“Parted in Russia in 1941, we were to meet again in 1979. I went to California [to visit my brother]; another brother came from Venezuela, my sister, me – such was our reunion, and such were the emotions…” The nightmare endured by Klara and her family began in 1939.

Klara Bauer was born in 1925 in Rzeczyca, in the Homel region. She hailed from a patriotic family, three generations of which had been marked out for deportation to Siberia. In October of 1939, her father, Wacław Bauer, a sawmill manager in Jezior, was detained by the NKVD and sentenced to eight years in a labor camp. The remainder of the family—Klara, her two brothers, sister, and mother—were deported to northern Kazakhstan on 13 April 1940 , ending up at the Krywoszczoki kolkhoz in the Oktyabr district. Awaiting them there was only murderous labor, which Klara would never forget, as she described years later: “In the steppe, near the Ishim River, a huge pit was dug out – into it they tossed soil, straw, and water – and we had to walk around in it like horses in a mill, mixing it with our legs, until they drew blood. We were forced to mix and mix endlessly.”

In the wake of the so-called “amnesty” of 1941, Klara’s brothers and sister enlisted with General Władysław Anders’ Army, later fighting at Monte Cassino. They were never to return to Poland. Klara stayed with her mother and father, who were reunited with the family after release from the gulag. This did not however bring an end to their suffering on the “inhuman land”. Klara was arrested and sentenced to work in a mine, although she was eventually released. In spite of the harsh working conditions in the Kazakh kolkhoz, Klara and her father were able to lend others a helping hand—mostly the elderly and women with children—by way of assisting with daily chores and supplying food. She also worked as a truck driver. Klara made it back to Poland in July of 1946. Never managing to fulfill her dream of studying medicine, for many years she was employed as head of a student dormitory in Białystok, later marrying and becoming a mother to two children.

After 1989, she became actively involved in community activities. She was one of the initiators of the building of the Tomb of the Unknown Siberian Exile in Białystok. She travelled to Kwitok in the Irkutsk region, from where she transported back soil from the graves of Poles who had died in Siberia, placing it in the symbolic Tomb of the Siberian Exile in Białystok. She also supported and organized humanitarian aid for Poles in the East and was involved with the Society of Friends of Grodno and Vilnius. For several years, she served as President of the General Stefan “Grot” Rowecki Historical Club, which operated at the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) Branch in Białystok. Klara Rogalska was fondly remembered as a very warm, compassionate woman, and elegant along with it.

In 2011, she was decorated with the Honorary “Witness of History” Award. For her dedicated work in preserving the memory of Siberian deportees, she was awarded numerous honors, including the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Cross of the Siberian Exiles, the Honorary Badge of the Siberian Deportee, the Cross of the Political Prisoner, the Gold Cross of Merit, the Silver Medal for the Care of National Memorials, and the Pro Memoria Medal. She passed away on 11 September 2016.