty.” On 30 July 1941, the Sikorski-Mayski agreement was signed between the Polish Government-in-Exile and the Soviets, allowing for the formation of a Polish army on Soviet territory under the command of General Wladyslaw Anders, who worked to arrange the release of the families of soldiers who were serving in his army.

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Thousands of deportees, walking skeletons, were released from the Gulag and the slave labour camps. As they trekked toward freedom across thousands of kilometers of the barren Siberian taigas and steppes, thousands died of the cold, disease and malnutrition. Buried in unmarked mass graves, the remain there, forgotten by all but their loved ones.

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Out of the over 1.5 million Poles who were exiled to Siberia, less than 10 percent were able to exit with General Anders’ army, including the Chodkiewicz family, who left the labour camp in August 1942, travelling by train to Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan.

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From Ashkhabad, the family boarded trucks and traveled for several days to Tehran, where they were reunited with Leonard. He had been discharged from the army due to poor health and joined the family for the next leg of their journey. Between October 1942 and January 1943, the family traveled by train to Ahvaz, near the Persian Gulf, then to Karachi, Pakistan, then to Port Mombasa, Kenya, and finally to the Polish settlement in Masindi, Uganda, where they lived for the next seven years. Another child, a boy named Olgierd (Alexander), was born to the family in Masindi on 7 July 1944.

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Although the Polish community in Masindi originally operated under the assumption that their population would one day return to a free Poland, this changed with the conclusion of the Yalta Conference of 1945, when American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed Poland’s Eastern territories over to the Soviet Union in a move to appease Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. At the end of the War, the Chodkiewicz family could not return home, and instead opted to emigrate. The International Refugee Organization (IRO) presented the family with three options: Argentina, Australia or Canada, with Leonard ultimately deciding on Canada. Leonard Chodkiewicz did not live to immigrate with his family, however, passing away on 26 May 1948. He is buried in the Polish cemetery in Masindi, Uganda.

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By the end of 1948, the Polish settlement in Masindi was shut down and the family was transported to Koja, Uganda, near Lake Victoria. Soon after, Janina, Eliza and Emma passed the Canadian Immigration requirements, and in August 1949, the three sisters left Mombasa by ship for the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, leaving behind their mother and brothers, Emanuel and Wilhelm. From Halifax, they travelled by train to Montreal, Quebec, and then to Edmonton, Alberta.

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In Edmonton, Janina began working as a domestic worker for the family of Dr. John B. Ringwood, who helped her to take English courses. By October 1950, all three sisters had fulfilled their work contracts as required by Canadian Immigration, allowing their mother and brothers to join them in Canada.

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The family settled permanently in Edmonton. Eliza married Chuck Davies and passed away on 13 September 1980. She had three children: Henry, Edmond and Christina. Emma married Kazimierz Sawicki, a civil servant, and had two children, Greta and Andrew (d. 2002). Emanuel married Janina Pienko and worked as a salesman and realtor. William married Rose Roskewich and worked as an engineer and an immigration official. Alexander married Barbara, and had 3 children: Renia, Teresa, and Yvonne. He passed away on 24 March 2019. Wanda passed away on 4 October 2007.

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Janina married Stanislaw Muszynski,  a former sailor with the Polish Navy, on 23 April 1955. They had three children: Anthony, Wanda, and Marie. In 1995, during the centennial of Polish settlement in Alberta, Janina was the President of the Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Polish Combatant’s Association, Branch no.6. Janina is a member of numerous Polish diaspora organizations, where she held responsible Board positions. In her free time, she worked as a court interpreter.

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In 2005, Janina was awarded the Alberta Centennial Gold Medal for her outstanding contributions to community service for the benefit of the people of our province. In September 2004, she received the Pro Memoria Medal in Poland for her outstanding contribution to perpetuating the memory of people and their deeds in the fight for Poland's independence during and after World War II. Also in 2004, the World Federation of the Polish United Workers' Party awarded Janina the Cross of the World Federation in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the Association's goals. A special event for the Muszyńskis was their 50th wedding anniversary, celebrated on 23 April 2005, with their family and the presence of their beloved mother, who was almost 99 years old at the time.

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Janina is valued among the Polish community in Edmonton as a co-organizer of numerous Polish community initiatives, known for her hard work, dedication, and kind heart.

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Janina Muszyńska has devoted herself to social work for others for over 60 years, which, as she says, gives her a lot of joy and allows her to repay the debt of gratitude to people who helped "wandering children" survive the inhumane time of war and the difficult first post-war years.​

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