Maria Kralska-Plaziuk

Maria Kralska was born on 8 December 1930 in Chlewiszcze in Eastern Poland. She was the daughter of a military settler from Modlin near Warsaw and had three siblings.

The Germans invaded Poland from the west on 1 September 1939, and the Russians invaded from the east on 17 September 1939. They divided Poland between them. In the Russian-controlled area, the plan to ethnically-cleanse the area soon took effect with the first of four mass deportations to Siberia that were carried out in 1940 and 1941.

The whole family was deported to Siberia on 10 February 1940 by the Russians. 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 in order to earn their daily ration of bread. Children as young as 13 were set to work in the forests – cutting branches from the trees that had been cut down.

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.

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.

The news of this ‘amnesty’ did not reach every camp, but where it did become known, families soon made plans to make their way south to join the army. For most, this meant walking thousands of kilometers 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.

Maria and her family made a perilous 3,000 km journey to freedom via Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, over the Caspian Sea to Persia (now Iran). At this stage, her father and older sister had died, and her elder brother had joined the Polish 2nd Corps in Egypt. Maria, her mother, and younger brother were sent to the Koja Polish settlement in Uganda. Her mother eventually died there.

Maria and her younger brother came to England in December 1948 to join their elder brother who had come to England with the Polish Army from Italy. They were sent to a resettlement camp in Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire. Maria’s first job was in the Morrell canning factory in Lincoln. At a wedding in Ludford village she met her future husband, who was stationed nearby with the Polish Army. She became Mrs. Plaziuk in 1951, and they initially moved to Manchester but eventually settled in Scunthorpe, bought a house and raised two children.

Maria first worked on the land until being employed at Scunthorpe Maternity Home where she worked for almost 25 years. Life wasn’t easy but living in Scunthorpe within the vibrant Polish community, it was a happy time with many happy hours spent at either the SPK Club or at the Polish Social Centre. Eventually, the children married and left home. Maria and her husband usually spent all their holidays with family in Poland.

After her husband passed away, Maria continued to live in the family home, and passed away in her sleep on 10 April 2019 at the age of 89 years.