Department of Veterans' Affairs
We thought we would go back to Poland. We didn't know that the communists took over Poland and the horrible repressions and the deportation of Poles to Russia and all that especially those Poles that returned, a number of Poles returned to Poland from England and they disappeared. They disappeared. Some came back, two or three escaped but I was very grateful.
Well, I got a letter from my mother she said, "Finish your study before you come back to Poland". I wasn't studying anything and she knew it very well, so, what it meant, you know, don't come back so I didn't and I'm grateful that I didn't otherwise I'd most probably end digging salt somewhere in Russia. Yes, and that's how we came to, the Australian government extended the privilege of the Poles to come, you know because they were Rats of Tobruk and here we came.
See, I left Poland in 1939. By the time 1950 came and I was here in Australia I didn't want to go back to Poland, you know. I had established, and another thing was I was an Aussie here and what would I do there? And another thing is I didn't know where I would start in Poland. We were, well, put it this way, having a common estate in Poland I would have returned to Poland because we had some land like not a great deal, but sufficient to keep us well economically, so I most probably would have gone to Poland but that's how it is. But I am glad that I actually didn't."
