Siberian Deportees Polish Krolikowski

Stolen Childhood: A Saga of Polish War Children, by Lucjan Krolikowski. 2001

Post-Gulag Polish Refugee Children. Catholic Spiritual Leadership. White Colonialism in Perspective

There are many works about the 1.1 million Poles deported to the Soviet Union in 1939-1941. This one is unusual in that it emphasizes the difficulties faced by Poles, especially children, after the “amnesty”, including that while still in the USSR, subsequently in various nations as refugees, and finally in terms of the difficult postwar adjustment in their new homelands. The author himself was one of the victims.

For a time, many of the freed Poles toiled in the cotton fields of “Soviet Louisiana”. (p. 40). Krolikowski believes that the places the freed Poles were sent to were a matter of continued deliberate murderous Soviet policy: “At that time, none of the Poles knew that all of Turkestan had been for years a center of the most dangerous infectious diseases in the Soviet Union, or that from time to time there were epidemics of typhoid, `enteric fever’, dysentery, and malaria.” (p. 43). In Anders’ Army alone, over 47,000 soldiers died between February and summer 1942. (p. 48).

THE FORMER KRESY DEPORTEES SCATTERED ALL OVER THE WORLD

The Shah of Iran was described as friendly to the Poles crossing his territory. (p. 71). Of the many nations discussed that accepted the Polish refugees (including India, New Zealand, Palestine, Mexico, Nairobi, etc.),

One of the places of permanent domicile was Canada, where many of the refugees eventually rose to high positions. Karol Wojtyla, the later Pope John Paul II, visited them in 1969. (p. 264).

RARELY-SEEN SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

Krolikowski emphasizes Nairobi. The Felician nuns played a major role in aiding the refugees. The priests were very ardent in maintaining the spiritual and moral tenor of their parishioners. (pp. 135-140). They compared parishioners’ spiritual apathy to that of the Israelites following their deliverance by God from captivity. Some priests burst into salacious places of entertainment to shame the participants. One priest even threatened to leave the parish if many more people did not come to Confession. [Would that the Catholic Church had that kind of leadership today!]

LASTING HARM TO POLISH CHILDREN

The refugee children were not easy to teach. Soviet workers, having no incentive to work hard or even to respect state property, had been a bad influence on the freed children. (p. 60). In addition, the children had a persistent distrust of authority because of their experiences. (p. 115). Still, many Poles learned about their surroundings, and some even climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. (p. 161).

NO HOME: THE NEW SOVIET-IMPOSED COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT

The Soviet annexation of eastern Poland, and the Communist puppet state imposed on the rest, meant essentially no postwar Poland for the refugees to return to. Ironically, Communists demanded their return, all in the name of homecoming or family reunion, conveniently forgetting why they were not in Poland and why they were separated from loved ones. (p. 199, 231).

WESTERN COLONIALISM IN PROPER CONTEXT: DON’T BLAME EVERYTHING ON WHITES

Krolikowski reflects on the European presence in Africa: “Increasing nationalism and anti-colonialism make it easy to accuse the colonial powers of exploitation. Of course, the slave trading, banditry, and robbery of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries covered the white race with incredible shame. But the greatest enemies of the black people were the Arabs and the tribal chiefs themselves, who rounded up the prospects, killed off those unfit for sale, and tied the rest to one long chain for the length march to the coast and the ships of white slave-traders…Some good has come…the natives became more educated and now are able to occupy positions in all branches of cultural and economic life.” (p. 172).