extracts
Journey into Exile
AN CHUMKO
Osada Kozciuszków, District Luck

It was not long before we heard very insistent knocking on the door and our worst fears materialised. After entering our house the NKVD officer, assisted by local Ukrainians and Jewish militia armed to the teeth, read out a statement about deportation. He told us to pack our things and take sufficient food and necessaries for about a month's journey. The exceptionally severe winter of 1940 further intensified the ghastliness of deportation.

After being loaded onto sledges we were taken as a family to the railway station in Nieswicz on the Lwów-Luck line. Day was beginning to break as we arrived at the station and it was only then did we realise the huge scale of the deportation when we saw our friends from the osada and other Poles from around the district being loaded into the cattle trucks. With hindsight we now know that this night the same tragic fate befell over 100,000 people, the main bulk of them being military settlers. The next day, as we looked through the metal grille, came the dreadfully sad emotional moment as we said goodbye to our house. With tears in our eyes we sang patriotic songs.