Jozef Bentkowski

Jozef Bentkowski was born to Franciszek and Stanisława (nee Socha) on 31 January 1930, in Osada Belweder, Luck District, Wolyn Province, Poland. The Osada was a small settlement about 200 km south of Warsaw. He was the oldest of the children, including Teresa, Krystyna, Jan, Eugenia, Stanisława (who was born in Africa). There were 12 people in their house, 6 in the immediate family, the paternal grandfather, the maternal grandparents and maternal uncle, and one other couple.

Before the war, Jozef completed three grades of elementary school. In Russia he went to school for a year and half. He then completed a three-year mechanical school program in Palestine and three years of mechanical high school. He passed his final school exam in 1947 and received his secondary school certificate.

Jozef married Leokadia (nee Wiercińska), whom he met at a Polish dance party in London The wedding took place on 10 December 1955. The couple had two children, Henryk and Wanda.

On Saturday 10 February 1940 at around 2 a.m., there was a pounding on the door and voices telling them to open the door. His father opened the door, and Soviet soldiers came into the house. They ordered the men to go into one room and told them not to move. They told the women to pack some things and that we were being moved to another province. They failed to mention that they were to be taken to Siberia. Jozef was 10 years old at the time. The family were taken away on horse drawn sleighs. They could only take what they could carry. Eventually, the Soviet soldiers allowed the men to help with the packing and to hitch their own sleigh. By the time they loaded their things on the sleigh, there was only room for the youngest children and the older people to sit. Everyone else had to walk to the train station, which was about 30 km away. When they finally arrived, they were told that only the immediate family and the paternal grandfather were on the list. The others were sent back. The whole village was at the station along with people from surrounding villages.

They were loaded into boxcars. There were wooden boards for bunk beds at each end, a wood stove, and a hole in the floor for a toilet. After about three weeks, they arrived in Kotlas, a town on the banks of the Vychegda River. They were given one room in a barrack. After a few weeks they were moved across the river and about 100-150 km to the north, to a sawmill settlement called Harytonovo. They and three other families were put in a house with three rooms. They had one small room for 7 people. There were no cooking facilities but eventually one family was moved out and their room was enlarged, and a cooking stove was built.

Jozef was sent to school. About this time, conditions began to deteriorate. They had to start selling everything they had to buy food. His father worked in a sawmill while other men worked in the forest cutting trees. His mother worked at loading sand on rail cars. The sand was used as a base on which to lay railway tracks. If, during the winter, temperatures went below minus 40C, people did not have to go to work.

Jozef did not go the school for the 1941-1942 school year. His job was to make sure that they got enough bread to feed the family even though the bread was rationed. He had to stand in line, usually starting at about 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning and temperatures were minus 20 C to 30 C in the winter.

There were two stores and a diner in their settlement. There was not much to buy in the stores, other than bread. During the summer months, they would go into the forest and pick blueberries and cranberries, which Jozef would then sell to the river- boats that stopped by for supplies when sailing up the Vychegda River. His grandfather died in Harytonovo.

After Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the Polish government-in-exile in London made an agreement with the Soviets. An “amnesty” was declared for all the Polish prisoners of war and deportees, and a new Polish Army was to be formed in the southern areas of the Soviet Union.

The family started their journey south to Kuybyshev. First, they took a boat to Kotlas. Once there they boarded a train that was transporting ex-war prisoners and deportees who were going south to join the Polish Army. They never reached Kubyshev but ended up in Uzbekistan.

They were moved from one collective farm to another, working on cotton farms, and also at preparing rice paddies. This was the worst time for them, as they had no food. They often ate livestock fodder, as this was all that was available. One day after eating the livestock fodder, Jozef became very sick. For three days he could not eat anything. Going to the hospital was like signing your death sentence so he stayed with his family. After he got better, he was very weak and could not walk for about a week.

In late spring of 1942, they left the farm at night and took the train to Kermine, Uzbekistan, where there was a Polish Army Camp. Jozef joined the Polish Army Cadets (Junaks). Shortly after, the Cadets were moved to the nearby town of Narpaj where they were to start school.

Later that summer all the Polish soldiers and their families were evacuated to Persia (now Iran). The Polish Cadets were evacuated to Persia later. His family left the Soviet Union on the last ship that transported Poles across the Caspian Sea from the Soviet Union to Persia.

When Jozef arrived in Persia, he saw his family before his mother, father, two sisters and brother were moved to Africa, where they stayed until the end of the war. The Cadets stayed in Pahlevi for a few weeks and then were transported to Tehran. From Tehran, they travelled through Iraq and arrived in Palestine where they attended school. Jozef attended a mechanical school and was stationed at Rafah and Beit-Nabal. In 1945, Jozef received his certificate in general mechanics and was transferred to a Secondary Mechanical School in Kiriat-Motzkin. After the 1947 school year, they were moved to England. Jozef left the army and spent 5 years in England working at a number of different jobs.

On 29 February 1952, Jozef left England and came to London, Ontario. Once in London, he worked at several jobs including a Volkswagen dealership in auto-body repair. Finally, he joined the Ford Motor Company in Oakville and then in St. Thomas where he was a supervisor until he retired on 31 July 1989.

Jozef joined the Polish Veterans Association (SPK) in 1952, and served as treasurer, secretary, host, vice-president, and on the audit committee. He also served on the church building committee and on the building committee for Polonia Towers. He was a member of the Parish Council at Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish for many years, as well as an active member of KPH (Friends of the Polish Scouting) to which his children belonged.

Joseph Bentkowski passed away in London, Ontario on 21 February 2024, in his 95th year.