M y name is Ryszarda Adam-Dolinska-Bardaczewski, also known as Rysia Bardaczewski. I was born in Lwow on the 1st of October 1925.

 

My father was a member of the Polish Army. Consequently in 1940, my whole family comprising myself, my parents, and my brother were forcibly taken from our home and sent to the Soviet Gulag.

 

Being deprived of her medication my mother soon died, and my father was taken by the NKWD Russian police, and together with thousands of Polish officers, was executed in Katyn.

 

During the discussions between the then British Prim e Minister Winston Churchill, the Polish General Sikorski, and Stalin, it was agreed to assemble a Polish Army in the Russian city of Tashkent. Being orphans, my brother and I joined the Army and moved with it to Teheran in Persia (Iran), where the Polish 2ndCorps became an independent part of General Montgomery's 8th British Army.                                                                                                 .

 

I completed high school in Teheran and late r completed Nursing and English language courses and worked as a Red Cross Nursing Sister in a military hospital.

 

I travelled with the Polish 2nd Corps all over the Middle East and met my first husband, Bogdan Dolinski, who was serving as a Captain, in Cairo. We later married in Ital y and then, together with my brother, settled in England after the war.

 

My husband and I had two daughters in England and lived there for 3 years. We then migrated to Argentina, while my brother moved to Canada. My husband died in Poland while visiting the country.

 

In Argentina, I re-married and had my third daughter. We emigrated to Australia on the 4th of March, 1972.

 

In Australia, I obtained employment as a Supervisor in the Dricland Company and later joined the David Jon es Imports office, where I worked for eighteen and a half years. 1 became an Australian citizen in 1976.

 

I have been actively involved in various social work activities ever since my arrival in Australia. I was Vice President of the Polish  Dance and  Song Ensemble "Kujawy" of Sydney upon its establishment in 1976. One year later, I became Kujawy's President, a position I hold to this day. My youngest daughter was a member of the Ensemble from 1976 to 1993.

 

Since my arrival in Australia, I have been a member of the Retired Serviceman League, NSW Branch.

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Copyright: the Bardaczewski family