Today marks the 70th anniversary of the arrival of New Zealand's first refugees from Poland. On that day in 1944, 733 children and 105 adult caregivers from war-gripped Europe sailed into Wellington's harbour, among them 8-year-old Jerzy (George) Juchnowicz. They were sent to a camp in Pahiatua, north of Wellington, where they remained for five years and grew to treat it as home. Alina Suchanski tells the story of her countryman now residing in Lumsden.
George Juchnowicz is enjoying a peaceful retirement on the outskirts of Lumsden.
Few of his neighbours know about the stormy childhood experiences that are still vivid in his mind.
George was 3 when World War 2 began, but he remembers the day when Germany attacked Poland in 1939.
His family lived in Brzesc, a town and an old Polish fortress on the east bank of the Bug River.
''I remember the Stukas coming over and bombing everything. I can still see the dead bodies lying in the streets. And I remember German tanks crossing the bridge. Then not long after that the Russians came. My father worked for the Government and he was away a lot. He came home after the Russians attacked and I remember him and his younger brother digging a big hole in the ground and burying some of our valuables there. I bet it's all still there!''
The secret pact signed before the war by Russia and Germany divided Poland along the Bug River: the western part going to the Germans and eastern part to the Soviets.
So when the Red Army reached Brzesc, they organised a joint German-Soviet military parade, after which Hitler's army withdrew to the west bank of Bug and the town was annexed to the Soviet Union.
Soon after, the Russians started taking military prisoners and began systematic deportations of civilians to labour camps and kolkhozes (work farms) in Siberia and Kazakhstan where thousands died due to hunger, disease and cold.
''They rounded up my whole family: my father, mother, grandmother, my brother John, my sister Mary and my younger brother Tony, who was just born.
I remember going on a train and when the first woman died they opened the door and threw her body out while the train was moving,'' George recalls.
More than 2 million Polish citizens, mostly women and children, were forcibly removed from their homes, loaded on to trains and taken to Siberia and Kazakhstan, many never to return to their homeland, among them George's grandmother, who died in Siberia.
When Hitler attacked Russia in 1941, Stalin announced an amnesty setting all Polish citizens free and allowing a Polish army to form within the Soviet Union.
Given permission to leave, most Poles travelled south, getting away from the Siberian winter.
George's family almost reached the borders of China, and then went to Uzbekistan where the Polish army was forming.
Later, when the army shifted to Persia, they made their way to Krasnowodsk on the Caspian Sea and crossed to Pahlevi on the Persian side of the sea.
For some, freedom came too late.
By that time George's mother was very sick and died shortly after arriving in Persia.
His father soon followed and the four siblings were taken into a Polish orphanage in Isfahan, where they stayed for two years.
In 1944, the Polish army was moving to the front in North Africa and Italy and thousands of Polish children had to be moved from the orphanages to safer places.
Some went to Kenya, India, Mexico, Canada, and a group of 733 were invited to New Zealand by the then prime minister Peter Fraser.
A former prisoner of war camp in Pahiatua became their home for five years.
Although their army barracks accommodation was rather Spartan, each child had their own bed with a pillow, a blanket and clean linen.
''It was like heaven on Earth,'' recalls George.
''We'd get bananas, milk, sausages. Nobody even knew how to eat a banana. We tried to eat it like you'd eat an apple, with the skin on, because in Persia we had fruit like pomegranates and huge melons.''
George and his younger brother Tony were in the group of the youngest children that didn't get much schooling in Pahiatua.
But even for the older children all education was in the Polish language.
When the Pahiatua camp was disbanded in 1949, the children were sent to boarding schools and foster families.
The youngest boys ended up in Hawera Polish Boys' Hostel, where they attended school.
Their lack of English meant that initially they struggled, but once they mastered the language there was no stopping them.
After high school, George got a job at The Evening Post and later went to work for the Bank of New Zealand.
He married his camp sweetheart and they had one son.
In 1974 George made a trip to Poland and on his return was employed at Trust Bank.
''When I worked for the Trust Bank I built myself a house in Paraparaumu and I joined the Deerstalkers Club. We came once to Tuatapere on a hunting trip with our deerstalkers club and I loved it so much I decided to shift there. Initially I thought I'd stay there for two years and then move to Nelson, but I was there for 6 years, because I really enjoyed it. It's a different way of life.''
Of the four siblings only George and Tony are left today.
Tony lives in Waikanae and is a retired pharmacist.
As time went by, looking after his Tuatapere house became too much for George, so he decided to scale down.
He moved to a flat in Otautau for a while, and later relocated to Lumsden, where he lives today.
It was George's dream to visit his homeland one more time and he fulfilled it when he went to Poland in May this year for a month.
Now aged 78, he says his bucket list is getting short, but he has one more wish - to spend more time in Krakow, Poland.
''I love that place,'' he said.
