Australians are always ready to help

I am 84 years old, and I was born in Bydgoszcz, Poland. All my family had a love for education. My father was a civil engineer teaching at the Warsaw Polytechnic (equivalent to RMIT).

In 1939 I completed high school while my brother commenced primary school.

In the summer of 1939 the family, including our dog Reda were holidaying in Gdynia; a Polish part of the Baltic Sea when on August 15th my father received an order from the Polish Government to immediately return to Bydgoszcz.

My mother, brother, our dog and I were evacuated to Warsaw to escape the advancing German army. In Warsaw we stayed with my aunt and grandmother. As soon as the war was declared we began our road journey to Romania with the hope to reach England. We traveled by every possible means, mainly by the horse and carriage.
Whilst on our journey we found that Romania had closed its borders. We were stranded. To escape the advancing Germans, we turned east, heading towards the estate of prince Radziwiłł in Ołyka. My great-uncle was the lawyer to Prince Radziwiłł, so we found refugee.

We stayed with my great-uncle until Soviet Russia occupied Poland on September 17^th 1939. With luck and careful planning we headed for Wilno-Vilnius, which had in October 1939 become part of Lithuania. We hid there in Catholic Theological Seminary and then we soon were helped to move to a private residence. We remained there in relative safety. I was able to complete my studies and matriculate at a local high school, till Germans occupied Vilnius in 1942.

Under German rule everybody was forced to work in order to obtain food coupons. I was sent to clean snow off the railways starting at 5AM and finishing at 6.00PM. The work was difficult and it was extremely cold. The advantage of working on the railways was the opportunity to meet long distance train drivers. The drivers always had some food and coal, which they would give us. We pulled the coal behind us on a long wire. If a German stopped for a check, I dropped the wire. The coal was vital for our survival as it was one of the coldest winters with temperatures dropping to –50^oC.

The German command then ordered that all matriculated girls had to report for duty at the German Officers club to work as girls/prostitutes. To avoid this, my Warsaw aunt had organised and paid a German Pastor to smuggle me out of Vilnius. He helped reach Warsaw my dog and me.

Then I spent the next two years in Warsaw. Those were the most difficult and dangerous years of my life. When I ventured out onto the street, I always hid in my shoe a golden ducat (sovereign). The German patrols regularly picked up young people and transported them to Germany for slave labour. I was stopped once but thanks to the ducat was able to buy myself out.

The Polish Home Army (underground army) was constantly working to upset the German army and I helped this effort by distributing leaflets against the occupier. At the time I was given a box to transport. It was a box full of grenades. There were lipsticks on the top layer to cover the content of the box. I was stopped by a German patrol. I was prepared, ready to throw a grenade at them. When the officer believed that the box was full of lipsticks, he took some for his wife and let me go.

Shortly after this episode my father obtained a position in Riga Latvia and moved there with my mother and brother. I then set out to join them with my dog Reda and I arrived in Riga in 1943.

Life in Riga was much better and the Latvians were friendly. I worked as a secretary for the building firm where my father was employed as an engineer. My mother was knitting and selling jumpers to supplement our income.
Later in 1943, the Germans decided that they needed more labourers and the Latvian government ordered all refugees to go to Germany. About 1000 people, mostly Poles were loaded into cattle trucks. I took Reda and somebody provided me with a baby carriage, in which Reda slept all the way to Dresden, our final destination. Everybody on the train knew about the dog and was laughing at the Germans who thought it was a child. Reda survived the war and died peacefully in 1946.

When we reached Germany we were made to undress and forced naked into a bathroom. My father was holding us as he was convinced that we were entering a gas chamber.

We reached Dresden and were immediately sent to a camp in Dresden-Reick. My father and I were forced to work at the railways, until the bosses realised that I had an education and was put to work in the office.

The camp commandant wore a golden Swastika but in his heart he was compassionate and on our side. Necessity being the mother of invention, the Poles had found a way to convert an old sewing machine into a wireless radio which was used every night at 7 o’clock to listen to the London news broadcast. The commandant knew this and he was always in his office at this time. If the Gestapo were checking the camp he would bang his pipe against the water pipes thus giving us time to convert the wireless back to a sewing machine.

Most of us in the camp had to work. Women in the camp including myself had to peel potatoes, so I developed severe infection in my fingernails and they were extracted without anaesthetics. My nails are now artificial.

It’s interesting that most of the German civilian population had no knowledge of the concentration camps. On one occasion, while going to work, police stopped us as a large convoy of women from a camp in Buchenwald was transferred west. A woman standing next to me asked: “who are they?” To her surprise I was able to explain. Generally the people of Dresden were either friendly or indifferent towards us.

During my stay I had to wear a small blue square with a large yellow “P” to show that I am Polish. After a short time the Lutheran church found for us an empty apartment to rent. The camp commandant gave his permission and we moved in. We did not have any food coupons and the other occupants of the house, knowing that we were illegal, helped with food as much as they could. The local shops always had food for those without coupons. One German neighbour took my mother and I to Czechoslovakia were we purchased a lot of food and fruit.

At this time Dresden began to fill with an estimated 150,000 refugees mainly from the east. On February 14th 1945, allied forces bombed Dresden twice in one night, totally destroying the town. We and other occupants of the house moved into the bunker and our house took a direct hit. My father was badly injured, my mother’s hair singed and my brother was left only with the front of his pants. After the second bombing attack, all of us including our animals - cats, dogs, mice etc. were directed to Red Cross shelter where we were given food, clothing, and place to sleep without being asked who we were. I had to carry my dog as the ground was littered with glass and molten phosphorus.

From the Red Cross shelter we were transported west to work on farms. We were instructed to clean the farm of rocks. Our boss, the farmer, was not a bad person. The work was hard but he gave us enough food.

When on May 8^th 1945 the war ended, the US army arrived which terrified us because we suspected them to be Hitler’s Super Army. Over the next 24 hours the US army rounded up all forced labour and transferred us to Plauen. The Soviets wanted all Poles to repatriate to Poland and the Americans capitulated. My father who spoke English explained that not all of Poles wanted to return and the Americans loaded us onto their trucks and send us south to Bavaria. In Bavaria U.N.R.R.A. provided accommodation for students, teachers and doctors in an schloss (castle) called Schwarzenfeld.

My brother, some other students and myself started to explore the castle and in one of the attics we found a real treasure trove: bags full of dried food, mushrooms, onion, peas, beans and big bag of strange green beans – coffee! None of the others wanted the coffee so I started selling it for money and cigarettes. The beans were like gold.

The University of Erlangen near Nurnberg opened its portals to displaced persons. I decided to enrol in chemistry and my brother in engineering. I met my husband at the university and 6 weeks later we were married. The university provided us with on campus living quarters and in February 1947 our daughter was born. Being the only child born into a large Polish population we had no problems finding babysitters.

In 1948, Australia began accepting immigrants and we applied immediately to be as far from communism as possible. In the meantime my father accepted an offer to teach in New York and my parents settled there till the end of their lives. Australia accepted our application but my daughter Helena was too young to travel and we had to wait. I had almost completed my studies when on the 15^th of August 1949 we were moved to Stuttgart to begin the migration journey to Australia.

From Stuttgart we were transported overland to Aversa Italy to await sea transportation. Here we were loaded onto a hospital ship, the General Hahn. My husband was required to work as a painter, while I helped prepare the ship’s newspaper.

On November 13^th 1949 we arrived in Melbourne and were immediately loaded onto a special train bound for the Bonneville migrant camp. On the route, the train stopped at Seymour where the Country Women’s Association has provided a magnificent lunch. The amount of food, especially the fruit was overwhelming. My daughter was offered a banana that she refused stating, “I do not like this kind of cucumber”.

Upon our arrival at Bonegilla we were all segregated: women and children went to Nissan huts and the men to sheds. It’s not hard to imagine the amount of nocturnal migration. My husband managed to construct a cubicle from blankets to afford me some privacy.

Bonegilla was a very hot and dusty place with millions of flies. My husband Eddy had signed a 2-year work contract and was soon sent to Mildura to pick fruit. From Mildura he was sent to Packapunyal army base and then to Melbourne to work for State Electricity Commission.

I stayed in Bonegilla during this time and had a job working in the office as a translator. It was a paid position and the money was very welcomed. At the end of December 1949 all the women were moved to a family camp at Rushworth. I again worked in the office and was given two-room cottage, which was heaven. My second daughter Elizabeth was born at Rushworth on March 1951.

My husband was working in Melbourne earning good wages and with the money we saved; we bought a small bungalow in St Albans. I left Rushworth with my two daughters and moved to Melbourne. The bungalow was so small (a palace to me) that Elizabeth then 6 weeks old had to sleep in an open draw of a cupboard.

The facilities at our home were limited to say the least. There was no water, no electricity, and no gas. The toilet - a veritable hole in the ground - was outside. The nearest shops were 9 miles (15 km) away at Footscray. Getting there was difficult with two small children.

We chose St Albans because the local council permitted temporary dwellings and a large group of Poles had settled there. My husband worked in Newport, approximately 15 miles from home and usually caught the train. On Sundays the trains did not start until after 7AM and my husband had to ride his bike to work. I obtained my driver’s license and we purchased a car, an absolute blessing. I was able to drive my husband to work, as well as drive to get our daily water supply in bins, and do the shopping.

Shortly after this the SEC offered us a house in Spotswood, which was much larger, and we didn’t hesitate to purchase the property. All the neighbours were extremely friendly and helped us settle into our new home. We all helped each other especially in times of trouble. We purchased a refrigerator and a washing machine. This and three more children, made us feel middle class.

When the youngest one started school, I decided to finish my education at university. At that time there was an acute shortage of Math’s and Science teachers, and after completing my studies, was offered a position at the local high school teaching maths and science. I stayed at the local high school for 25 years until my retirement in 1985.

My husband retired at around the same time and we started to travel the world. Eddy is now in a nursing home, close to where I live.

My normal weekly schedule now, consist of visiting my husband twice a week, teaching English to Polish women once a week at Victoria University, and taking part in a walking group club once a week.

From the moment we arrived in Australia we decided to be Australians. Both of us are extremely proud to be born in Poland but we are now loyal Australians. In all my time in Australia I have never had any racial or other problems with Australians.

If I learned anything it was never to ask anyone their religion, how much they earn or how much tax they paid.

Australians are always ready to help. When my youngest daughter died suddenly we received a lot of support from our friends and neighbours. I love Australia, which has given us so much.

My children speak Polish, and my grandchildren understand it. One granddaughter has married a boy of Polish decent.

When I’m asked, “Who are you?” I always answer: “I was born Polish but by choice I’m Australian”.