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Bozena Chodakowski

Before the German invasion of Poland in WWII, I lived with my family in Miasteczko Krainskie near the Polish/German border.   My father was in charge of the local Customs Office.   Our whole family was evacuated by the Polish government to south-eastern Poland, (my mom, dad, my two brothers and myself) a few days before the war broke on September 1, 1939.  At that time, I was twelve years old.  Though our train trip was interrupted by the German Air Force's bombing near Warsaw, we all survived by getting off the train to hide in the surrounding fields.  Upon my family’s arrival in a small town near Rowno, we found a place to live in a pharmacist’s home.

On September 17, 1939, the Soviets invaded our new town!!!  The Soviets and Germans had signed the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Partition Agreement to divide Poland amongst themselves.  With Soviets in the area, my family reacted by moving to a nearby abandoned estate.  Then in November, 1939, a German Commission vistited our town and requested us to return back to our home in the German occupied territory.  My mother, however, refused to move. She was afraid that her husband would be arrested and possibly executed by the Germans because of his political activities before the war.

In June 1940, a group of Soviet officers and soldiers came in the middle of the night to the barn, our current home.  They took our entire family to the train station where we were taken in cattle cars, deep into Siberia---to a Labor Camp.   At the Camp, my father was daily forced to cut lumber in the surrounding forests.

We lived with another displaced family in a single room at the Camp.  All children were expected to attend Russian-language schools;  however, I found some way to avoid attendance.

By mid-1941, Germany had decided to attack their ally, the Soviet Union.  So the Soviets of course, decided to switch sides and join the allies fighting Germany (Great Britain, U.S.A. and France).  Thus the Polish people who were residing in Soviet Union labor camps and prisons were granted  “amnesty” by mid-1941. This agreement was made because the Polish government wanted to increase the size of the Polish army fighting Germany under British command.

As soon as my parents found out we were free to leave the labor camp, they made arrangements to travel by train to Southern Russia where the Polish army was being formed.  We went to the Fergana Valley, near Tashkent.  My mother fell sick with dysentery and  shocked us all by passing away on Christmas Eve, in 1941.  Then, my father came down with typhoid and was hospitalized in January of 1942.  Upon his return from the hospital, he brought with him a young man, Kazimierz Rybicki.  Unfortunately, my farther died also, by the end of January.  Kazimierz had promised during my father's illness to look after us three children.  I was 14 at the time, my brother Witold was 13, and my youngest brother Boguslaw was 7.  But little Boguslaw died too, in February, 1942.  I lost both my parents and my baby brother in less than two months!!

Kazimierz arranged train passage for us toTashkent, where the Polish Army was forming. When there, Kazimierz put us in separate Russian orphanages (one for boys, one for girls), and then he had to leave us to join the Polish army.  I never saw him again, but I did exchange correspondence with him for a few years after the war.

Later in 1942, the Polish/Soviet agreement deteriorated which resulted in the Polish Army and civilians being moved out of the Soviet Union to Persia.   All the Polish orphans, including my brother and I, went by bus to Meshhad, Persia.

Soon, the Polish authorities organized an evacuation of orphans to India.  Thus, my brother Witold and I (now age 14 and 15) were placed in a Polish children’s Camp in Jamnagar, India.   Since there were no educational programs for older children, I was fortumately placed in a British boarding school.   It was St. Joseph’s Convent High School near Bombay (now Mumbai) that was affiliated with Cambridge University in England.  Thus, in December, 1946, I received my High School Diploma signed by Cambridge University.

After my graduation, the Reverend Pluta of the Polish Children's Camp in Jamnagar significantly helped me plan for my future.  The Reverend had a brother in Cleveland; thus, he was able to make a connection to the Bernadine Sisters in Reading, Pennslyvania.   The Sisters agreed to take in 50 girls from the orphanage with the intent that some would become nuns.  It was a good opportunity for me to come to America.  I knew that I would not be required to enter the Sisters' order but,  I would be strongly encouraged to do so.

In 1947 I traveled by ship across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco and then by train across the U.S. to Stamford, Connecticut.   When I arrived the Sisters were very helpful in my desire to attend college to study Sociology and not to become a nun.  They arranged a scholorship for me to attend Villa Maria College in Erie, Pennsylvania.  In 1951, I graduated with a bachalors degree.  I then went to Missouri to St. Louis University School of Social Work.  In 1953, I graduated with a Masters Degree in Social Work and then returned to Cleveland to work as a Social Worker at a Catholic agency.

In the meantime, my brother had the opportunity to go to Montreal, but he chose to stay in India. When that camp was liquidated, he was transferred to to another Polish orphanage in India which was also liquidated. He then transferred to Italy and finally to Canada where he was required  to work on a farm for two years to repay the Canadian government's cost of  his relocation.

In the summmer of 1952, I met my husband, Stasys, of Polish-Lithuanian descent.  We were married in the fall of 1953 and made our home inCleveland. We had two sons, Thaddeus and Stanislaus born in 1957 and 1958.  In 1960, Stasys received his Masters degree in Civil Structual Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.  Then in 1961, the Boeing Company was actively recruiting and hired my husband as a stress engineer in the Aerospace Division in Seattle, Washington.

In 1973, my family and I visited Poland for the first time since the war.  Unfortunately my husband died soon after, in 1975.  I still live in our original Seattle home.