The General Langfitt Story
Chapter 6 - Resettlement in Australia (continued)
Zofia Nadachowska also expressed this sentiment succinctly:
When I think of my mother I think of all other mothers. She was a symbol of all other mothers. From a very gentle person she became a lioness. It transformed her because she had to fight for the survival of her children. That was her main purpose in life. She pulled us through by hook or by crook.
Barbara Kaluzynska suggested that being part of a one-parent family is today considered a disadvantage, but that as a group this factor did not hold them back.
The thing I want to stress is that we were all brought up in one-parent families. All of us in the 'Langfitt Group' did well, we all had good jobs, a business, or a university degree. There was a lot of importance placed on religion, a lot of stress on girls not being promiscuous, and our teachers had a great deal of influence on us.
In the course of interviews, many people commented briefly upon the fact that the 'General Langfitt Group', like all the displaced persons of the 1940s and 1950s, made their transition to Australian life with few support services and without the help of counsellors. Zofia Skarbek considered that this was because,'We had friends, we had mothers, we had uncles and aunts. It was amazing because it was very much a matriarchal community'. Janusz Smenda, also an experienced psychologist, considered this question and postulated:
with the benefit of hindsight, that we were a very resilient group and an amazingly well-adjusted group for people who were in such an unusual series of circumstances, including traumas like war, loss of husbands, looking after small children, coping all of a sudden because there was no-one else to cope on their behalf. We had certainly no counselling available. There were none of the support systems that are in place now for migrants, certainly nothing like women's affairs advisers. A predominant number of these ladies would have benefited from this kind of support, including career support, finding out what opportunities there were, help to place their kids at schools. Yet we didn't feel that we were dumped or that nobody cared. Everybody just started their own life and got on with it. We had been for so long in such a deprived condition, and were not used to a welfare state. Anything we found here was a bonus. We were never really preconditioned to handouts.
The resilience of the group was also stressed by Bogdan Harbuz:
We were survivors. We had to fight. We had things hard all the time and Australia wasn't the hardest place. It was easier than Siberia or other places. So just because you didn't have a job one day, or something like that, you never went hungry. You could borrow money. You could buy things and you knew that most probably in a couple of days you would get a job. Another thing was that for quite a number of years our community in a sense was assimilating but in a sense was very patriotic and kept together. We were observing our customs and also, because we came from a certain part of the world, we felt brotherhood, friendship, mateship. As a community we decided that we could stand on our own two feet. If we had managed so far,we could manage still. And that was most probably the reason for being able to survive and improve our situation.
There was clearly a lot of mutual support within the 'African' Polish community, although many people commented that they very rarely talked together about specific details of their war experiences. Even so, the events which took them to India and East Africa, their experiences there and in the Soviet Union, set them apart from their many compatriots. Many other Poles who came to Australia in the post-war years had entirely different, frequently lengthier, 'more traumatic' experiences of war and displacement in Germany, if one can indeed measure the individual experiences of trauma by degrees. They even had 'different enemies'. Perhaps most significantly, the Polish displaced persons who arrived on the General Langfitt had been granted more time to adjust over a period of eight years, living in a less stressful situation than many of their fellow Poles. The time in the refugee settlements in India and Africa gave them a chance to create a strong sense of community which served them well on arrival in Australia. In time, there were many marriages which linked the two groups, but within the 'General Langfitt Group' many of the younger people who had been to school together kept social links and friendships, while their mothers remained close friends.
The members of the 'General Langfitt Group' who participated in this project talked with great pride about the achievements of their Australian children, and immense joy about their grandchildren, justifiably believing that they are one of their major contributions to Australian society. Indeed, many of their Australia-born children appear to have absorbed the values handed down by their parents: hard work, independence, the importance of education and pride in their Polish heritage. It was partly for their children's sake that many of the participants in this project agreed to discuss their past. As Halina Juszczyk explained:
I have often talked to my children about how we came to Australia and they often asked me to write it down. They insisted on having a written record of what I had told them many times so they would not forget. I don't want to dwell on our past, but it is important to remember. People think the world is very safe. Another Hitler or a new Stalin could emerge if people are allowed to forget about the Holocaust or the grim experiences in Russia. We must learn from history: Hitler could have been stopped but the Western powers closed their eyes. They were also very soft on the Russians. That is what I want my children to know.
Another participant had a different view on talking about the circumstances which brought her to Australia:
I have not talked much to my son about my experiences of being forced to leave Poland. Even if we did talk about it, I couldn't tell him everything because I think his experience in life does not come near enough to it. In some ways I and a lot of my friends spoilt our children. After our experiences, when our childhood was cut short, we wanted to give everything to our children because one never knows what might happen. Not even my husband knows everything. I think it is unnecessarily burdening for them. It is past and best forgotten. There are still things that I can't talk about - they are too moving and I suppose it is the same with everybody. I still dream about it. I still dream that I am being deported, that the war is raging, that I lose everything. That is something indelible on my mind and I cannot erase it. You don't want to talk about it and you try not to think about it and remember it but, in your subconscious, it is there all the time.
Janusz Smenda was more ambivalent about the importance of recording the experiences of the 'General Langfitt Group':
To be quite honest I don't know that it is really important. It is important in so far as it is a very minute part of Australian history and, from a sociological point of view, it is a rather unique story. Most of the migrants from the 'General Langfitt Group' have adjusted and adapted very well on the whole, without really traumatic experiences of settling in. Most of the young people entered their respective careers and studied and completed them successfully and entered different careers at various levels, or started businesses. Very few of them displayed what you might call failure, even though many came from one-parent families. Per capita there were less delinquencies, less mental or psychological problems within that group than you might expect from other migrant groups of similar size. And the mothers also adapted quite well, at various levels of their educational background, intellectual level. Most of them successfully managed to get their children opportunities, if not themselves, to continue to develop, which is quite remarkable.
Once knowing that they would stay in Australia and would not have to move on yet again, participants began to think of Australia as home. They still, after all these years, maintain a special and strong bond with Poland, one which many believe is founded on more than the normal bond for one's birthplace. It is a longing for something precious which is lost and cannot be replaced. For many their birthplaces which used to be in Poland have became part of Russia, and they feel that they have lost their homeland. Many no longer have family there.
Some feel that they could not, even after all this time, cope with the experience of returning to Poland. Others have made the trip, with varied reactions. Some, like Barbara Kaluzynska whose husband has family in Poland, have kept close ties with Poland and regular visits provide the opportunity to catch up with them. She talks, however, of the ambivalence of her situation:
It was after my first visit to Poland that I first really felt that Australia was home. When I went back to Poland I loved it, I loved the people. But after two months I was ready to go home. We are an unlucky generation because we haven't got a permanent place. When we are here we long to go to Poland, when we are there we want to return to Australia. We still feel that way and I think nearly all our generation feels like that.
Regina Tabaczynska gives a different point of view:
I went to communist Poland to visit friends and relations, some of whom I had not seen since 1937. I had a wonderful time. But I had no regrets that we had not returned to Poland. I would never have accepted communism and was happy that I escaped it. In a way I was happy when I left Poland again. I could not have lived there because the political climate was unacceptable to me. I felt oppressed. I had to look over my shoulder all the time and be careful what I said. The visit didn't bring back any memories because that part of Poland where I came from is now in Russia. I didn't belong there any longer and the strangest thing of all - I missed the English language, English newspapers and English books.
In spite of the bitter and often tragic experiences which brought the 'General Langfitt Group' to Australia and the hardships they endured in settling here, Australia has become their home. They are thankful for the opportunity Australia gave them to rebuild their lives in freedom and are rightly proud of their contribution. This story they have told for their children and grandchildren so that they will better understand the tragedy and destruction of war, the strength of the human will and the power of faith in God. Above all the memory of their beloved Poland will live on!