It’s been more than 87 years since the beginning of the Second World War, but for Danuta (Donna) Lukomski, it still feels like yesterday.
She was only seven years old, living in Poland with her parents and three sisters a few months into the conflict, when Soviet soldiers arrived at her door with large guns and ordered them to leave their home.
“You have two hours to pack, you take food and warm clothes. If you don’t, you’re gonna die like a dog on the street,” Lukomsi recalls being told on Feb. 10, 1940.
Regina’s Polish community is working to ensure stories like Lukomski’s aren’t forgotten.
A new monument, honouring approximately 200 Polish veterans and the hundreds of Polish people who settled in Saskatchewan after being displaced by the war, was unveiled last weekend at the Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery in Regina.
Danuta Lukomski, left, was seven years old when Soviet soldiers arrived at her door with large guns and ordered her family to leave their home in Poland. (Submitted by Monica Gartner)
On that day in 1940, Lukomski walked out into the cold winter to find horses and a wagon waiting. Her family was put into the back of the already crowded wagon and forced to sit on the floor with only the belongings they could carry, as soldiers locked the door behind them.
“We didn’t know where they [were] taking us,” Lukomski said.
After weeks of travel, the family ended up in Arkhangelsk, Russia, nearly 30 hours North of Poland. They were among more than a million Polish people forced onto cattle trains and sent to labour camps.
Lukomski said her family was forced to work for food — fish soup that often made them sick — while living in a big warehouse with plywood for beds. She remembers scavenging through garbage in search of potato peels that her mother could use to make soup.
Lukomski said they stayed in those conditions for three years.
“We’ve been starving to death and the lice was on us, eating us alive,” she said.
This Polish woman can’t forget how she survived the Second World War
Lukomski said her freedom came when the Polish Army formed. Her father had died, and the family was given a choice of places accepting refugees: Argentina, Australia, Mexico or Africa.
The family stayed in a succession of refugee camps in India and Africa.
Lukomski , second from left in the front group, in front of a train that was part of her trip to Canada after living in a succession of refugee camps. (Submitted by Monica Gartner)
Lukomski said that when she was 16, representatives from the Canadian government arrived at the camp in Africa she was in to offer one-year work contracts to people 17 and up. She was eager to go to Canada and lied about her age to get there.
Lukomski arrived in Canada in 1949 and began working at a farm in Abernathy, Sask., at 17. She later settled in Regina, where she met her husband George and got married at 19.
Bron Nurkowski, chair of the Polish Canadian Cultural Club (PCCC) in Regina, said the new monument was designed to represent a culture that has been passed down through generations.
“The steel symbolizes the strength of the Polish people.… They came here with nothing and they made something out of nothing,” he said. “The circular shape … represents the bond between them and the fortitude to create a home, family and keep the traditions.”
Nurkowski’s father, Stefan, was 13 years old when he was taken from his home in a village just north of Kyiv. Russians took him, his parents and six siblings to a labour camp in Siberia, where they stayed for two years.
Nurkowski said his father joined the Polish army at 16. He later immigrated to Canada, arriving at a farm just outside of Yorkton, Sask., before settling in Regina.
Bron Nurkowski holds up a frame holding his father’s Polish Army medals. (Will Draper/CBC)
Nurkowski said he did not learn much of his father’s story until shortly before his passing in 1996.
“A lot of veterans and people who went through these labour camps didn’t really talk about the story,” he said. “They were horrors that people really didn’t want to talk about.”
Nurkowski said many of those who could pass down their stories have died or are facing health issues. He said the Polish community should continue to learn about their heritage and pass it down to future generations.
Lukomski helped to unveil the monument in Regina on the weekend.
She said she started to share her story publicly later in life. She said she lives each day asking for nothing and thanking for everything.
Lukomski also keeps her story alive through her family. She has six children, 16 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.
Lukomski, centre, was joined by about 50 members of her family to watch the monument unveiling. (Submitted by Monica Gartner)
Lukomski’s message to younger generations is simple.
“All you have to do is just study, because you can lose everything what you have in your possession,” she said.
“Like I lost my house in Poland and everything else. But the education, nobody can take away from you.”
