Zygmunt Fedorowicz

Zygmunt was born in Zaleszczyki in the eastern borderlands of Poland on 22 November 1923. He was the youngest of eight Fedorowicz siblings.

In 1940 he and his family were deported to a Soviet work camp in Siberia. The family were forcibly taken from their home at gunpoint, by Russian soldiers. They had been given less than an hour to pack what they could, without knowing where they were being taken. They took what they could carry and had to leave the rest behind.

They were taken to the railway station and loaded into cattle cars with 50-60 other people. This included infants, toddlers, children, teens, adults, and seniors. Most of the adults and seniors were women. The cattle car had two shelves at either end, where people could sit or sleep – the rest had to make do with the floor. There was a cast iron stove, but they soon ran out of wood to fuel it. There was also a hole in the floor that served as a toilet.

They travelled like this for weeks, and were given some water, stale bread, and watery soup, only a few times. When someone died, their bodies were cast out next to the tracks and left there. Many infants and elders did not survive this journey.

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 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, the men and boys 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. Zygmunt was among those that made this harrowing journey to reach the Polish Army.

General Anders oversaw the army, and he tried hard to get the Russians to provide the food and equipment they had promised. When this became increasingly impossible, he negotiated the right to evacuate the army to Persia, where the British would provide what was needed.

There were 2 mass evacuations: in March/April 1942, and in September 1942. Then Stalin changed his mind and closed the borders. Those who had not been evacuated were now stuck in the USSR.

The evacuation took place by ship over the Caspian Sea to Pahlavi in Persia (now Iran). The ships that were used were oil tankers and coal ships, and other ships that were not equipped to handle passengers. They were filthy and lacked even the necessities, like water and latrines. The soldiers and civilians filled these ships to capacity for the 1–2-day trip. When there were storms, the situation got even worse – with most of the passengers suffering sea sickness.

Zygmunt joined the Polish 2nd Corps and served in the Middle East, and in the Italian Campaign. He fought in monumental battles such as Monte Cassino, where he was wounded, and the battles for Ancona and Bologna.

He was awarded Polish and British medals, such as:

the Cross for Valour,
the Monte Cassino Cross,
the 1939-45 Star,
the Italy Star,
the Defence Medal,
the War Medal.

In Canada under the post-WWII Veterans Land Act, Zygmunt settled in a rural community near Ottawa and over the years developed his skills as an agronomist, specializing in soil analysis and creating enrichment formulas to maximize crop yields for the region.

He married Alicja in 1950 and they raised two daughters: Barbara and Janine.

Zygmunt was an active member of the local Legion and enjoyed playing his accordion in the Legion Band for many years.

In retirement years, he was a long-standing member of the Polish American Society of Venice, Florida, where he participated in organizing fund-raising events supporting university students of Polish descent.

In recent years he has enjoyed a peaceful life in Barry’s Bay. Zygmunt passed away on 20 January 2024 at the age of 100 years.