Collected-Memories-Of-Birmingham

Contents This booklet gives a presentation of the main parts of the ‘Collected Memories of Birmingham’s Poles’ project created and carried out by the Midlands Polish Community Association with funding provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund Page The Midlands Polish Community Association was created to serve both Poles and other people interested in Polish history and culture. Its objectives are to broaden cultural awareness and understanding and to aid social integration within the Midlands and assisting recent immigrants from Poland, currently living within the Midlands area, to integrate into local society. 02 i. Introduction It will promote social and cultural events which support these objectives 04 ii. Historical extracts Acknowledgments: 09 iii. Summaries of the interviews of the project participants: The Midlands Polish Community Association would like to take the opportunity to thank the following people and organisations: 10 01. Michał Babicz Funder: 12 02. Teresa Babicz 14 03. Bronisława Boguniewicz The Heritage Lottery Fund has enabled us to make the cultural and economic contribution of the generation 16 04. Genowefa Czepiel of Polish people in Birmingham, who settled in the 18 05. Stanisław Jankowski early post-war years, visible to a wider audience 20 06. Danuta Kenyon www.hlf.org.uk 22 07. Michalina Kuczyńska 24 08. Mieczysław Kuczyński 26 09. Blanka Ku´zmińska Partners: 28 10. Jan Ma´slonka The Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Mental Health The University of Birmingham: The Centre for Russian 30 11. Julian Michalski at the University of Birmingham, through a letter of support and Eastern European Studies (CREES); Dr Derek Averre, 32 12. Zofia Michalski received from Professor Ann Davis. Also the voluntary help Director of CREES. Dr Nathanial Copsey formerly from of Maureen Smojkis giving her time to support and train CREES, now Head of Politics and International Relations, 34 13. Stanisława Olejnik people in the use of the technology to record digital stories Co-Director of Aston Centre for Europe, both provided 36 14. Jadwiga Orłowska and to help and assist throughout the application submission letters of support. 38 15. Jan Pawłowski and the various stages of the project. 40 16. Bolesław Smojkis The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum: the Chairman 42 17. Zdzisława ´S l e d z i ń s k a Birmingham Settlement, through a letter of support received Krzysztof Barbarski, who was interviewed, and Wojtek from Safdar Mir, Development Manager and Hyacinth Deluga, Technical Support Manager, provided the project 44 18. Paulina ´Sliwa Shirley, Development Officer, City Spirit programme who with documentary films and drawings from the Second 46 19. Krystyna Weber both assisted in the application process and provided World War period. 48 20. Wanda Wyszyńska training on how to prepare the bid. 50 21. Julian Dre´scik The Joseph Piłsudski Institute: Kinga Gawrońska and The Polish Catholic Association has provided the facilities Anna Stefanicka, provided the project with photographs 51 22. Tadeusz Tworkowski to house the project and launch the exhibition. of interwar Wilno (Vilnius) 52 iv. Project Overview Birmingham Central Library provided a letter of support. Training in Oral History was facilitated by Izzy Mohammed and Andrew Green. Archive training was provided by 53 v. The ‘In War and Peace’ Exhibition Rachel MacGregor and Corinna Rayner from Birmingham Archives & Heritage. Midlands Polish Community Association Polish Millennium House Bordesley Street Birmingham B5 5PH All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holder. Copyright MPCA, 2011. 1 i. Introduction Lives changed forever by the Second World War (WWII) Please look at the map – the pink area to the east was Table 1: Interviewees categorised by residence, It is widely known that a great many, mainly young, in Polish Millennium House in Digbeth. However, in the Polish territory in 1939, but occupied sequentially by Soviet September 1939 Polish people arrived in Britain in the years after the 60 to 70 years since they first arrived, their numbers have forces, then by the Nazis, and then retaken by Soviet forces accession of Poland into the EU in April 2004. A good dwindled as the community aged. Only those who arrived and annexed to become part of The Soviet Union in 1945. Residence Poland Poland - “lost territories’ many of them arrived in Birmingham and settled in the as children or young adults still remain alive. The question Today this area is split between the independent countries in 1939: (clear area) (pink Area) of Lithuania, Belarus, and The Ukraine. The white area city and other parts of the West Midlands. New Polish which must occur to any intelligent and curious English Totals: 5 16 shops and sections in supermarkets selling Polish food person is: why was there this post-wave of Polish settlers was Polish territory in 1939 and remained so after WWII. The yellow areas were part of Germany in 1939, Country 5 4 3 9 have made the presence of these newcomers obvious to to Britain? where place most city residents. In contrast, few are aware that there but became Polish territory after WWII. The of residence Poland Lithuania Belarus had been an earlier wave of Polish migrants in the early They were not, as with the post-2004 wave, ‘’economic is today: Ukraine Table 1 shows how many of the interviewees lived in post-war years. These migrants were predominantly Polish migrants”. No, they were primarily “political refugees”, each broad section of the map at the outbreak of WWII in servicemen and their families, the latter of whom had spent and they were refugees from Soviet communism. September 1939 and also, for those in the “lost territories”, a number of years in various camps abroad in parts of the This project interviews 21 of these early post-war in which present-day country is their former residence. British Empire. There were also a number of Polish orphans Polish settlers: our “interviewees”. This booklet gives whose parents had died during the war either before or summaries of their life histories, including relevant during active service in the army or air-force. In Birmingham photographs and documents. Let us briefly set out the these Polish migrants established a significant and thriving key relevant historical background. community, with three well-established clubs, the most A summary of the effects on lives of WWII visible of which today is the Polish Catholic Club located These effects can best be summarised as follows. 6 – were from families who suffered the death of one-or- Of the 21 interviewees more members during their exile to Siberia, or their journey to the Middle-East after release from Siberia 17 – fought in regular Polish units or resistance units against Nazi Germany in the Second World War, 3 – were from families, members of whom were forced The interviewees’ locations of residence in 1939 or were from families where their father or siblings, into conscript labour by the Nazis in factories or on fought in the war farms in Poland, Germany or occupied France. 15 – were from families who were subjected to deportation All of those interviewed are in one or more of the to Siberia or deepest Russia, carried out on the above categories. orders of Joseph Stalin Lives in Britain and Birmingham All the interviewees have spent a large part of their lives starting school and the overwhelming majority of their in Britain, with a big part of this in Birmingham. Some children did very well at school. Interestingly, quite a came as adults, some came as children – one was born substantial number of their children have married at a Polish resettlement camp in The Midlands in 1949. partners who are not Polish. They all managed to find employment (no interviewee ever mentioned any spell of unemployment) and become The interviewees have all had lives greatly affected by WWII. productive and law-abiding members of British society. They mainly arrived in Britain by troopship or large merchant All but two of the interviewees had a Polish spouse, and ship after 1945. A few arrived during the war by small boat mostly they kept strongly to Polish cultural traditions in their or aeroplane. They stayed in Britain, with most of their lives homes and places of worship. All but two spoke Polish at spent in Birmingham. home and had their children learn the Polish language. Their children, however, rapidly became bilingual upon The structure of the booklet The next section of this booklet gives a deeper and wider The next section then provides some details on the origins overview of the history of Polish settlement in Britain and and development of the project. Finally, we acknowledge annexed by Soviet Union, 1945 territory transferred from Germany to Poland, 1945 Birmingham. This is followed by summaries of the 21 the roles played in the project by various members of the individual interviews. Midlands Polish Community Association. 2 3 was different. They were distinctly more pro-Soviet than The data in the Table also shows the shrinking of the Polish- ii. Historical Extracts the stalwart anti-Bolshevist Churchill and, consequently, born population in the years after 1951, due to deaths amongst distinctly less favourably disposed towards the exiled the older Polish settlers, and the excess of outmigration over and displaced Poles. Nothing better represents this than the very small in-migration in most of the period. Antecedents: The Polish presence eastern border. Overall, Poland emerged 20 per cent smaller the shameful exclusion of Polish forces from the Victory in Birmingham prior to 1939 than it had been in 1939.

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