MARK
GIGIERA (MARK GILBERT)
29th
December 1923 - 25th December 1993
 |
| Mark Gigiera age 21. |
April
1994 - Original text written by: Josephine Ellis (nee Folwell, Jo was married to Mark Gilbert). Jo writes Mark’s life story.
Additional text, written by Dorothy
McNulty, Mark’s lady friend after his divorce from Jo.
Dorothy adds many of the incidents and anecdotes within the life
story.
November
2019
- Edited with
additional text,
a lot of it in
italics
by Katherine
Harpley (nee Gilbert – daughter to Mark and Jo) I
have tried to add some factual dates and history at the time, to my
mother's and Dorothy’s account of my father and to
add incidents and anecdotes retold from
other family members and some thoughts and sentiment on the
situations my father endured. Whenever my father
told his stories, he would recount one incident at a time and for
most of us it was difficult to get the bigger picture, so how lucky
that my mother was able to get it from him and to write it down. We
(Jim and myself) visited Nudyze, Zablocie, Luboml and
Kovel and the surrounding villages in 2018 and again
in 2019. We found Marks cousin Pawel, an old man of 85.
Mark was a youngster when much of this happened and I
believe he told the story of a youngster. The records
and other people bring different perspectives and consequently, I
have added to the story. We must all come to our own conclusions.
_______________________________________________________________
Mark was not certain of his actual date of birth and seems to have chosen 1st January when he joined the army. His birthday was always celebrated on this day.
He must have remembered that his birthday was in winter as his birth records show it to be 29th December 1923 which makes him all but 2 days, a year younger than he thought he was.
 |
| This tells us that Zotik Gigera, (son of Dorofej Gigera) from Humencie and Iryna daughter of Jemieljan Rabyj have been registered as Mark's parents. However, Zot was not Mark's blood father. |
Marks
birth records, retrieved from The State Archive department.
Family
research: Mark was Christened just 2 days after his
birth as Mark Gigera in the village church of Nudyze. This was a common practice to baptise early in
case of an early death. His birth place is shown as Humence which is
the village of the Gigera family, Zotik's home village. He was born
in Eastern Poland. Due to border changes after WW2, this
is now North-Western Ukraine,
NW of Kovel and
north of Luboml. His
war records show Nudyze village (left yellow mark), parish Golowana,
district Luboml, County Wolyn as his home village. Both villages
are very close and close to the Polish border. He
always said he was Ukrainian and Orthodox religion.
Mark's
mother Iryna nee Rabyj b.3
May 1899 was married to his half brother's (Mietek -
full name Mieczyslaw Gigiera) father-Zotik
Gigiera b.1896.
Note. The name Gigiera comes up with different spellings due to illiteracy at the time and priests writing it down as they thought it should be spelt when registering births, deaths and marriages. The most common variations are Gigera, Gigiera, Higera, Higiera
Nudyze-pronounced Nu-dee-sia
Luboml – pronounced Lu-bom-ul
Humence – pronounced Who-men-cie
 |
Luboml is about 5 miles on the road heading south out of Nudyze.
Mark lived with his mother where the lower orange spot is in the hamlet of Zablocie. Family still live there today.
and the local Mill was at the higher orange spot.
The local church where Mark was christened is at Nudyze
The Gigiera family come from Humence |
 |
Map of Ukraine. North West yellow markers - bottom=Luboml, top=Nudyze
Our family in Zablocie are about 10-15 miles from the Polish border.
At the time Mietek and Mark were born (early 1920's) this area was in Poland.
The borders changed, post WW2 in 1945 in Ukraine's favour, with Poland losing much land.
|
Family research: A recent discovery is that Zotik and Iryna Gigiera registered a third son called Gieorgji, b12 Apr 1929. At this point in time, we
do not know if this child survived infancy or what happened to him.
Neither Mietek or Mark ever mentioned their other brother. This is an
inconsistency to the story as both Mietek and Mark lead us to believe
that Iryna left her husband around the time that the illegitimate
Mark was born in 1923. Iryna died 2 years after the birth of her
third child-Gieorgij in 1931, aged just 30, in Nudyze which was her home village and not the
Gigiera family village. It begs the question as to who was the real
father of this third child as we know that Zot remarried Elena Parkhomuk and their first child was born in 1925. Could the true father of Gieorgij be the same man who fathered Mark?
 |
| Birth record of Mark & Mietek's brother- Gieorgij Hehera in 1929. Again, it shows Zotik as his father. |
Several
things to point out here:
1.
Both Mark and Mietek maintained that they had different fathers
although they both show Zotik Gigiera to be their father on their
war records and in Mark's birth records. DNA tests of Juan Gigiera
(Mietek’s son) and Andrew Gilbert (Mark’s son) show Juan and
Andrew coming from different paternal linage so this is proven. So
far we have not retrieved Mietek's birth records as they are stored
in the Polish archives and not available until 2021. Mark said that his true last name could get
him into trouble and he feared the KGB even though he was living
securely in England. By this, I can only assume he means the surname
of his blood father. We have to remember that terrible things
happened to the people where he lived in the war years and even
before then. Being sent to Siberian labour camps on trumped up
charges was the norm. Family in Nudyze tell us that it was really
like that, you could literally be picked up and sent to Siberia.
2.
Mietek's grand daughter Giselle tells us that Mietek believed his
father Zotik Gigiera, was a Russian soldier/Cossack.
3.
Giselle also tells me that Mietek suffered greatly as a child
because of his mothers infidelity. In his words: “His mother went
off with Mark's father”. Mietek also suffered from the war with
post traumatic stress and didn't like to talk of the war.
Both
Mietek and Mark tell us that their mother, had an affair with a man
(unknown name) who had bought a mill and land locally. He was
reputed to be an Officer in one of the Czar's cavalry regiments and
had moved west and bought this property expecting to be safe. He and his wife had no children at this time.
It seems that Mark was the product of this liaison, but his mother, a
pretty women called Iryna seems to have broken with Marks father as
Mark had no contact until much later. Iryna had left Mietek's father
and went back to live with her father Jemieljan
Rabyj b.18 Jul 1862 in Zablocie.
Historical
research: Tsar
Nicholas
II was executed in 1918 by the Bolsheviks. People associated with him would have fled in fear of their own lives and possibly chose to live quietly as peasants in small remote villages to keep under the radar of those looking for them.
Family
research: Iryna had 2 brothers (uncles to both Mietek and Mark):
Kuzma
Rabyj was a cooper. He and his wife had a child that died in
infancy. His wife also died and he had a second wife. At some point
he adopted a child. This family moved out of the area and contact was
lost. Kuzma is shown in the church records as being a man of god
and he regularly gave money to the church. I don’t see anywhere
else to go with this unless dna throws something up.
 |
| Pawel B1934 with his son Leonid on the family plot in Zablocie. |
Pawel
Rabyj was a farmer. We know from his son, also a Pawel (on picture on right, with his own son-Leonid), that this family lived in the hamlet
of Zablocie, next to the village of Nudyze and that Pawel snr built his
own house, which no longer exists and which was positioned near the
blue house. Pawel Jnr (the old man-right with walking stick) would have been
about 5 when war broke out and when Mark was taken by the KGB. They
would most likely have known each other but Pawell, being so young at the time cannot remember
him.
The son built
this wooden house which is a typical village house and is on the
site of the former family home. I am sure they must use local wood as
they are surrounded by forest. There are barns and sheds and a
sizeable piece of land with the house on which they grow their own
food.
This
is the plot of land opposite the son's home. The house that Mark
lived in with his mother Iryna and grandfather Jemiejan was
positioned around where the large tree is and the family horse is
kept on this land. We can see that the two Rabyj families were very
close. The land in this area is very flat.
Mark’s
early memories were of his mother and grandfather, her father. It
was a hard life in those times as the aftermath of the first world
war went on until the early 1920's in Eastern Europe, and things were
only beginning to settle when he was born. Before the war the family
had been prosperous peasants with some land, they were comfortable.
Grandpa had a horse, a very good horse which was used for everything,
i.e. travel, ploughing and carting.
Information:
Sept 2018: The horses are still used by some farmers in agriculture and for transport with
a cart although the family also have a tractor and of course people
have cars.
Mark
was fond of the family horse which he rode. One day
the horse jumped a fence and impaled itself. It had to be put down.
Mark said that was the beginning of their misfortune. Soon after
the horse episode, Iryna died of TB – d.1 Mar 1931, aged 31,
and Mark, aged just 7 was left with his grandfather who loved him.
One of the uncles (we are not
sure which one) came to take Mark, but the grandfather
didn't want to let him go. Mark and
his grandfather were comfortable together It is most probable that
the uncle was concerned about the young boy with the 70 year old man
and the reality is that they most probably lived across
the road from each other or very close by.
It
was only just before Iryna died, the farming system changed.
Iryna owned strips in the open field system and was entitled to
portions of land at the share out, but she had been too ill to look
after this land. When she died, what she owned was divided between
Mietek and Mark.
Family
research: It is most probable that it was his uncle
Pawel, the farmer who looked after this land when Iryna died. Mietek
was with his own father-(Zotik Gigiera) in the nearby village of Zapillya. Mark was very unhappy at this time, he had just lost his
mother and would prefer to live with his grandfather who he had a
cozy relationship with. Uncle Pawel and Aunty Julita were also having
a tough time as Pawel had lost his sister and consequently may have
had more land to look after, as well as his sisters child. He had a
2 year old son who died 2 months after Iryna of measles, Julita
became pregnant again and his own father, Marks grandfather
who was probably not well enough to look after himself then died 11
Oct 1932. Mark was being asked to do chores, some of which
were beyond his capability. We can see that they
needed everyone to help with the work load.
Mark
tells us that he was in an unhappy place having lost the two people
he loved most and the family horse and he eventually drifted away
and lived rough, sleeping in the woods, and doing odd jobs for food
and clothes. He could ride well, and as he got older, local
youngsters looked up to him.
Historical
research: Volhynia – like a county, in which Mark’s village
and the town of Luboml lies, suffered a great deal during and after
WW1. The number of orphans in the community came to almost 12,000 of
whom 7,000 were direct victims of the war. The great majority of them
roamed in the forest and fields and hid in cellars. Luboml, the
nearest town to Nudyze had more than 300 orphans. Funds were set up
by the Jew’s to help their orphans, but it was still the norm for
them to roam free and to fend for themselves. Mark was an orphan
during this time and he talked of roaming in the woods and fending
for himself. Whilst a horrific situation, we can see that this was
the norm and he may have had friends in similar situations.
Luboml’s population was 60% Jewish . They lived in the center of
the town and the gentiles lived like a belt surrounding the town with
the peasants in the villages.
Apart from a few happy young years for
Mark and Mietek, during the interbellum period, the time between the
two world wars, their country was perhaps the worse place in the
world to be living at that point in history. Famine and wars and
skirmishes between the various factions was common. Both Russia and
Germany wanted Poland and they both invaded and treated the
population as sub human. Whilst in England and in other places, WW2
was getting going, what we went through does in no way compare to the
desperate and tragic horrors that were occurring in Poland.
Mark
tells a very sad story and I am sure he must have been very
distressed after so many losses in his young life. They are
small, remote villages where he lived, today-still
accessed by unmade roads and as a youngster he cannot have travelled
very far from where he lived. Everyone seems to know each other. I
would like to think that he was not left totally to his own
devices and that he got help from family and the local people who
knew him.
 |
| Julita and Pawel (Iryna's brother) |
Family
research: Mark and Mietek’s Uncle Pawel the
farmer and Aunty Julita who lived on the family plot in Zablocie
and opposite Iryna, her father and Mark. Pawel and Julita possibly
looked after Mark after his mother's death. Their own first child, 2
year old son Kliment (brother of the old man Pawel with walking stick above) died
just 2 months after Iryna of measles and Julita became
pregnant again shortly after.
 |
| Ivan on left with Pawel-Mark's cousin on right. |
Family
research: Sept 1939 Germany invaded Poland. Mark would have been
16 by this time. Mark thought his father was killed by the Russians.
When we were in Kovel in 2018 and again in 2019, we visited an old
man of about 90-Ivan who is the son of a local mill owner-Josef
Dudek. The son would have been born after Mark. As a young man Josef
was in the Army (Conscription at the age of 18 for 3 years or more
means they all were and very often they were sent to the furthest
reaches of eastern Russia meaning there was little chance of getting
home during this time). Josef worked in East Russia/Siberia on
border control. Then he was a Cooper before building the mill. He
started building the large mill in 1925 and started milling in 1928.
The mill no longer exists although it is marked on the map above-orange blob. Josef lived a long life, so I acknowledge
the discrepancy, but I question my fathers memory as we have proven
other things to be incorrect! The old man Ivan who was telling the
story was coherent and quite positive with his answers. If this mill
owner was Marks father then here I was with my fathers half brother or my uncle. Note: the name Dudek (Zophia) which pops up on both Mietek's and Marks war records. I do not know if there is any connection to this Dudek family-to research. We do not know who Zophia Dudek was, a mystery yet to be solved!
Mark
met his father by chance, when he was 13 or 14. He didn't know who
he was, but his father knew him. They met several times, but one
day, his father asked him to call at the house, which he did. He saw
the lady of the house, a rather disapproving lady (probably
with good cause. Here was her husbands love child!). He was
shown into a study, where there were pictures of military gentlemen.
His father asked Mark if he would like to go away to school. He
said 'No', only thinking that he was being got rid of, and not seeing
the opportunity (in hindsight, he
probably took the right option as he survived the war!) It was
just a few years after this that war broke out in 1939.
The
Germans arrived first in Luboml but stayed for only three days. It
was then the Russians who invaded Mark's part of Poland and occupied
Luboml in September 1939. They were friendly, and asked if he was
interested in going to Russia for training. He went. He had no idea
what was happening, but with hindsight, thought he was being
recruited for the NKVD later the KGB. After a short time, Mark
asked to go home. The NKVD said 'No'. He went anyway. When he got
there, there was no one he knew left, except Mietek's father-Zotik
Gigiera, who was kind to him. Mietek was not there.
 |
| Luboml WW2 |
 |
| Luboml WW2 |
 |
| Tanks arriving in Luboml |
Historical
research: One person who stayed in another nearby town recalls:
The arrival of tanks and the shouts of 'liberation' after a brief
visit by the Germans, masked a more sinister turn of events. Local
administrators and dignitaries were subject to beatings. The dawn of
'sovietization' had a more chilling effect, e.g. the local teacher
replaced by a Russian and the introduction of Russian as the official
language, propaganda and the reinforcing of the 'Soviet might'.
The
terror of Stalin would still be fresh in the minds of people
following Poland’s neighbours experience of the Ukrainian
Holodormor of 1932/33 where people were deliberately starved.
Survival
was a moral as well as a physical struggle. The good people died
first. Those who refused to steal or to prostitute themselves died.
Those who gave food to others died. Those who refused to eat corpses
died. Those who refused to kill their fellow man died. Parents who
resisted cannibalism died before their children did. *1
Historical
research: A knowledgeable relation (My second
cousin’s-Anastasia’s husband-Vasily) in Kovel in 2019 told me
that the Russians were disliked by the Ukrainians and Poles. The
Russian soldiers behaved like bandits. They went into the forest
during the day and at night they would return to the villages and
steal from the locals, taking anything they could find. Whereas the
Germans, who followed again later, were viewed more favourably.
They would borrow tools and return them and they would buy from the
villages but they would always leave enough food for the family. Its
my guess that the Jews in the town would say the opposite. Their
story is well documented. Luboml was a 60% Jewish town. To put is
succinctly they were rounded up by the Germans with the help of
Ukrainian Police and moved into several streets in Luboml, the
ghetto area. It was very overcrowded and very unpleasant. They were
then marched to near the brick yard on
the edge of town where they had previously dug three big pits and
were mass executed. They were part of the mass execution of the Jews
by Hitler in the Holocaust This was not a good period in history for
this border town. There are no Jews in Luboml today.
 |
| Jewish Synagogue in Luboml |
Luboml was an important town prior to WW2. There was a very large and
impressive Jewish Synagogue. This was flattened by the Russians.
They would take gravestones and rubble for building roads.
Much of the land within the town, and
 |
| Luboml. The square where fairs and markets were held. |
gardens, orchards and forest was owned by the rich and noble
Kampyoni family. They fled the area during the
Soviet occupation but returned after the German invasion and
took their holdings back. The market square held fairs and markets
where it is most probably our relatives would have gone to on their
horse and cart to sell their farm produce. There is still a traditional market in Luboml today where the farmers go to sell produce.
Mark
stayed in the Zablocie area for a short time. I have evidence from the State Archive of Volyn Region in Lutsk that Mark stayed with Zot Gigiera at this time and that he made a bid to escape the NKVD by attempting to cross the state border between USSR and Germany. This would have been the border between the Russian controlled area of Poland in which he lived, crossing to the German controlled area of Poland. So he was attempting to escape from the NKVD who had sent him to Russia. He was arrested by the Luboml Regional Department of the NKVD on 20 June 1940.
Letter from Volyn Regional State Administration, State Archive of Volyn Region in Lutsk
We can see that the illegitimate son Marco was living with Zot and his family prior to be arrested on 20 June 1940. This also evidences who Zot's family were.
Mark is also recorded in this book:
"ГИГЕР (ГІГЕР, ГІЗЕР) Марко Зотович,
1923 р. н., с. Нудиже Головнянського (теп.
Любомльського) р-ну, мешк. у с. Запілля
Любомльського р-ну, українець, із селян,
без певн. роду занять, п/парт. Заарешт.
20.06.1940 р. Звинувач. у поруш. держ.
кордону. ОН НКВС СРСР 29.11.1940 р. засудж.
за ст. 80 КК УРСР на 5 р. ВТТ. Покарання
відбував у Онезькому ВТТ. Амністований
02.10.1941 р. як пол. громадянин. Реабілітований 20.12.1989 р. прокуратурою Волин.
обл. (Держархів Волинської обл., ф. 4666,
оп. 2, спр. 3038; Архів УСБ України у Волинській обл., ф. п., спр. 3836; о. ф., спр. 22799)."
This translates as:
"GIGER (GIGER, GIZER) Marko Zotovich,
1923, s. Nudizhe Golovnyansky (Lyubomlsky) district,
inhabitant in the village of Lyuboml district,
Ukrainian, from the peasants,
without definite kind of occupation,
Arrest.June 20, 1940. The accuser. in violation. state
border. ON NKVD of the USSR 29.11.1940, convicted.
for st. 80 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR
for 5 years of VTT. Punishment
served in the Onega VTT.
Amnestied October 2, 1941 as a floor. citizen.
Rehabilitated on December 20, 1989 by the Volyn Prosecutor's
Office.
reg. (State Archives of Volyn region, f. 4666,
op. 2, file no. 3038;
Archive of the USB of Ukraine in the Volyn region, f. n.,
file no. 3836; at. f., file no. 22799). "
Mark was sent to the Kharkov prison (north
east Ukraine). His
descriptions and stories of life in the enormous Kharkov prison
always conjured up a picture of pervading greyness and of men
dragging themselves through a life of sickening dull routine and
deprivation. The prison was overcrowded , with many men to a cell and
only the floor to sleep on. Blankets were only a distant luxury. At
night the men lay down on the floor, packed so tightly that movement
was nearly impossible. They would remain still until someone felt an
irresistible urge to turn over. In complete silence and without any
complaint or sign of irritation every single one of them, like
automata, would sit-up, turn over and settle down again. In answer
to the question, “How could you bear such overcrowding?”, Mark
would say “It was the Russian winter and the warmth of our bodies
was the only heat we had. Without it, we would have suffered even
more intense cold”. From time to time the numbers dropped as some
men were removed to be transported elsewhere. At these times, they
looked forward eagerly to the arrival of the new inmates who would
surely arrive to build up the numbers again and make the place
warmer. There was a surprising tolerance in these circumstances,
fights and quarrels
were virtually unheard of. At the same time, there were all sorts of
gangsters who gambled with anything, even cutting off fingers when
they lost. Mark met a man in Nottingham once who had been in this
prison at the same time, and remembered certain instances.
In
common with many of his compatriots, Mark loved the game of chess.
During his time in Kharkov Prison he and some friends found that if
they chewed bread to a paste, they could model tiny chessmen which if
left to harden, were quite usable. Once the set was compete, all
they had to do was to scratch the board on the floor and they had a
great luxury that would bring much pleasure into their bleak lives.
It must have seemed very unfair that their guards should have the
vindictiveness to reward their ingenuity by confiscating the pathetic
little chessmen and scraping out the board with their boots. Yet
this is what they did.
There was a summary trial (Nov 1940, he was just 17). It was there that Mark received his sentence of a term of hard labour (It was 5 years) followed by exile for life. He never saw his judges, nor any court of law and was never given a chance to answer the charge that he was an enemy of the Russian people, which he was not! He was sentenced to a goal term in Onega gulag camp in NW, Siberia. Eventually,
they were transported from Kharkov to Onega, Siberia by slow train in uncomfortable, overcrowded closed
cattle wagons the journey taking several weeks, and many dying. By this
time, the war was getting going. The necessities of life, never
substantial, were extremely short, and Russia was fighting for her
existence.
Historical
research: The transport to Siberia would have been train cattle wagons.
Often there was just a hole in the floor to be used as a toilet.
Those on the outside would have had some air from any gaps in the
carriage. Those on the inside would have been suffocating. There
would have been no cleaning facilities and very little food or water
and certainly no luxuries like blankets or beds. Some reports say there was up to 70 people in each wagon so no room to move about and the journey would take weeks.
 |
| A forestry goulag work camp |
It
was summer in Siberia when Mark was there. Being in the Arctic Circle, there was 24 hour daylight, and midges
and mosquitoes. This alone must have been a personal hell to deal
with. The men were housed in barracks, and were fed meagre rations of bread and thin soup, according to how much they worked and
accomplished. Those unable to work were taken away to die elsewhere.
The work was cutting down trees in the forest.
 |
| Goulag sleeping barrack |
Historical
research: Stop here a moment and think about the awfulness of
being taken from your home to prison, then transported in rough trucks for many
weeks, being deposited in a huge forest for hard labour with very
little food, poor living conditions, lice infested bedding,
deteriorating health and certainly no comforts and definitely lots of
discomforts and all because you were considered an enemy to the state
even though you were just an ordinary person.
The Siberian Gulag-work camps were not invented by Stalin. They were also
previously operated by the Tzars, where prisoners sentenced to
“katorga labour” were sent to gulag prison camps with a harsh
regime. The areas they were sent to were remote, vast uninhabited
areas of Siberia where voluntary settlers and workers were never
available in sufficient numbers. It was always hard labour and
insufficient food. There are lots of pictures on the internet
demonstrating the true horrors of starving people in tattered
clothing.
During this war period under Stalin there are many figures banded about regarding the number of innocent people taken from eastern Poland and deported to the Goulag camps. One estimate says 1.45 million people of which 63.1% were Polish. The estimated number of deaths of deportees is about 350,000 so roughly 25% of those taken.
Regarding Marks work in the forest. There
were no chain saws, it was done with axes, and they were skillfull at
bringing down trees exactly where needed. Work was seven days a
week, and when once they were allowed a day off, it so upset the
routine, it was difficult to get going again.
Life in the labour camps of the
Siberian forests was hard. There was a fearful brutality born of a
long history of denial of the rights and dignity of the individual.
The Russians could have borrowed Dante’s gloomy message at the
entrance to Hell, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”, because
it was the unmistakable purpose that all who belonged should lose
their will to oppose. Mark never forgot his own introduction. They
were told that to attempt to escape was certain death because “...if
we and the dogs don’t catch you, the bears will”. He also
remembered the terrible day when he and his fellow prisoners were
returning to their sleeping quarters after a hard day’s work. They
filed past some benches on which lay a sickening sight. On looking
closer, they realised they were looking at what was left of a small
group of Latvians who had decided to make a bid for freedom. It need
only be said that the dogs had taken them and the torn bodies were
laid out as a warning to anyone thinking of escaping. This dreadful
picture must have been in Mark’s mind when he made his own attempt.
At
this time Mark suffered from a gum disorder caused by the poor diet
(malnutrition caused many health
issues as well as death)
and was in danger of losing all his teeth. Fortunately for him there
was a dentist serving a sentence in Siberia, who was able to treat
him in a very basic way, by making him massage his gums alternately
with hot and then cold water. It had the desired effect, and he
didn't lose them. Many of the prisoners were much older men who had
and hadn't committed offences. Mark was one of the youngest, and
most of them were as kind to him as circumstances permitted. It was
at this time he learned to read and write in Russian. He had never
been to school, so this was quite a step. Again most of these people
were still of a generation of mostly illiterate people, and
consequently were story tellers, and they told each other stories.
Mark did not understand why it was not also a part of our culture as
of course, we only tell stories to children.
Even
while his own life was overcast by the darkest shadows, Mark could
still lift himself above the degrading emotion of self-pity and spare
thoughts for the suffering of others. He spoke of an Indian
prisoner whose situation must have been frightful. He wondered what
an Indian could be doing in such a place but he never found out
because the poor man could not speak a word of any of the languages
spoken there and he made no attempt to communicate. He had simply
retreated into his own private hell. Mark was deeply touched by this
man’s suffering and although he tried to help, he found that he was
unable to establish any kind of contact. The man was too withdrawn
to make any response. The memory of this sad and lonely figure never
left him.
Whilst
working in the forest, he was working out a way to escape from
Siberia. An epic journey given how
long it had taken to get there. It had to be foolproof, as failure
meant being torn apart by the dogs. No animal sentiment here, it was
all about survival. He had learnt that if the dogs attack, to wrap
your jacket around your arm and give that arm to the snarling dog
when it jumps up. Then slash its belly from underneath with the other
arm. All very well if there is only one dog to fight off!
There
was a river with a hollow under the bank and under tree roots. He
had discovered it by accident whilst working. He took his chance,
and disappeared whilst at work, knowing the others would cover for
him as long as possible. He spent a couple of days hidden in the
water, breathing through straws when the dogs or guards were
searching. Eventually, he left the shelter and went as fast as he
could. He came to a single track railway in the forest (he
would have known of its existence as the timber was moved by train
from the logging area to a mill), and followed it for a bit.
A small goods train came along slowly. He hid. There was only an
old man driving it. Shortly, the train came back with the same old
man. This time he didn't hide. The train stopped, and the old man
realized Mark had escaped. He said he too was a prisoner, and had
been in Siberia for 20 years, and didn't ever expect to be free.
But, he said you are young, get on the train, and I'll take you as
far as possible, but at least you will be away from the area. As he
had been a prisoner for so long, he was trusted, and took the cut
trees to a mill somewhere in the forest. This suited him as he had a
certain amount of freedom. Mark was grateful; the old man gave him
as much advice about location as he was able and they parted.
Mark
walked for days in the forest. Alone in the wild, he had to forage
and fend for himself, sometimes with little success. He came
across a very primitive village, where the inhabitants had not seen
an outsider for many years. They didn't know about Stalin or the
war. The language was old fashioned and difficult to understand.
They sheltered Mark for a short time, gave him some food and on he
went. He travelled roughly south and gradually came to the thinning
out of the forest, and isolated habitations. He begged for food and
shelter and was given whatever the impoverished people could spare.
It was in this part of his life that he experienced the worst hunger.
Prison and camp food was poor in quality and quantity but at least
he was given something to eat, however meager. He had no idea where
he was or what to do, so just wandered on.
Marks
lady friend Dorothy recounts two amusing, if somewhat desperate
episodes:
One
spring day he found himself in the market place of a small town. It
was obvious from the pitiful and paltry items for sale that the
people were almost as poor as he was. Among the goods were miserable
bunches of herbs, dried up vegetables, threadbare clothes and worn
out shoes. Mark wondered what he could sell. Suddenly a brainwave
struck him. He could sell his underpants!! He disappeared
and very soon reappeared proffering his worn out merchandise. It
seems unbelievable but they were snapped up. An old women, satisfied
herself that the quality was good enough and went home pleased with
her bargain. Mark was able to buy a small loaf of bread that would
keep him going for another day or two.
Wandering
cold and desperately hungry one moonlit night, Mark heard
the sound of a large animal moving about nearby. He stood still,
wondering what it could be - a bear? wolf? large cat? Evan at
the worst of times Mark always managed to have a weapon-cum-tool.
This was his first priority. When he escaped he had equipped himself
with a small wood-man’s axe from the tools used by the prisoners in
their forestry work. This had been carefully hidden and jealously
guarded until the time came to go. He prepared to defend himself
now, but was surprised and relieved to see an old donkey plodding
into view. His first love among animals was for the equine family
and this love extended even to the humble donkey-but this was no time
for sentimentality. All Mark could think about was juicy steak-this
was food! He began to stalk the donkey which stopped, eyed him
suspiciously and nimbly made a side-step as Mark approached. Mark
tried again but once more the wise old donkey took evasive action-he
was no fool. It must have been a delightful picture, the two of them
performing a fantastic ballet in the moonlight. Mark didn’t say
how long this went on but the upshot was that the donkey won and Mark
had to go hungry. He may not have felt it at the time, but many
years later on he had a sneaking admiration for the donkey. “He
knew exactly what my intention was” he said.
Imagine this: he
and many thousands of others would literally have been eating things
that today we would consider not only distasteful but totally
disgusting but that was the hard fact of survival. How lucky we are
today, to be so choosy.
One day he was so very hungry. He
found some onions and recalls eating them raw and crying. I am sure
in later life, when he too had the luxury of a full plate every day,
he would look at the humour in this very sad situation.
Mark
came to a railway, and followed it to a small town. There were
people waiting for a train, but no one knew if it would come today,
tomorrow or next week. The train was going east and full of refugees
fleeing the fighting. People were clinging all over the train. Mark
got on and rode the roof for a while. He got off at a station and
was told it would leave in 10 minutes, but it left without him. He
travelled on so many trains (a
nomadic pattern that was to repeat itself later), it is
difficult to see quite where he went, but it seems to have been
generally south with variations. I think he must have been in
Moscow, only the station, because he recounts what an enormous
palatial place this was. It was filled with refugees at night, all
trying to sleep, but two or three times a night, cleaners came round
and washed all the marble floors. There were gangsters stealing from
the refugees. One young women stood with a bag between her legs. She
put her arms up to fiddle with her hair, and her attention was on
someone at a distance. A man came up stealthily behind her, and
gently eased the bag from between her legs. There was a mesmerised
audience who did absolutely nothing about it as they were scared of
the man. At one point Mark was on a train of refugees, and curled up
to sleep at the back of the luggage rack. When he woke up, the train
was full of soldiers.
Historical
research: June 1941, when Mark was aged 18, The
German/Russian pact is broken as Germany invades Russia in Operation
Barbarossa. Russia and Great Britain sign a new pact leading to the
Anglo-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance-1942. In effect Russia
changes sides becoming an alley to the west. As part of the
Pact/Treaty many Poles and others in the Siberian Gulag Camps were
set free. This was called an 'amnesty' by the Russians who did not
acknowledge that people had been imprisoned on trumped up charges. We
do not know the time scale of Marks escape, but it is possible that
these refugees were released prisoners from the Gulag Camps and it is
also possible that Mark would have been released in any case, had he
not escaped!. A controversial view is that if it were not for
Hitler invading Russia the Polish deportees who were released
(as not all of them were) would have died in the Goulag camps.
I am sure the Jews think differently about the German
invasion.
One
refugee, released from a forestry goulag camp in the same area as
Marks recalls: A move to camp 8 with all our belongings on a sled
heralded the start of our journey south to the railway station at
Plisieck. Prolonged malnutrition and freezing Siberian weather was
taking its toll on deportees. The station looked more like a morgue.
Scavenging for firewood or coal helped us to survive the long train
trip. Organised cleaning duties ensured survival in the crowded
boxcar. The journey remained hazardous when incidents could cause
permanent separation.
 |
| Marks journey of escape from Siberia to joining the Polish army |
The harsh winter
came. Mark could always find something to eat, however small. There
was an old Jewish man and his nephew, Lange was their name. They had
been rich, but they were totally unable to fend for themselves. Mark
helped them a bit. They found some sort of shelter, and Mark used to
go foraging. The old man was ill. Mark said he was going further
afield for a few days, which he did. When he returned, the old man
was dead and buried. Someone suggested to Mark that he dig him up, as
he had been buried in a good coat. Mark declined.
We do not know what happened to the nephew.
At
some point whilst Mark was in Russia he met his half brother Mietek.
They were pleased to see each other. Eventually, they both went
their own way.
There
are a couple of slightly differing accounts of the meeting,
but basically I believe it goes like this; Mark was refused entry
onto a train. Mietek was on that train and recognized Mark's voice
and he was allowed entry. Another version is that Mark recognized
Mietek's voice. Either way it was a fortunate, chance encounter and
they must have been over the moon to see each other alive. A jubilant
moment in a terrifying journey of escape and miraculous given that Mark was coming from Arkangle in the north Siberia and Mietek was coming from East Siberia and they had each made an enormously epic journey to then arrive in the same place at a moment in time.
Mark was travelling south (along
with everyone else) and came to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The two
places Mark did remember by name were Samarkand and Tashkent. The
people in the south had not been quite so badly affected by the war,
although they were poor. They lived in the winter, mainly on dried
apricots. Mark managed to beg some, and he made friends with a boy
about his own age who had TB. He and his older brother helped Mark.
On another occasion, whilst on a
train, everyone had dysentery which is spread by poor hygiene and
sanitation and causes fever, intestinal cramps and painful and
severe diarrhoea. Mark recalled how awful this was with people
queuing to go to the toilet and as there was insufficient toilets
also hanging off the train with the help of others to do ones
business and then again joining the queue in preparation for the next
incident. Certainly no dignity there and the smell must have been
excruciating. However, these were a people used to having no privacy
or dignity.
We
also know that somewhere along the way, either as a child or on his
journey of escape, he had TB from which he survived. Everyone
was starving, both from lack of food and the cold, but Mark survived.
It is easy to be judgmental and I am sure when Mark recounted this next
incident of which there may have been several or many such incidents
in his life, he would shudder at the thought. He was approaching a
railway line and saw a hut with a light on in the distance. He walked
to this and had desperate hunger where survival depended upon getting
food. So great was his desperation he thought he could kill in order
to get food. He opened the door and the man inside smiled at him and
then he shared his food and helped him get onto a train.
When
the Poles were released from Siberia they set up recruiting stations,
and all who enrolled for service, and their families were taken south
to Persia (now Iran). Mark
was in Uzbekistan when he heard. 12/4/1942 he reported to the Army Organization Centre in Kermine (Navoiy) Uzbekistan where he was declared Fit Cat "A" and recruited into the Polish Army. He spoke Polish. The only test was
to make the sign of the cross. If it was made in the Catholic way as
against the Orthodox (the 2
religions are very similar) you were in. He was in even though
he was Ukrainian and Christened in the Nudyze Orthodox Church.
 |
Col Wladyslaw Anders
A true hero. |
Historical Research: In reality, the Polish army in the USSR recruited all those that had been sent from the Kresy area of Eastern Poland by Stalin's regime to Siberia and who had been released upon the Amnesty (or in Mark's case - escaped). This included the minority groups including the Ukraines and Jews who Stalin labelled as Russians wanting them to remain in Russia. It was Col. Wladyslaw Anders, who himself had suffered prison and interrogation at the hands of Stalin, persistence, stating Stalin had previously agreed to all those prior residents of the Kresy could join the army. This enabled these minorities to leave Uzbekistan with the Polish Army upon the evacuation. There are many reasons why the Sybiraks (those sent to Siberia) should be grateful to Col.Wladyslaw Anders . This is just one of them.
Historical
Research: Many men joined the Polish Army who held
different nationalities and religions. They would lie,
change inconvenient details and claim lost papers. They saw this as
a way to escape the horrors they were in. To me, it sounds like 'out
of chip pan and into the fire' but to them it was an act of
desperation to get away from starvation and persecution and they
were led to believe that this would help them in their quest to free
Poland for their home coming after the war, which of course never
happened.
According
to Army records, Mark enlisted in the Polish Division of the British
Army on 12th April 1942, and was discharged
on 12th November 1947. He fought alongside
the allies, under British command in the 2nd
Polish Corps (fondly known as Anders Army), attached to the British
8th Army.
The earliest photo was taken at the
time of his recruitment, and was in his army pay-book. (Picture on
page 1, aged 21). Boris looked like him as a small boy.
Historical
research: 17 Feb 1942, Stalin agreed to allow the Polish Army to move to Iran as part of the allied occupation force there. By
April 1942 approximately 26000 Poles were organized into two
Divisions in Uzbekistan under the command of Colonel Anders. Anders
led an exodus of 112000 men, women and children. Unfortunately 4000
soldiers died in Russia whilst waiting for Stalin's permission. Another reason why the Sybiraks should be grateful to Col. Anders as he gave orders to pack the ships tightly with human cargo and get the women and children away as well as the army. He saved them from sure starvation and took them to freedom.
 |
| Soldiers and civilians crossing the Caspian Sea in overcrowded boats. |
The
recruits and many escaping civilians were taken across the Caspian
Sea to
Persia (now Iran). Mark was at Pahlevi for some time.
The
boats were filled to overflowing, standing room only on this
long journey, in order to get as many people away as possible.
The relief of leaving the Soviet Union and loss of oppression was
great. Life in Persia was exotic compared to the recent past and many
lives were saved by the provision of food and shelter.
15/8/1942-
Mark's army records say; 'together with the Polish Army Units,
evacuated to Iran, thereby came under British command'. The Polish
11 Corps was formed. It was made up of 2 divisions; The 3rd
Carpathian Rifle Division and the 5th
Kresowa Infantry Division under who's flag Mark fought in Italy. 80%
of the Polish 11 Corps came from Poland's prewar Kresy or Eastern
Borderlands.
Food
was short, but better than in Russia. Training began. Being young,
Mark soon recovered his health, but some of the older men struggled.
He was selected for extra physical training and succeeded. August
1943?- they continued to be moved south, through Syria and Palestine.
They were transported through Persia in huge army lorries through
the mountain ranges where roads were highly unsuitable. Many trucks
fell over the edges of gorges. The convoys never stopped, as the
falls were so great it was presumed everyone was dead in the lorries.
They stopped for short times in Syria and Palestine, where Mark went
to Jerusalem which he enjoyed A group
of Jews who were in the army planned to dessert in Palestine
and asked Mark if he wanted to join them. It had become known that
he was Ukrainian, and he was not too popular as prior to the war there had been hostilities between the nations. He declined their offer
and soldiered on – literally.
Historical
research: Whilst some Jews had joined the Polish army in order
to escape Siberia and Eastern Europe and deserted once they arrived
in Palestine, other Jews fearing what might be coming their way
joined up in Palestine.
The
Poles were very short of Officers as there had been mass executions of this class of people at the beginning of the war. They kept asking for volunteers to go for
training. There were few suitable recruits.
Historical
research: This shortage had been caused by the Russian massacre
of Polish Officers known as the Katyn Massacre very early in the
war. It was actually a series of mass executions of Polish
Intelligentsia carried out by the NKVD in April and May 1940. It is
named after the Katyn Forest, where some of the mass graves were
first discovered. Mass grave sites in other forests were also found. Mark thought that his real father was shot by the Russians. It is possible that he was massacred at Katyn or one of the other sites used by the Russians.
Eventually
they moved to Egypt, and by this time were fit for active service.
The invasion of Italy had started.
February 1944 – Mark and
his fellow compatriots was
shipped across the Mediterranean to Italy. There would have been a
convoy of very full ships. The shipping course lay close to the North
Africa shore, avoiding German bombers based on Crete.
They
landed at Taranto. Mark was in the south at Campobasso for a
short time, where he had an Italian girlfriend. The family were
farmers and made him welcome. Her father didn't like him wearing
shorts which were army issue. The
Italians in general, liked the Poles, as they shared their religion –
Catholics.
 |
Army pictures from the collection of Polish 11 Corps
held by the Sikorsky museum in London. |
Units established themselves in
various camps. Training and preparation for fighting continued. They
advanced north encountering increasingly difficult terrain; fast
flowing rivers, intervening ridges providing ideal defence for the
Germans. They continued along the coast towards Pescara and across to
Monte Cassino.
There
was lots of learning to do in the army. Languages and army training.
I have sifted through over 7000 WW2 Anders Army photos looking for
pictures of either Mark or Meitek. I think there is a man on this
photo (left-red dot) that bears a striking resemblance to Mark!! In any case,
the photos show the type of existence our boys were living at that
time. The photos were all nice scenario's, sitting eating and
drinking, parades and ceremonies. The reality is that there was also
lots of fighting, destruction, devastation and blood and gore from
torn apart bodies.
 |
| A shipment of Army boots arrive |
 |
| Strength training and fun sport |
Historical
research: The big question:
Was Mark apart of the battle for
Monte Cassino of which there were 2 attacks by the Polish, the first 11-12 May 1944 and the 2nd and final 16-18 May 1944. Of course this was the big battle
that the Poles were best known for. Quote: 'It was 5 Kresowa
Infantry Division, 2nd
Polish Corps who undertook the hardest task of the operation and who
took the Monastery, high on the hill, from the Germans'. The Battle of MC is well
documented. Over the four months, there were four costly assaults by
the Allies with the intention of a breakthrough to Rome. Other
nations were there before the Poles and did their bit in grinding the
Germans down. The final battle involved other nations as well as the
Poles but it was the Poles who finally took the Monastery from the
Germans and triumphantly raised their flag. The Monastery was
destroyed in the battle and it resulted in 55,000 Allied casualties
and around 20,000 Germans killed and wounded. The difference in
casualty rates is accounted for by the Germans having the high ground
with good cover and the Allies being easy picking on their fight up
the mountain. General Wladyslaw Anders, leader of the Polish troops,
commenting on the cost of the battle said “Corpses of German and
Polish Soldiers, sometimes entangled in a deathly embrace, lay
everywhere, and the air was full of the stench of rotting bodies.”
Mark
said that he told people he was at the MC battle as this was the
battle they knew about. He was awarded the medal – Monte Cassino
Cross number 35881 and was in Polish 11 Corps, 7 Light Anti-Aircraft
Regiment from 3/3/1943 to 6/6/1944. This regiment was listed as
being at Monte Cassino and he was in this regiment at the time of the
battle so this seems to be confirmation that he was there and
he would receive a medal for this alone, regardless of whether or
not he fought there. Col. Anders in his own words in his book - 'An army in exile', states that the Polish army had insufficient soldiers and they were relying on recruitment from those Polish soldiers that had been forced to join the German Army and who they expected to defect in favour of the Polish Army. At Monte Cassino they had no men to spare for reserves. This alone must suggest that Mark fought here. The MC
Cross is a commemorative medal awarded to all soldiers of the Polish
2 Corps who fought in the battle of Monte Cassino and the battles
of Piedimonte and Passo Corno, which also means that he may have
fought in one of the other 2 nearby
battles.
I
have spoken to someone else who’s father was in the same unit as
Mark. He confirmed that his father definitely fought at Monte
Cassino. We cannot categorically say whether nor not Mark fought at MC. There will probably be a battalion
diary/log book somewhere, maybe in the Sikorski museum in London,
that would clarify this. MORE
RESEARCH.
 |
Mark Gigiera - Monte Cassino Cross number 35881
He was in Polish 11 Corps,
7 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment from 3/3/1943 to 6/6/1944. |
(Jo
writes) He was moved north and eventually went into action on the
eastern side of the country, where there is no doubt, he enjoyed the
danger.
The
above sentence implies, by Jo, that he did not fight at MC
which is on the west side of the country. We must draw our own
conclusions from this.
Historical
research:
In July 1944, The Polish Corps began rolling again, capturing Numano on 5th July and Osini, only 10 miles south of Ancona, the following day. The Poles repulsed a counter attack by the mountain troops on 8th July (Mark seriously wounded on this date) and took Monte Palesco two days later.
Gen Anders words regarding the Battle of Loreto: 2/7/1944 "The objective was to take the dominating heights on the northern bank of the Musone river to create favourable conditions for the Battle of Ancona, The fighting was very stubborn and objectives changed hands several times. There were difficulties in bringing up supplies of ammunition, as great quantities were used and the distances from the supply depots were considerable." The battle ended on 9 July. After a fierce battle , Ancona was captured by the
Carpathian Lancers on 18th
July. The 3rd
Carpathian Division secured the port and 2,500 prisoners. This was
the only battle in the West that was exclusively carried out by the
Polish military. The offensive cost the Poles 2,150 casualties.
This included Mark who was wounded and his best friend who died.
The
war grave of Karol Zucharski, Marks best friend.
For
our freedom and yours
Our
life to the soil of Italy
At
this time Mark had one good friend, Karol Zucharski. When not in
action, they would go to local bars. One night Karol said, 'Lets go
to town, I don't think I shall come back tomorrow, so I'll take my
blankets and other things to give away. He did this. He was killed
the next day -17/7/1944
killed in action. (The Battle of Ancona -16/6/44-18/7/44.
The Polish objective was the capture of Ancona harbour).
Karol’s
name is on the war memorial at Loreto, where
those who lost their lives in Ancona and the surrounding area, were
buried. His name can be found
on the war memorial web site. His unit is listed as: 5 Batalion,
Ciezkich Karabinow Masynowych.
Take
a moment to reflect:
Hats
off to this brave soldier, Karol Zucharski
and all the others who lost their lives
and those who were wounded in action.
There were many incidents as
fighting was fierce, injuries to soldiers horrific and loss of life
great. There are many stories and pictures in books and on the
internet and we can only guess at how awful the fighting was. Mark
talked of climbing a cliff whilst being shot at. This is a
demonstration of how daily life on the battle fields would have been.
Mark
was wounded at a place called Palazzo del Canonone, Ancona 8/7/1944.
He was hit by shrapnel, hence his multiple injuries. He was left
for dead, and lost a lot of blood. When he was finally rescued, he
was not expected to live. He must have been given blood
transfusions. The surgeon in the field was going to amputate his
left arm where he had a severe wound; Mark couldn't speak, but he
pleaded with his eyes. The surgeon patched up his arm. He had
pieces of shrapnel embedded in his right hand between his thumb and
forefinger, and in one other finger, some of his top teeth were blown
out, and one of his bottom teeth. Shrapnel had gone through one
cheek. There was a piece embedded between his eye and brain, that
was never removed, but it caused damage to his eye that got worse
over the years. There was a large but superficial wound at the base
of his hairline, and numerous small wounds all over his body. The
last piece to be removed was in the 1960's from the hinge of his jaw.
It had moved round his head and settled in the jaw. He couldn't
open his mouth. It was removed from the inside of his mouth and
didn't leave a scar.
Reflect
again here: Mark’s wounds were quite horrific, a part of his
lower arm was shot away leaving a huge scar. Think about the bloody,
messed up state he was in. It is miraculous that he survived – yet
again!
Medical
staff worked tirelessly for long hours.
Conflict
of information: I acknowledge an obvious conflict of information
here; Karol Zucharski was killed 17/7/1944 in action. The night
before, the two of them went into town and gave his things away.
However, according to war records, Mark was seriously wounded
8/7/1944 - before Karol was killed. Does this indicate that the
records were not always up to date, which all things considered would
be a difficult task in a fast moving environment or could it be that
Karol was wounded and died later. It is devastating that one of these
two best friends was killed and the other wounded in action, maybe
whilst fighting alongside each other. Would it not be good to think
that these 2 brave young men went out together that morning, brothers
in arms, full of adrenaline, fighting for what they hoped would lead
to a free Poland.
Map from Pulk 4 Pancerny Regimental history.
Palazzo del Canonone is circled in red. It is north of the Musone River and just south of Offagna. The 14th Wilenski Rifle Battalion assaulted this position. Mark's No 2 MG Company was likely attached to this unit to provide direct fire support.
 |
| After battle report |
A
brief description of the capture of Palazzo del Canonone from TNA
document WO/204/8042. 2 Polish Corps report of operations in the
Adriatic sector. 1944 May - Sept.
The above document says: starting at third paragraph:
5 Wilno BDE, which at this time was completing concs in area COLLE S HARTINO S 5924, began to take part in the ops. On 4 Jul, the bns of this Bde were committed in succession into the gap between 6 LWOW BDE and 3 CARP DIV. After much hy fighting, 15 Bn captured MONTROS S 530225 on 5 Jul and on 6 Jul, 14 Bn captured the very important feature PALAZZO del CANONE S 527338 on the NORTH side of river MUSONE. Several strong enemy counter attacks against this high-ground were repulsed with hy enemy losses. (Disposition of our units on 6 Jul - see trace C. 7, War Diary for July).
In the concluding phases of the battle, POLCORPS was extended on a 30 km front, with the NEMBO Gp, from the Italian Corps, just completing its conc. As further CORPS ops were NOT possible under these circumstances, owing to the lack of res, lack of arty emn, which was difficult to bring up, and because of the exposed LEFT flank of the CORPS, the CORPS Comd decided to stop the ops by units of POLCORPS until the time when res could be formed by bringing up for this purpose the ITALIAN CORPS into area FILOTRA-NO which would have the task of coverine POLCORPS up against ANCONA, by holding the line of river MUSONE. This decision closes the present period of fighting and opens a new chapter of preparations for the battle of ANCONA.
________________________
Whilst
still in hospital, Mark's treatment was to remove the largest pieces
of shrapnel, see to his arm and stabilize him. Then he was moved
further back from the front. More shrapnel was removed then, and he
was patched up. I don't know the time scale of any of this, but
when he was well enough he came by sea on HMAS Oranje to Britain.
(Must have been March 1944 or after-see below)
 |
| HMAS Oranje – hospital ship |
 |
| Hospital ward on board the Oranje |
Historical
research: Mark told us that he came to Britain on
HMAS Oranje, (renamed the Angelina Lauro in 1964). The Oranje was
offered to the Australian Government as a hospital ship in 1941. She
was refitted in her home Port of Sydney and could carry 650
casualties. Under the Dutch flag, HMAS Orenje proceeded to Suez via
Batavia and brought casualties back to Australia and New Zealand.
She was kept busy in her humane role for the next few years. She
went to and from the Middle East and visited South African ports as
well. The ship came back to the UK in Jan 1944. She then
made a series of Mediterranean voyages the first one arrived with
wounded troops from Italy in March 1944 .
She
travelled over 282,600 miles and carried 32,000 casualties. I
have to date, been unable to find
the passenger manifest. Its possible they do not exist.
(Jo
writes:) I'm sure the ships went through the Suez Canal and round
Africa to avoid Gibralta which was extremely dangerous. I don't know
which port the ship arrived at, but the wounded were transported by
train to hospitals in Scotland in easy stages. I know this from
another angle. When I worked at the City General Hospital in
Leicester (on the telephone
switchboard), when I first married, there was an older women
who, during the war had worked in hospital administration and one of
her duties was to check wounded Poles passing through. They couldn't
speak English, their names were difficult, Many were so ill they were
really not fit to travel. Mark eventually got to Scotland where he
gradually recovered. At some point he had complained to senior
officers about treatment he received from other soldiers on account
of being Ukrainian. He was offered the chance to go into the United
States Army, but refused. I don't know why.
 |
| Dupplin Castle |
 |
| Taymouth Castle |
Whilst
in hospital (10/10/1944 – war
records state: No 2 Polish Hospital SEFA which was based at Dupplin Castle. This is a country house and former castle in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, situated to the west of Aberdalgie and northeast of Forteviot and Dunning. and about 40 miles from Arbroath. He also spent some time at No 1 Polish General Hospital. This was based at Taymouth Castle and situated to the north-east of the village of Kenmore, Perth and Kinross in the Highlands of Scotland, in an estate which encompasses 450 acres.
All the soldiers were visited by local people, and when they were well enough, were invited to their homes. He met nice people, and one women near Arbroath on the coast was extremely kind, but he seems to have dropped them without a thought of how they must have felt.
(Reflect
on this: When you put this into the context of his life, you can see
where he was coming from; Other than the first few years of his life
with his mother, close relationships were few and far between and he
had a very transient, nomadic life on which he had survived.)
War records show that Mark convalesced in Peebles. When in his 60's, he made a trip there with Dorothy McNulty, his lady friend of later years and showed her the large house he stayed in.
 |
| Inveraray Castle |
After his convalescence, probably in 1945 or 1946, he was sent to Inveraray Castle and was housed in nissen huts. During the war Inveraray Castle's prime purpose was to train army and navy service personnel in the use of minor landing craft for landing assault troops, supplies, ammunition and weaponry onto heavily defended enemy occupied beaches, with RAF support. Towards the end of the war when this was no longer required, its purpose changed and it became a holding camp for Polish troops who had recovered from their wounds and were being housed there, prior to the Resettlement Corps being formed and whilst the British decided what to do with them.
Mark
would have been moved around as his care became less needy,
consequently he was at several different places along the
way.
I
just want to put an anecdote in here; something I read: A lot of big
houses were given over for war use. It was deemed that the
aristocratic owners would prefer hospital use as opposed to
convalescing soldiers as those incapable caused less damage than the
recovered, boisterous and probably bored young soldiers who got into
all sorts of mischief at the expense of their hosts.
As
he got better, he started to explore (an
old pattern, the nomad in him). His English was almost
non-existent, but he got by. If he asked for a pass and travel
warrant, it was always granted. He travelled up to the north of
Scotland, where a guard tried to tell him the train didn't go any
further, and to Gosport in Hampshire, and everywhere in between. He
didn't do anything when he got anywhere, he just followed the pattern
instilled in him and kept going. This
was a man comfortable on long train journeys and to being on the
move. Being in a carriage, on a seat would probably have been luxury
as would having enough to eat.
20/2/1945
Declared completely unfit for military service. 23/10/1946
Volunteered to enlist in the Polish Resettlement Corps -PRC. The
young men went into Resettlement Camps to keep them busy and out of
trouble.
25/11/1947
Finally discharged.
MARK
GIGIERA, my father, whom I am very proud of and who was one of so
many hero's, fought in Italy in WW2 and was wounded in combat. For
this he received the following war medals:
Polish:
Honary Decoration for wounds
Cross of Monte Cassino
Army Medal
British:
1939-45 Star
Italy Star
Defence Medal
The War Medal 1939-45
Sadly
these medals are no longer in the family.
Mark and Josephine's life together continues in Mark Gigiera and Josephine Folwell by Josephine Ellis (nee Folwell) 2008
I leave this, by saying there are some conflicts in the information, possibly due to the record keeping of others during difficult times and the circumstances and the limitations within which they worked. Like the record keepers of the past, I too have tried to be accurate, but with no guarantees. There are things that could still be followed up. More information is being released and sharing is improving on the internet through specialist sites and through Facebook groups, e.g. lists of people sent to the Gulag camps. There is the possibility of finding out more in the future.
________________________________________________________________
MARKS JOURNEY FROM ZABLOCIE IN POLAND (NOW UKRAINE)
TO NOTTINGHAM IN ENGLAND.
1923
|
Born and lived with his mother in Zablocie. Christened in Nudyze, Golowana,
Luboml, Wolyn.
|
1940
|
Held in Kharkov prison, Ukraine, charged with being an enemy of
the state.
|
|
Deported to Siberia to a goulag forestry work camp
|
|
Escaped – travelled by trains and walking towards Moscow, Kazahkstan
|
|
Uzbekistan-Samarkland & Tashkent-Mark heard about recruiting stations
|
|
|
1942
|
Joined Polish Army–crossed the Caspian Sea with many thousands
of others
|
1942
|
Persia – (now called Iran) – Pahlevi, Syria
|
|
|
1942
|
Palestine, Jerusalem
|
|
|
1944
|
Italy – lands with the Polish army at Taranto. Monte Cassino,
Ancona
|
|
Wounded-shipped via Sues Canal
|
1944-6
|
Lands England - transported to Scotland
|
|
Trained in shoe manufacture, worked in shoe industry in Leicester. Met his wife Josephine Folwell then settled in Nottingham
________________________________________________________________
|
MARKS WAR RECORDS
A MYSTERY
Box 4. Parents. Stanislaw, Zofia
then in pencil - Zoc, Iryna.
Iryna was Marks mum and Zot was her husband, his step father.
Zofia Dudek pops up in Mieczyslaws war records. I do not know who she was.
Who is Stanislaw???
HISTORICAL
INFORMATION
We
might ask why so few people know the true story of how the Poles,
Ukrainians and others were so badly treated, persecuted and killed by
Stalin and his regime before and during WW2.
The
Holocaust-the systematic persecution and massacre of the Jews by
Hitler during WW2, has been so well documented and taught in schools
and there are memorials all over the world. This is largely down to
the Jews who have told their story and who make sure that the world
does not forget.
Not
many people can cite the Holodomor unless they have made a study of
Eastern European history at that time. The Holodomor was a man made
famine in Soviet Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 (about the time when Mark
would have been 10 years old). It was the mass starvation by Stalin
who took the crops to feed Russia. The debate goes on as to whether
this was genocide as the Russians would say that their own people
were also starving at this time and they were simply sharing out the
food. However, Stalin left literally nothing for the Ukrainians to eat.
This
was followed with the mass deportation of thousands of Poles in 1940 at the
start of WW2, largely from the Kresy region of Eastern Poland
(now Western Ukraine, due to border changes) where Mark and his
brother Mietek came from and who were victims of this. The Poles and other minorities in the region were
treated as a sub human by the Russians who wanted to take Poland. They simply removed people from their homes with 20 minutes notice to pack and go for a variety of reason, e.g. intelligentsia, owning some land, being an important community person-teacher, police man, head of council and many others. Many hundreds of thousands were
sent to the Gulag work camps in Siberia, to low populated regions
requiring man power to undertake the many hard labour tasks such as
building ports, roads, rail lines and in the case of Mark, forestry
work in the north between Archangel and the Ural Mountain Range.
They were given very little food-watery soup and dried bread and literally worked to death. Many
thousands died there of starvation, disease, injury etc and all would
have died there had it not been for Hitler invading Russia of which
the consequence was Stalin changing sides and joining the allies and
then under duress, releasing many (but not all) men and their
families to join the Polish army.
In
the case of the Holodomor, I suppose the Ukraine’s, unlike the
Jews have not, themselves shouted about it. They were probably too
busy recovering to think about retribution and they most likely did
not have the strength to raise the issue against Russia, whereas the
Jews were shouting of their plight against the defeated nation of
Germany.
In
the case of the mass deportation to the Siberian Gulag work camps, it
was largely pushed under the carpet. Towards the end of the war,
from February 4th to the 11th
1945, the 3 major politicians, Winston Churchill, Franklin D
Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin met near Yelta in Crimea, Soviet Union
for the purpose of discussing Germany and Europe’s postwar
reorganisation. Reluctantly, Roosevelt and Churchill relinquished
that part of Poland-The Kresy to Stalin and Russia, thus carving up
the country. This area had belonged to those taken by Stalin’s
regime to the gulag work camps and who were then released to form the
Polish Army and to fight in Italy with the promise that they were
fighting for a free Poland and a home to return to. This of course
they never got and some that did return home after the war were
returned to the gulags.
After
the war the soldiers were discouraged from talking of it and even
though they had fought valiantly under the British Army they were not
even invited to the British victory parade, still a sore point
today!! Some argue that this was a administrative error. In Poland
the years of the war had been difficult for everyone. To start with
it was the officials, officers, land owners, wealthy peasants, people
of importance, criminals and enemy’s of the state who were sent to
the goulags. In the end it was just anyone, and you could be accused
of being an enemy of the state as we believe Mark was and possibly
Mietek too, for almost anything. One lady told a political joke and
was sent to the goulags. Everyone was suspicious of one another.
Stalin had deliberately cultured this and neighbours, even family
reported one another and in some cases were rewarded with a share of
the deportees property. After the war was over, there was so much
bitterness and it was not easy to talk of, so it was pushed under the
carpet by all and not spoken of. The people needed to get on and move on. There lies the reason why no one
knows of it. I believe that what these people, including Mark and
Mietek and our Polish ancestors went through at the hands of Stalin
was every bit as traumatic and tragic as the persecution of the
Jews at the hands of Hitler and maybe letting it pass as history and
getting on with life and rebuilding was a better option than
harbouring bitterness through the generations. However, having been to Ukraine, I believe there are still things that are not spoken of today and the youngsters do not know their own history.
Whilst
we relegate our own sad family story to history, spare a thought for
the nations suffering such persecution today and say thanks that we
now live in a democratic country.
To
a large degree Mark’s story is tragic and desperate and
demonstrates his ability to survive in extreme conditions. If
questioned as to whether he had a good contented life, I think I
would answer ‘no’ and that this was a man who struggled through
life and hopefully found happiness in the end. It is not a unique
story. It is the story of many Eastern Europeans and of refugees today.
________________________________________________________________________________
There is a very good 5 part documentary called ‘A forgotten odyssey’ in English, on You Tube about the Polish deportation to Siberia, their slavery, the Russian amnesty where some of them are released to join the Polish army, travelling to Persia and dispersed around the world and the soldiers fighting in Italy and then coming to England or returning to Poland. This is also the story of Mietek and Mark and is well worth watching.
Groceries were delivered, but I walked a lot to town. The boys did not get the amount of attention they should have done, but there were not enough hours in the day. We took the family out at weekends a lot to Clumber Park and Derbyshire which we all enjoyed (The picnics were legendary). Then Andrew came along August 1962, and Mark fell off a roof in the beginning of winter 1962 (beginning to sound like the cat with 9 lives). Although he was insured, there was no way he would be able to do anything like that again.
