The General Langfitt Story
Chapter 2 - Deportation (continued)
Civilian Deportations
In addition, between 1200 000 and 1500 000 permanent inhabitants of eastern Poland were taken to the USSR in the process of four deportations. Members of the 'General Langfitt Group' were represented in all of these deportations. Halina Juszczyk, who was a child of eight, was in the first block of transports.
On the 17th of September 1939, the Russians crossed the border. As my family were living only sixty kilometres from the border they were at our place at six o'clock in the evening. My father said goodbye to us that day and he went to the little town Niechniewicze. He never came back because they arrested him and all the other ex-servicemen from our district, including our Uncle Ludwig Majcher, my mother's brother. They were in prison in Nowogródek for three months and then they were deported to Russia. We don't know where and we never heard from them.
We went back home and it was a dreadful time. We had soldiers coming into the house, putting my mother against the wall, wanting to shoot her. We children cried. We didn't know what was happening. Then my mother had a nervous breakdown because she couldn't go on alone. I remember her sitting on the bed staring blankly at the wall. We didn't know what to do. She didn't cook for us. But there was very little to cook because the Russian soldiers took most things. A few days after the Russians came my grandmother came to stay with us. She provided great support to us because my mother was in a state of despair and unable to perform her normal tasks.
Then at two o'clock in the morning on 10 February 1940 they came knocking on the door with guns. There were two NKVD people with guns and some local sympathisers. They told us to pack up and be ready in two hours. We were four children. My sister Krystyna was only eleven, I was eight and a half, my brother was four and my sister was two. We all cried. We didn't know what was happening. It was very cold.
The locals that came into our house that night took pity on us and wrapped some of our possessions into bed covers for us to take on the sledge. They told us that we were going to be transferred to another district but we knew that wasn't true. We travelled for a few hours to the nearest town of Baranowicze and waited there about three days for the whole transport to be gathered together. Then the train started to travel towards Russia. This was the very first transport from our district.
Elizabeth Patro's (nèe Nahajska) family were also sent into exile in the first round of transportations. Although Elizabeth was only an innocent child of 5, she has very distinct flashes of memory about the night of 10 February 1940 because it was the night which started an 'endless limbo of lost souls'.
It was an intensely cold winter night, through a slightly ajar door, floated a soft stream of candle light, voices of my father and Uncle Janek and the quiet sobbing of my mother. Iza, my elder sister, tossed restlessly in her bed, and further, near the large window, Tolek, my younger brother, was fast asleep.
I was fully awake. Laying scared and motionless I listened to the continuous howling of the dogs, wailing of women and screams of children. At first very faint and far, far away, then closer and closer, until the tumult was upon all of us. Screaming we jumped out of our beds and ran toward the kitchen.
There was a very loud banging on the entrance door, then a gruff voice in Russian: 'Otwieraj!' (Open). A gust of freezing wintry air filled the room at the entry of three burly 'Saldats'. One of them jumped toward my father, pushed him against the wall and thrust his bayonet under his chin. 'Stoi!' (stand still) he shouted.
The second soldier was ordering my sobbing mother to pack: 'You have fifteen minutes so hurry'. The third guarded the door. Suddenly our St Bernard, Sultan, appeared. With his huge bulk, bristled-up coat and ferocious look he was growling menacingly at the soldier. Very, very slowly the saldat lifted his gun, aimed and fired. 'Sultan, Sultan!' we screamed, the dog managed one step back, gave one long yelp then fell heavily into the soft white snow.
Mother slowly went to the bedroom, took a large quilt and threw it over the carcass of our beloved dog. She did not cry. We children just stood and watched as the white quilt and white winter snow became slowly stained by bright red blood.