podcasts

Marian Mikołaj Jonkajtys from Szczuczyn was deported by the Soviets to Kazakhstan on 13 April 1940, together with his family. A month earlier, the NKVD had arrested his father. When Marian and his family returned home in 1946, it turned out that his

Andrzej Bohdanowicz, known as ‘Koń’ [the Horse], was a legend of Warsaw’s bohemian scene. He was born in the Vilnius region in a noble family, which the Soviets deported to Siberia.

We invite you to listen to an audio documentary entitled Chusta (The Shawl) by the outstanding and award-winning reporter Alicja Pietruczuk from Polish Radio Białystok. The programme tells the story of Elżbieta Smułkowa, a retired professor of lin

Krystyna Skwarko was a teacher her entire life. The happy life of her family: her husband Stanisław, a district judge, and her two children, Staś and Krysia, was interrupted by the war. First, the Soviets arrested her husband and sent him to a labo

Zbigniew Poplawski is 87 years old. He has spent his entire adult life in New Zealand. He was among the 733 Polish orphans who were welcomed into New Zealand society in 1944. He is now a retired surgeon. In 1940, he was deported to Kazakhstan with hi

Krzysztof Renik in a conversation conducted in the early 1990s with Fr Ignacy Pawlus, a Salvatorian who was one of the first Polish priests to carry out pastoral work in Irkutsk, but also in towns and villages tens or even hundreds of kilometres away

Prisoner of Soviet gulags, soldier in the Anders Army, emigrant, and former street photographer of pre-war Bialystok. His collection of negatives, miraculously found over twenty years ago, is the largest single collection of pre-war street photograph

Deportation to Siberia changed her life. Klara Rogalska devoted it to selflessly helping others. For many years, she was an active member of organisations bringing together people deported deep into the Soviet Union and former residents of the Polish

The story of the pacification of small gentry settlements in the eastern lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the deportation of several thousand of their inhabitants to Siberia.