Stefan Pijarski. Photo made in Iran, 1942. Sybir Memorial Collection

Stefan Pijarski, aged 13, was deported to Siberia on February 10, 1940. He was deported with his parents Piotr and Anna and his siblings: Helena and Roman. Before the war, the family had lived in Ostrówek in the Kosów Poleski district, where Piotr had received land for his wartime contribution. The Pijarskis were sent to the Vodopad specposelok in the Arkhangelsk region (or: Arkhangelsk Oblast). After less than a year, the children were orphaned. The father got killed in the taiga, where he worked at logging. The mother was taken by illness, which she contracted by selling her last possessions to raise money for food for the children. After the amnesty, the children were taken under the care of the newly forming army. After the evacuation to the Middle East, the siblings were separated. They reunited after the war, in England in 1948. Stefan Pijarski settled there permanently. Once hearing about the establishment of the Sybir Memorial Museum, he contacted his cousins in Poland and asked them to donate personal memorabilia to the institution. On the back of the photograph exist is an annotation: 194[…] LT. FROM MARCH RUSSIA. According to Stefan Pijarski, the photograph was taken in Tehran, in April 1942.