The Mielnik family in the backyard garden. From the Sybir Memorial Museum collection

The Mielnik family lived in Białystok before the war. The father of the family, Stanisław Józef, worked as a teacher in Dojlidy Górne near Białystok. In August 1939, he was mobilised. He was shot dead by the Soviets on 26 September 1939. A Soviet aviator and his wife were accommodated in the Mielniks’ house at 9 Jagiellońska Street. Olga was interrogated several times by the NKVD and, finally, in the spring of 1940, she was sentenced and evicted with her son Andrzej. She took up residence in the village of Boguszówka outside Grodno. After an appeal had been heard, the Mielniks returned home, but only for a short time. In June 1941, they were deported deep into the USSR. Initially, they were sent to the Altai Krai; after the Sikorski-Mayski agreement was signed, they moved to Barnaul, and later to Dzhambul. Olga and her son managed to leave the Soviet Union in 1942. They were evacuated to the Middle East, where Andrzej attended a young soldier school. In late 1943, Mielnik was sent to the Polish Technical School for Minors at RAF Halton base in the UK. Here, he underwent several years of training, after which he joined the RAF. He took part in combat flights against communist guerrillas in Malaya. After the outbreak of the Korean War, he was sent to the Australian RAAF base Iwakuni in Japan, from where he made search flights for submarines and mines. In 1953, he retired to civilian life.