Wartime Experiences of Polish Young Adults

The contributors shared the wartime experiences of their paternal grandparents, Josef Drozak and Mariana Plewinska, who lived in Ostrzeszów, Poland, which was part of Germany prior to Polish re-independence in 1918. Josef had been conscripted into the German army and served at Verdun during World War I, becoming a German army veteran. When World War II broke out, Ostrzeszów was 70 kilometers from the German border.

On 1 September 1939, the family awoke to bombing, and tanks reached their town by 11:00 am. Josef and Mariana had four sons and one daughter. The contributors’ father, Kazimierz Drozak, was the middle brother. Due to Josef’s service in the German army, he managed to stop the German army from conscripting his two eldest sons; however, after Operation Barbarossa, the three eldest sons were conscripted into the Wehrmacht in January 1943, including Kazimierz. Kazimierz was made to sign documentation to say he was German, while a close friend of his was killed for refusing to do so. Kazimierz signed under duress, allowing their family to survive.

Kazimierz was sent to Western France. Previously a painter's apprentice, he was ordered to paint bunkers in France for the Germans. He was stationed in Saint-Jean-de-Luz on the Spanish border and then traveled up to Normandy when the invasion began, marching at night to avoid attention. Upon arrival at Normandy, Kazimierz and his fellow soldiers had no ammunition, and Kazimierz hid from the Germans. He was found by the American army in a barn, and a Polish-American soldier took him to join the Polish forces fighting in the British army.

Kazimierz arrived in Portsmouth and was sent to the Polish army training center in Dalkeith, Scotland. Eventually, his two brothers also managed to join the British forces. All three brothers were given British pseudonym surnames to prevent them from being shot as deserters if captured by the Germans.

After the war, Kazimierz stayed in Britain and worked for the government as a painter and decorator. One of his brothers returned to Poland and was arrested by the communist regime. Kazimierz was advised by his mother not to return to avoid arrest. He settled in Nottingham and managed to visit Poland in 1962. He regularly visited Poland for the remainder of his life; however, his older brother never returned to Poland.

The contributors then shared their mother’s experiences during World War II. Their mother, Maria Wozna, was born in Jasień, Ustrzyki Dolne, which was part of interwar Poland. Born in 1928, she was the eldest surviving child and had two younger sisters.

In September 1939, the Germans occupied the area where Maria's family lived and began detaining people. On 28 September 1939, the Germans withdrew, and the Soviets occupied the town, burning the town records. On 22 June 1941, the Soviets withdrew, and Ukrainian nationalists declared independence. However, on 25 June 1941, the Germans reoccupied the area.

In February 1942, Maria was taken by the Germans for forced labor. She was sent to a transit camp in Krakow, Poland, before being put on a train to Klagenfurt, Austria (part of Nazi Germany at the time). A local farmer, Albert Thomas, "selected" Maria to work on his farm in Feistritz, Austria, as a forced laborer. During her time at the farm, Maria was able to write letters home to her family in Poland.

After the war, Maria left the farm with others from her home village and traveled to Barletta, Southern Italy, to join Polish forces led by General Anders. Maria had sent and received letters from her family until autumn 1944, but her home village was annexed to the USSR and did not rejoin Poland until 1951. Maria was unable to trace her family and lost contact with them. With the help of the Polish army, Maria immigrated to the UK by pretending to be the fiancée of a Polish soldier.

In September 1947, Maria moved from West Chiltington, Sussex, to Stowell Park school, where she trained as a dressmaker. She believed her family to be deceased, as she could not find her parents or sisters after years of attempting to track them down. Maria's family had been arrested by Soviet authorities and deported to labor camps in modern-day Russia in the Ural Mountains, including one sister who was in a camp for seven years before being freed in 1954.

In 1965, Maria's family moved to Western Ukraine, close to where they had lived in Poland. In 1989, Maria made another attempt to trace her family with the help of the Polish Red Cross. At Christmas 1990, the family in the UK received a telegram informing Maria that her family was alive. Maria visited her family in the USSR in 1991; during her trip, Ukraine declared independence, and there was an attempted coup in Moscow, Russia.

Maria and Kazimierz met in London in the late 1940s through the Polish Catholic church and community centers. The couple moved to Nottingham and married in October 1953.