Zofia Niezgarska was born near Augustów on 7 November 1940. At the age of 7 months, she was deported to Siberia with her mother Eugenia on 22 June 1941.

 

They were transported by cattle wagons to a barrack in Krasnoyarsk Kraj near the town of Abakan. After the ‘amnesty’ they moved to Montenegro in the Balkans where they remained until they were repatriated to Poland in 1946. Eugenia could sew, and they managed to get food thanks to that skill. Her mother gave up almost all her underwear and dresses to get milk for little Zofia.

 

A big green, woolly shawl was the one possession which her mother did not want to turn into food. She covered her little daughter with this shawl and after 5 years of deportation she brought it from Siberia to Poland, where it continued to serve her mother and, after her death, it has served her to this day. Zofia recently donated the shawl and some photos to the Sybirak Association in Walbrzych, Poland.