Alfons Sobolewski in Italy. Sybir Memorial Museum collection
The Sobolewski family were deported on 20 June 1941 from the Krzyżyki colony near Czarna Białostocka to the Telman kolkhoz in the Dżała-Ałmabad region. Alfons was deported with his wife Stanislawa, brother Adolf, father Walerian and daughters: Miroslawa and Danuta. The girls died in exile. The lorry in which they were travelling to another kolkhoz had an accident. The sisters fell into the water. A cold and later whooping cough and scarlet fever meant that they could not be saved. After amnesty was declared in 1941, Adolf and Alphonse joined the Anders Army and went the entire combat route with it, fighting at Monte Cassino, among other places. Stanisława and her father-in-law were evacuated to the Middle East. After the war, they all returned to Poland.
