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 labour camp, and then deported the rest of the family to Siberia (to Krasnoyarsk). From 1942, she ran Polish educational institutions: first in Isfahan, Iran, and then in Pahiatua, New Zealand. Although her descendants remained in the ‘land of the Kiwis’ forever, in Sokółka, the Skwark family is still remembered in their former home…
Dominika Dębska’s report from the Polish Radio Białystok Reportage and Documentary Studio tells the story of the vicissitudes of a family from Sokółka who, although living on the other side of the world, still live for Poland. The radio premiere of the report took place on 14 September 2025 at 6:05 p.m. on the https://swiatsybiru.pl/pl/podkasty/ website and on Polish Radio Białystok.
The material for the report was collected during two expeditions to New Zealand by employees of the Siberian Memorial Museum, organised by the ‘Widok’ Cultural Education Association as part of the ‘Polonika’ projects of the Polish Cultural Heritage Institute Abroad, co-financed by the city of Białystok.
The reportage ‘Letters from a Lost Paradise’ won first prize in the traditional media category in the 20th edition of the Senate Marshal’s Award Competition for Polish and Polish diaspora journalists in 2025.