The Klein family in the backyard garden, Supraśl 1932. From left: Aleksander, Jerzy, Joanna, Elżbieta, Edward and Jan. From the Sybir Memorial Museum collection

Barbara Klein-Szymańska: “[pictured] are my grandparents, the Kleins. They lived in Supraśl for many years, having come from Łódź in the early 1920s. Grandfather was Bucholtz’s plenipotentiary (…) You could say that together they created the textile industry in Białystok. In 1935, grandfather stopped working, and he and grandmother were already old (…) They moved to Bialystok and grandfather rented a large house at 42 Poleska Street. It was an almost luxurious house with a large garden (…) And we lived there, my parents lived together with my grandparents (…) I grew up there for almost four years (…).”

In April 1940, the Soviets deported Barbara, together with her Mum and Grandparents, to Kazakhstan. “At 2 a.m. there was a knock on the door. Russian soldiers arrived … They ordered us simply to pack (…). They carried my grandparents, who were already old, on chairs and threw them onto a truck. (…) They didn’t let them take many things, just the essentials. (…) And in the meantime, still, during the night, Grandma’s sister Constance had a heart attack, an hour before they came for us. And she died. (…) At the same time as they were driving us, but exactly at the same time – on 20 April – my Father was shot in Katyn. In the back of the head, just like everyone else…”