As Far as I Can Remember

By Danuta Morgan

It commences with the German invasion of Poland which changed her life forever.
It is the true story of a young girl of ten forcefully removed from her home and country, Poland, during the Second World War , her experiences as she struggled to survive with her mother and brother in the harsh conditions of Southern Siberia, now Kazakhstan, then her journey to safety in the Middle East when she and her family were only able to leave under an amnesty granted by Stalin, the Russian dictator. While her father and brother rejoined the newly freed Polish Army to fight for the Allies, she and her mother travelled through Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran to reach safety. Her mother died in Teheran leaving her to find her way alone to Palestine where her life finally changed for the better.
In Palestine she was educated and reunited with her father who then took her to resettle in England after the war ended where she trained as a teacher and met her future husband, a New Zealander.
After her marriage she continued to travel - New Zealand, Australia, the islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans and finally settled in Australia. She has four children and nine grandchildren and this is the story of the first part of her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Oct 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499026061

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Danuta Morgan.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014918369

ISBN:     Hardcover      978-1-4990-2614-6

               Softcover        978-1-4990-2609-2

               eBook             978-1-4990-2606-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 11/11/2014

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Contents

In Memory of My Mother

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It has been a long time—as a matter of fact, sixty-seven years, a lifetime for some people. I was only 10 years of age, living in Lwow, the second largest city in Poland. It was a summer holiday, so we just came back from the region of Carpathian Mountains, from a place called Lancko. It was near where Dunajec River cut through the mountains called Pieniny, making a break through. It is a wonderful sight, and the native people who live there (Gorale) ferry tourists on the swift river in rafts.

My father was already in the army, and he was called as soon as we came back; he was in the reserve. His army barracks was on Lyczakowska Street, opposite the main cemetery. He was in the Fortieth Battalion. As he was getting dressed in his officer’s uniform, I stood on the chair to put his officer’s belt across his chest. That was in the early morning. Everything was peaceful before the huge storm. My brother came also from Lancko and brought me pieces of material from his girlfriend, Zosia, to make clothes for my dolls. I was and still am very fond of dolls. My mother called me to go with her down the street to order coal for the winter.

As we were walking on Zielonej Street, we saw aeroplanes with the Polish insignia flying overhead, and we were very surprised because we haven’t heard of any manoeuvres. When we came back home, Father rushed in, tremendously distraught at what he saw. The Jews’ section of Lwow was bombarded and, so far, the train station as well. It was a terrible massacre of innocent people. Those planes which we saw were Germans invading Poland from the air, and on land, German forces have marched to Poland that morning.

It was 1 September 1939. Very soon—and I think that it was in the same afternoon—we heard for the first time the chilling sound of sirens, then we heard the even more menacing sound of heavy bomber planes and explosions. Lwow was completely unprepared.

They had four or five machine guns on the roofs of more prominent buildings. Our air force had 142 fighting planes and many handsome well-uniformed pilots. We had cavalry fighting the heavy German tanks. Germans were coming closer to the city outskirts, and people were running in panic away from the constant shelling. The news came that they take young men and send them to their mines somewhere in Germany, so my brother and a few of his friends decided to run away from Lwow as far as they could go. But where? We were surrounded. But Jasio did go away on a bicycle. He did not go very far beyond the city perimeter as the Germans were coming closer. A few days later when he came home, he said that he was hiding in a big orchard from the German planes as they were shooting from the planes’ machine guns as they spotted a person in full view. We were pleased that he was at home.

We were bombarded daily, and the piercing sound of the siren was with us day and night. We would go down to the cellars as quickly as we could. One night after the plane raid, everything was very quiet. I stood on our balcony, which had a view over the whole Lwow, and looked at my city burning. I thought to myself that I shall never forget the terrible scene of how my city was turned into rubble. It was a beautiful city with many glorious historical monuments which had been erected over the centuries. It was the city which was given the name of being always faithful to the Christian religion.

In earlier centuries when Poland was a great kingdom and King Jan Sobieski was on the throne, he gathered all his armies to defend Christianity, his hussars stood like a wall of steel against infidels. Later the Pope at that time gave the city a medal of Semper Fidelis (always faithful), and the city emblem was a lion because people of that city were never afraid and fought the enemies with