Zofia Arent

Zofia was born on 16 October 1930 in Karpiłówka, Sarny region, Wolyn province, Poland. Her father, Feliks Kuczyński, was a forester and worked in the state forests and the family lived in a forester’s cottage. Her mother was Maria [nee Kadłubowska], and the siblings were: Longina, Apolonia, Zofia, Teresa, Weronika, and Mieczyslaw.

On 10 February 1940, Russian soldiers came to their house and they were taken to the train station and then loaded onto boxcars. No less than 50 people were in a unit and they were occasionally given something to eat (oatmeal) and drink. They went to a place called Gorkow. The Russians then took them to a settlement, called Dorowatka, which had about 5 barracks that were located in the midst of a very dense forest. There were nine families assigned to each barrack that had only boards for beds.

Everyone who was eligible had to report to work. This involved logging in the forest. Her father, brother who was 17 years old and sister Longina who was 15 years old, worked at cutting down trees. This was difficult, especially during the winter when the snow was knee deep. Zofia was too young to work but she did have to attend Russian language lessons taught by a young Russian girl.

The younger sister, Weronika was born in this settlement. Their mother had been seven months pregnant when taken from their home.

Food was very limited. There was only a bit of bread for each family and Zofia was the one that usually stood in line for it. A small amount of money was paid to the workers. This helped them to buy some small fish from a barrel, if they were available. You could also buy soup that was very watery and had a couple of pieces of cabbage floating in it. During the warm months, they gathered berries and mushrooms in the forest to try to supplement their diet.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the exiled Poles were granted “amnesty”. A Polish-Soviet agreement was signed by General Władysław Sikorski that allowed the Poles to leave the camps and also allowed them to join the Polish Army being formed in the Soviet Union.

Zofia’s settlement organized some cattle cars for transportation south to Uzbekistan. Again, the conditions were terrible. The train would often have to wait on sidetracks, because of other trains using the track. Sometimes, while the cars stood there, people went in search of food and water, and the train would depart, leaving them behind. They finally got to Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

The Soviets made leaving the Soviet Union difficult for the newly-formed army and for the newly-released civilians. While waiting to leave, the Soviets sent the civilians to work on collective farms. They lived in mud huts, with no windows and a dirt floor. There was a metal stove and a big pot for cooking. Zofia’s parents had to dig irrigation ditches and her sisters, Longina and Apolonia worked in the fields. They were paid with a handful of grain that they had then to grind into flour. After a while, they were given nothing because all of the grain was being sent to the Soviet Army. For food they would go out in the fields and gather clover and pigweed, which they cooked and ate.

Weronika died first. She was 14 months old. They buried her, on a sandy mound in a shallow grave, wrapped in a shawl from Poland. Later, Apolonia joined a youth organization “Junaczki” hoping that this would save her. Her little sister Teresa was sent to a shelter, organized by Poles to try and save at least one child from each family. By this time her parents were very sick with dysentery and hunger. Her brother Mieczysław had joined the Polish Army.

One day, a young Russian came to their hut. He could not believe the conditions they were living in. He told Zofia to come to the nearby town, where he was giving out ration cards for bread. He told her to wear a white kerchief on her head so he could recognize her and give her a ration card. Zofia got 200 grams of bread but as she started back to the hut, she saw a group of children speaking Polish. She recognized one of the girls that had been in the same settlement they had been sent to by the Russians. The girls were going to their shelter and Zofia walked along with them. She wanted to see her little sister Teresa who was in the shelter. The conditions in the shelter were not very good, as hunger were a constant problem. Her sister Teresa was diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis. She was buried in a shallow grave, with a white handkerchief over her face and a small cross, made of branches tied together to mark her grave.

Her sister Longina had been left with her parents who were very sick. She somehow got them to the hospital where they did not want to admit them. Finally, when they saw that each parent was running a fever, they let them stay but they were put on mats out in the garden. Mother died first. A week later father died. People who died in the hospital were buried in a mass grave.

Longina somehow made it to the same shelter that Zofia was in. They finally left that shelter to get to the port city of Krasnowodsk where they crossed the Caspian Sea on an overcrowded cargo ship and landed in Pahlavi in Persia (now Iram). There, they were quarantined and disinfected. Although conditions had much improved, many people continued to die. Longina was very sick, and they took her and many other people to a hospital in Tehran. Later, Zofia along with many of the other orphaned children, were taken to Camp No. 3 in Tehran.

They were later taken to a different camp in Ahwaz. Everyone in this camp slept on the floor, one beside the other in a big hall. They were moved again to a place called Malir where the conditions were a bit better. Next, they were moved to India (now Pakistan) to a transit camp made of tents. From there they continued to their destination, which was in a camp called Valivade, near Kolhapur, India.

They spent five years in Valivade, India. This camp in India held very good memories for Zofia. It was a little slice of Poland for them. They had a church, a hospital, elementary and secondary schools, a lyceum and a cinema run by the local Hindu’s. They enjoyed Scouting jamborees, campfires and other events. There were 5,000 Polish refugees at this camp. Zofia, Longina and Apolonia were in an orphanage with 360 children.

Zofia had completed two elementary grades before being exiled to Siberia. She finished elementary school and 3 years of high school in the Polish refugee settlement in Valivade, India.

In 1947, India regained its independence from Britain and the camp was closed. At that time, Zofia’s brother was in England, so the sisters joined him there. England was not what they expected. They were moved around to many different transit camps and when they were 18 years old, they had to go to work. Zofia’s first job was in a textile factory. Zofia married Zenon Arent, and they had two daughters: Irena and Stella.

Life in England was not satisfying with the constant rain and some people’s attitudes towards foreigners. So, in 1968, they decided to emigrate to Canada. One of Zofia’s friends from the orphanage, Helena Janik and her husband Rudolf, lived in London, so they moved there.