Wojcik Family

The family was deported from Nieszkowice Wielkie, near Bochnia, in southern Poland. They journeyed by goods train from Równe to Kotlas and then by boat on the Dvina River (four or five days) then followed the river Dzwina north on sleds for about 100 km until they reached Permogorskaya Zapan’ (Camp 108). They arrived in March 1940, having been on the train to Kotlas for 1 month. There were 1,420 people on this trip.

The 1st mass deportation of civilians from eastern Poland was on 10 February 1940. There were 110 trains, each carrying more than 2,000 people. The journeys lasted 2 or 3 weeks. About 250,000 Poles were transported in cattle wagons to northern Russia.

The 2nd mass transport of 330.000, mostly women and children, started on 13 April 1940 on 160 trains to Kazakhstan.

The 3rd deportation in June/July 1940 moved 250,000 to north USSR near Archangelsk, Sverdlovsk and Novosibirsk.

The 4th wave took 200,000 deportees from the Wilno area on a winter journey of 3,000 to 6,000 miles.

The total number of civilian deportees between 1939 and 1941 was around 1,680,000, excluding prisoners of war, including 560,000 women, 380,000 children, 150,000 elderly and sick. By mid-1942 half of these died from starvation, typhus or dysentery.

In addition, there were 196,000 POWs in labour camps, 210,000 citizens conscripted into the Red Army, and 250,000 arrested and sentenced to hard labour in the Gulag.

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.

Four family members died in exile. The rest of the family travelled from Camp 108 to Jalal-Abad and then on to Guzar, Kyrgyzstan and were in Kyrgyzstan for 6 months. Jan Wójcik died on the way to Guzar.

They then went from Guzar to the Krasnowodsk reception depot (now Turkmenbashi) through Turkmenistan, via Tashkent. The journey by bus took 2 days and nights. They waited there for 1 month. (Health Inspectors boarded the trains in Tashkent, on the border between Uzbekistan and Kirgizia to round up the sick for isolation in hospital.)

Between 24 March 1942 and 04 April 1942, the Krasnowodsk depot received 33,039 military and 10,789 civilian evacuees, many dying on the Caspian waterfront, in the last stages of exhaustion.

Survivors crossed the Caspian Sea in batches in Soviet ships to Pahlevi, between 26 March 1942 and 10 April 1942. The journey took almost 3 days and nights.

A 2nd larger evacuation (44,832 military personnel and 25,437 civilians) from Uzbekistan and Kirghizstan to the Krasnowodsk depot took place between 08 august 1942 and 30 August 1942. They were so ill and emaciated, that nearly 600 died on arrival at Pahlevi.

A total of 114,000 exiles passed through Krasnowodsk in 1942.

The family waited in Pahlevi for 2 weeks for transport to Teheran. They reached Tehran via Qazvin and stayed n Teheran for 3 months. There were 4 sprawling camps surrounding the city.

The family was then sent to Karachi, India (now Pakistan) on a 6-day voyage by ship through the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea. They spent 3 months in Karachi. Karachi was a transit camp, about 15km from the port, at one point handling 25,000 civilians being directed to various destinations. (60% women, 10% men unfit for service, and 30% children.)

At the end of 1942, the family sailed from Karachi, across Indian Ocean, to Mombasa, Kenya. The trip took 3 weeks. They then travelled from Mombasa to Nairobi – Eldoret – Namasagali, by train / truck. From Namasagali, north on the Victoria Nile, 36 hours by barge to port of Messinga, then 2 hours drive in lorries through the Bunyoro jungle to the Masindi camp.

Janina was in Masindi for 9 months till September 1943; Jozefa, Maria and Kazimiera were there until 1948. In Janina volunteered for the Women’s Auxiliary of the Polish Air Force in the UK, and left on the SS Amsterdam with around 2,000 other volunteers. It took 10 days to sail from East Africa to South Africa. They were on the ship for 31 days sailing to Glasgow, Scotland.

The Polish Refugee Camp of Masindi was located halfway between the north shore of Lake Kioga and Lake Albert, through which the White Nile flows. 3km of jungle were eventually taken over by the camp, which consisted of 6 small villages, holding 3,635 people.

The camp is located near the Nyabeya Village and now opposite the entrance to the Ugandan Forestry Commission Training School.

Kazimiera worked as a nurse in the hospital in Masindi from March 1946 to February 1948.

In 1948 all the Polish Refugee Camps in Africa started to liquidate. The family went from Masindi to Kampala by coach, to Nairobi by train, then to Mombasa. From Mombasa, the family sailed on the MV Winchester Castle to Southampton. There were 790 Polish exiles on board, arriving in Southampton on 15 August 1948.

Between 1946 and 1949, there were 32,600 civilians brought to the UK - 15,000 from the Middle East and Africa, nearly all women, children and orphans.

The family went from Southampton to East Moor, in North Yorkshire, where they lived in the East Moor Polish Hostel, Sutton on Forest.

The East Moor RAF camp was built in 1941/42, largely on the moor, hence its name, and was situated about two miles from the small village of Sutton-on-the-Forest and seven miles due north of the city of York. The camp itself was dispersed over 14 sites on the west side of the airfield, consisting of large, corrugated metal Nissen huts interspersed with brick-built ablution blocks. After the war the airfield, with its buildings, became redundant and was left empty for two years.

The family eventually moved to Bradford. Kazimiera married Anton Czertowicz, and they had 7 children. Maria married Jan Lewicki, and they had 4 children. Janina married Piotr Migowski, and they had 3 children.

Summary:

Jan Wójcik (b 1895) - died 06/06/1941 in Krasnogorsk hospital, near Moscow

Józefa Gajewska- Wójcik (b1899)

Maria (b 1923)

Janina (b 1924)

Kazimiera (b 1927)

Piotr (b 1932) – died on 06/06/1941 in Permogorskaya Zapan, Arkhangelsk

Stefan (b 1937) – died on 29/03/1940 in Permogorskaya Zapan, Arkhangelsk

Hania (b 1940) - died on 18/02/1941 in Permogorskaya Zapan, Arkhangelsk