Fifty years have passed since the last war. We hear less and less about these tragic events. There are fewer and fewer people left who witnessed our recent history. Among them is a by no means small group of Siberians: people who were deported deep into the USSR. Quite a number of them live in our city. They formed a local branch of the Association of Siberians. Most of them were among the youngest deportees; they were children at the time. Sadly, the older ones have already passed away.
What do we know today about the events of half a century ago? The Polish population deported deep into the Soviet state represented all the social groups living in the eastern territories of the Republic of Poland. The first deportation took place in February 1940. At that time, 220,000 people were resettled to the northern regions of Russia.
The second deportation, in April, affected more than 320,000 people, and Kazakhstan was designated as their settlement area. The third deportation, in June and July, affected more than 200,000 people who were sent to Siberia. The final wave of deportations took place in June 1941 and affected approximately 300,000 people. It is estimated that at least 1.2 million people were transported deep into Russia from the territories that had belonged to the Second Polish Republic before the war. Journeys lasting many weeks in freight cars, amid frost or heat and without adequate food, water or sanitary facilities, led to a very high death rate, especially among children and the elderly.
In the new settlement areas, the Polish population encountered both harassment from the NKVD and signs of sympathy and assistance from the local population. Very often, this help enabled them to survive the first, extremely difficult period of adapting to new, primitive conditions and an unfamiliar environment, without contact with the outside world.
Fifty-five years have passed since those tragic events. The Bolesławiec Association of Siberians, wishing to ensure that the passage of time does not erase the memory of these events, is preparing commemorations of the anniversary of the first deportation, which took place on 10 February 1940. We will inform our readers about the commemorations shortly.