Poland’s Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression and the national Association of Siberian Deportees plan commemorative events from October 7–10 honoring civilians and soldiers who perished in camps, from disease and exhaustion, and those of Gen. Władysław Anders’ army buried in wartime cemeteries.
The mission is led by office chief Lech Parell and includes surviving “Sybiraks”—many deported as infants—along with their families, representatives of Katyń and Police Families associations, clergy, senators, and members of the Polish Armed Forces with an honor guard.
“2025 marks 85 years since great Soviet crimes against the Polish nation,” Parell said, citing the Katyń massacre and mass deportations.
“We want this memory to endure,” he added, noting the delegation will visit key Polish sites of remembrance—especially war cemeteries—and meet Polish communities as well as Kazakh and Uzbek partners. “We will share what happened 85 years ago and listen to their stories,” he said.
Asked about the Soviet aim, Parell said it mirrored Katyń: the attempt to “eliminate the Polish element” deemed irredeemable—scattering the strong and letting the weak perish—while exploiting Polish skills in kolkhozes, sovkhozes and forestry. He called the deportations a campaign “targeted at the most valuable Polish element in the East,” stressing the importance of ties with descendants of exiles who today play meaningful roles in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The delegation will honor victims at four cemeteries in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
During World War II, the USSR carried out four major deportation waves of Polish citizens. The first, on the night of February 9–10, 1940, removed 140,000 people—mainly families of servicemen, officials, and forestry and railway staff—from eastern Poland to the European north of Russia and Siberia, including the Arkhangelsk region, the Komi ASSR, Krasnoyarsk and Omsk areas. Subsequent deportations followed on April 12–13, 1940; June 28–29, 1940; and in May 1941.
Conditions were brutal. People were given minutes to pack—often nothing at all—and many died of cold, hunger and exhaustion.
One teenage witness from Volhynia recalled Soviet security men storming his home, destroying religious images and furniture and herding the family to the station “like prisoners,” allowed only “a little clothing and 5 kilograms of flour” for five people.
(jh)
Source: PAP