I wish I had better knowledge as what my grandpa did during WW2 considering that I was born on Krakow Poland. My family rarely talked about this subject. As a youngster I never asked my granparents such questions and as a teenager we moved to the Greatest country of all. But from what I was told by my aunt, one of my grandpas was from the Lwow region of Ukraine. Before the Russian invasion, this was Poland. He owened a business and as the Soviets marched in, he and his 2 or 3 brothers were sent to Siberia. One died on the train ride, from what I'm told he was realy sick and simply thrown off the train by the Soviets, don't know if true. My grandpa and one of his brothers survided. His job was riding the logs down the river. After the war he moved back to Poland. I guess there is a lot of unknowes. All my life I thought I was 100% Polish untill a few years ago I decided to ask the real questions, such as what grandpa did during WW2. And I also got on my mom's case why she knew so little, and she really got upset. My dad told me that after the war, they did not want anyone in my mom's town to find out about the Russian family connection. WHAT Russian connection I asked. Well, as a kid I do remember having distant "family" members visiting from Russia, but never thought much of it, after all I was 5 years old and this was back in 1978. I guess my grandpa was of Russian descent, but living in Lwow Poland. After seeing the Soviet gulgas, he hated the Soviet state and moved to Poland and married my grandma. After the war the locals hated the Soviets so much that poeple with Soviet descent were at risk with their lifes. I guess grandpa spoke Polish so well that no one ever knew. Wish I knew more.
Hi, Tom Great post. Hope that you find out more about your heritage. I am the (Scottish), England-based, 1st Vice-President of Olga Kaczmar's California website Displaced Persons' (DP) Camps Table of Contents = the world's biggest independent website about 1940's - 1950's Displaced Persons. We are a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping enquirers ...thru our extensive lists of archives, contacts and publications and, often, thru the assistance of other site users...find such information. Why not surf in, check us out and happy hunting? Best..Alan Newark braveheart180203@hotmail.com
The stories out of Poland in WWII are heart-breaking. I've met survivors and they often just don't want to talk about it, which I do understand.
