Edgerton's Zofia Bialkowska honoured after wartime deportation

Oct 27 2009 By Barry Gibson

Edgerton woman Zofia Bialkowska honoured by Polish government after wartime deportation

IT started with a bang on the door in the dead of night.

And it ended seven years later when her ship docked in Liverpool.

Now Zofia Bialkowska of Edgerton has been recognised as one of the thousands of Polish civilians deported by the Soviets in appalling conditions.

The 83-year-old was among former refugees who received medals from the Polish government at the weekend.

Zofia and her family were deported from their home in Glebokie in 1941. Their epic journey took in Siberia, Uzbekistan, Iran, Lebanon and Palestine before they reached England, three years after the war ended.

Zofia said: “The way that we couldn’t return to Poland, it pains me.”

She grew up in Glebokie, which today is in Belarus, but back then was a Polish town 40 miles from the Soviet border. Her parents Stefan and Maria were renovating their home overlooking a lake when war broke out.

As the Germans overran western Poland, the Soviets invaded from the east.

Zofia remembers their arrival. She said: “They said they had come to liberate us, but from what? After the Russians arrived there was nothing in the shops and we had to queue for bread. Everything was scarce.”

The Polish population of the town was deported to the Soviet Union in waves. Zofia said: “Virtually everyone in the town was deported because the Russians wanted to cleanse the area of Polish people.”

On June 20, 1941, it was Zofia’s turn.

She said: “The Russians came at midnight, banging on the door and demanding we turn all the lights on. They told us we had one hour to pack.”

Zofia, her parents, grandparents Dziadek and Babcia, twin sister Wanda and younger brother Janusz were loaded into cattle wagons at the railway station.

Zofia, who was 15 at the time, said: “There were 70 wagons with thousands of people from Glebokie and surrounding villages. Each wagon had four levels and we were packed in like sardines.

“There was a big hole in the middle of the wagon where you had to go to the toilet. The food we brought with us ran out after a week.”