Stanisław Manterys was born on 7 December 1935 in Zarogów, Poland. He was the youngest of six children of Serafin and Celestyna Manterys. When he was 2 years old, Stanisław and his family moved to Podlipie in the Podolia region in search of greener pastures. In early 1940, the Manterys family were transported deep into Siberia, to Yagshordin in the Komi Soviet Republic. Stanisław’s father was forced to work under extremely harsh conditions as a lumberjack. After the Sikorski-Mayski accord of 30 July 1941, the Manterys family was released from the labour camp. They made their way to Uzbekistan. There, finally succumbing to typhus and exhaustion, Stanisław’s parents met their end. In March 1942 Stanisław and his four sisters were taken in by the Polish Army led by gen. Anders and evacuated from the USSR to Iran, where they remained until August 1944, living in the Isfahan Polish Children’s Centre. His four older sisters – Rozalia, Krystyna, Anna, and Stefania – were all placed in different facilities around Isfahan. During his stay in Iran, Stanisław went to school and began his recuperation under more peaceful conditions.
In 1944, 773 Polish orphans and their caretakers left Iran on board the USS General Randall transport. Polish children were to be granted asylum under the aid for Polish refugees offered by the government of New Zealand. Stanisław and his sisters arrived on 1 November 1944 on board the USS General Randall. The whole group was placed in the Polish Children’s Camp near the town of Pahiatua. Stanisław attended a Polish school. The siblings remained in New Zealand for the remainder of the war, but after it ended, they did not return to Poland due the its uncertain geo-political situation and poor economic circumstances of their distant relatives residing there.
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It was a year, madam, when Russians came to our village, it was February 10, 1940.You know, I have been thinking as all these things passed by. It come backs in waves. So, they came, it was February 10, 1940 and that moment I clearly remember, as it was dark, cold. And they woke us up with rifle butts knocking at our doors. There were three of them. Two Red Army soldiers wore long coats and shiny belts with shiny buckles, buckles at these belts. Yet, I remember that later on I always envied them those coats, since when we were then in Siberia, we needed badly relevant clothes and it always happened over the wintertime- we were sighing: “Oh, it would be nice to have such a coat”. It would be nice to have one. And the officer was there, too, I am guessing, that it was the officer, as he had a pistol at his side, instead of a rifle. And those two soldiers stood at other sides of the door and the officer order us to… Well, maybe I don’t remember exactly the words he said, as I am now quoting what others were saying, but there was such a regular command. He said “Zobierajsie z wieszczami”, meaning „Pack your things up and get out of the house”. And they gave us like 15 minutes to get away from the house. And this is the moment I remember, as I had just woken up and my mother started to get me dressed in a hurry. And despite the winter, he put so many thick clothes on me, that I started complaining that I felt too hot.But, my mum calmed me down; there was a such a turmoil down in this hut, you can imagine what was happening. And then, they threw us out into that freeze and darkness outside, settling us onto the sleighs, that had already been prepared. They were very well organized. And, surprisingly, I have to admit that in that system, the Russians in that communist system they couldn’t arrange proper food supplies for their people, but when it comes to transportations of the Poles, they got used to them so much, they were so well organized, they had had it … alreadyfor many years… As early as at the outbreak of war, they had had it planned that they would be doing it. So, it went this way… They took us to the nearest train station in Złoczów and crowds were what you could have been seen at once… A lot of… Plenty (of people) filled the space there. I remember that place and that platform and those trains and those crowds, and complaints, and screams. Later on, after many years I visited that place.
Not all of us survived that journey, infants were dying as first, and there were many of them, you know. Well, and also elderly people, who were disabled, they also did. And when we had a stop, because if we hadn’t, then you couldn’t have stopped the train. Actually, it was unthinkable, there were no sufficient conditions, there was no whistle to make the loc… So, at the next stop, these bodies were often thrown right into the snow. As the train was not supposed to wait with burying or something.They were basically thrown into the snow. And, if someone wanted to have the mass, act with some reverence, just to lay the body onto the snow, those impatient Russians, who were there, as there were different ones. One were more cruel than others, but in general we were like… They just pushed people away, took those bodies and simply threw them away, as some sort of trash, onto the ice, onto the snow.
And there were some barracks made of wood, with no heating, prepared for us. Basically, these were planks there. Just like you can see in the Polish skansens, they show here in Poland skansens, that such structures were made of beams made of thick wooden logs.Unfortunately, we were not fortunate enough to have them, because these beams would be giving at least some heat, they would resist it somehow. And us, we simply had wood, planks with some moss filled in around them. Was that moss supposed to retain that heat?… perhaps it did, but bedbugs nested there extensively. I don’t know what was worse – freeze or bedbugs. And they forced us to get into these barracks, and I remember that barrack. There were just bunks, there were no regular beds, not at all. And those planks, and the people sleeping at those planks, one next to another. And there was a table in the center. For me it seemed to be huge, as I was little those days, I was four. Now, when I look at it, it wasn’t that… So, there was a table. Maybe, it was not that enormous, since when someone died later on, and they put the body on, so that body covered the whole table. Well, it was a long table. There was a forest, where… And this forest is still there; when my son visited this place, he took a picture.And, within this area, my father… I know that… I know how this forest looked like, as it was not far away. Anyway, on the other side there was a forest, too. I remember how people were cutting down wood and it was… Of course, there were no machineries there, everything was done with hands. So, they placed logs on special racks, on two racks, so that there would be a free space for a man to stand… They dug a bit of a hole. One man was standing down, and the other -on that log, and they had a long saw, and they were somehow slicing these logs into planks with that saw.My father was working there, either he chopped wood, or he… Once, the branch or even a tree fell down on him and they took him, unconscious, back to the barracks. And my mother he wept bitterly, because of two reasons – firstly, because it had happened, and secondly,that was the time we had nothing to eat at all. The Russians have a great saying– Nie robotajesz, nie kuszajesz. You don’t work, then you don’t eat.
This was a zero menu, I could say. We dried brad and the leftovers were carefully hidden, in order not to let anyone steal this bread, and we named it biscuits. And these biscuits, we were hiding them also later when we were in the south of Russia, I was hiding bread here into my breast pocket, so that no one could have… close to the breast, under my clothes. My father had his ways to lay some bird traps. They were for some astray sparrows, that couldn’t have escaped from winter, so he managed to catch such a sparrow. And he was bringing it to our barrack and there were three sisters, as one had just gone, she was in the other part of the camp, so there were three sisters, me and my mother. My father he was absent on that moment, as he was out in the forest. My mother, she plucked that bird and he cooked it in boiling water, he boiled it or something.And she split this little sparrow into four of us. She didn’t even bite it. And I was given a half of the leg… of this very bird. I don’t make it up, as it happened… Simply, it happened… and you cannot make it up.
Don’t forget Polish and don’t forget that you are Catholic and you have your faith, as we are going to return to Poland. People believed that we would return to Poland, that we would be free. This was the thing that motivated them. As children, since when the childless family appeared, it looked differently.It was… It was like those, who had no faith, they were very often dying. They threw up their hands saying “What am I doing here”. So it’s better to lay down in the snow and fall as asleep. What to wake up for? It was such an indifference. But, those, who strongly believed, theystrongly believed. Well… my parents did. We received a notice and my parents said that we would come back one day. The notice that the Poles had a… that there was an amnesty. We don’t like this word, ma’am. „An amnesty” in parenthesis, as what was this amnesty from?An amnesty is given to bad guys. Why us? Apparently, we were innocent families sent to… But Stalin, Russians decided that it would be the amnesty. So… This amnesty resulted from the Sikorski-Mayski agreement, after the German’s invasion on Russia, and suddenly, our foes, Russians,became our allies, as they wanted to fight against Germans. So, this is our story, you know? And people, Simple don’t realize that. And it looked that way – they opened up the gates and said to get out. Go away. Hardly ever there were camps, where people were given passes, andtickets… money for some train tickets. And that’s all. Did we get any passes, no…I doubt that, as my sister, who’s got a very good memory, she has never mentioned about it at all.She says that they simply made us… And now I know… A year or two ago I learned where we had gone and how we had gone. And we set off from that place, as it was the end of August, and there was Siberian summer there. We were going on foot for over 100 kilometers to the nearest railway node. To the place where was a station and some sort of railway. The village of [inaudible 00:02:44]. And from that place we continued on foot. And from that place the Poles were going at random. They didn’t know what to do. Some thought to go west, to Poland, yet there were rumblings about the war and it that it didn’t make sense. Going north meant going to meet polar bears, of course, you know.And it was still Siberia and nothing for us. It’s not even worth talking. Going east, was, firstly too far, and secondly, there were Japanese and war, hostile to us, and China, and all of that. Going south, deep down to India was impossible, as there were Himalayas, that cannot be crossed. And going western east didn’t make sense either, as Germans were invading Stalingrad ad places like that.
It wasn’t even in Samarkand as it was a bigger city. And, I was going there with my mother for begging. Simply, for begging. Yes. If youdon’t know what begging is, take a look how it works out in the streets and it is said: “some swindlers, Gypsies are sitting there”. Who knows who they are. But this is begging. We didn’t do it for fun, as we didn’t want to work. We were begging to survive. That’s the truth. To get at least a piece of biscuit or something. And, I have to tell you, that it looks… in order not to have any illusions on what these Poles who esc… what happened to them and what conditions they faced up on their way back, how they lived. Mum took me and mostly, she was carrying me, as supposedly I was too weak to do it myself.And she was not so tall. Mum was rather alone, so that effort had to be simply immense. OK. That’s how we made it. Such a scene. We are entering the canteen for workers of “You work, you eat” type. Once you don’t work, it doesn’t make sense to stand in line. Nonetheless, my mum went to such a canteen with me, I remember so well, and she was walking by the tables and asking people about something to eat for her child. And at one table, on the corner, there were mostly the people… unfortunately, I don’tremember these people [ns 00:01:55] from the canteen as nice ones. Perhaps… I don’t know. Maybe they thought that it was some sort of plotting, or something? And maybe there was lack of food? Anyways, there were some reasons they didn’t give us any help, but one man, who was sitting on the corner of the table and was eating his soup. My mum came to him and asked if he could give anything to the child from his… And he took some sort of scraps with his fingers out of the soup… You couldn’tall them meat. It was a string, or something, or a part of bowels of an animal, as it wasn’t a piece of… And he took it, and he threw it to me, to the corner of the table, without saying a word. And he continued eating. And my mum handed it to me and ordered me to eat it. She didn’t eat anything. And with theses scraps, I… You know…. I guess, these scraps were… I will never forget. And I almost ate it? [laughter] The shape, even the taste… even the taste …
These were old boats, as of course, they didn’t arrange any passenger vessels for us. And the jam, crowd, as many people as possible wanted to get on.Russiansdidn’t let everyone in, since they had their letters, which… told them who to get in and who not to get in. So, there were tragedies occurring them, too. Mothers with children had to stay. Desperation, screams.There were also situations, where the vessel were just taking off and young guys, two young men were chasing it, jumped into the water, to catch something, to get onboard, yet they didn’t manage, they slipped down and drowned. Later on, I remember the crowd on this vessel. And people all around us, dirt, as dysentery spread out , no one could stop his… discharge from the body, and that… mess, that could only be explained with. Well, people were dying there , too, and hardly anyone paid attention. I was also indifferent to it. I can’t remember, that I had that impression, that I saw a dead body, or something like that.I guess I don’t remember (throwing) over the side. So we arrived, sailed to Iran to Pahlevi, to the harbor called Persia those days. Now it’s Iran.
So, we were in Iran, actually… We had very beautiful memories from our stay there, as it was, to name it poetically, our third homeland. Those years, I spent there, sine the time I was around 7 years old until I was 9, almost 10, were… At this age, your brains absorbs plenty of impressions. And, moreover, if you are after such ajourney, and to say it honestly, after this escape from Russia… Coming to this country, that was not resembling at all the place we had left, Russia. You had an impression... And those voices of muezzins, who were singing from those minarets, they were reverberating around the whole city. These gorgeous Islamic mosques, that are so extremely beautiful…. The words can’t say it.
I was assigned to such a center for younger children, out of whom I was one of the oldest, so they had been there nearly since the nursery, as they had been infants, until my age, you know? And I was 9 already. Well… I was 9 already, when I left for Iceland.We had a palace, such a small palace, that was rented, or given by this… for our stay. A beautiful, beautiful structure. The garden was fenced with walls and it had fancy, huge windows, blue tiles and so on. You know, ma’am, I have to admit that the toilet was awesome. I found it a phenomenon that it there were tiles all around. But only ladies and girls were allowed to… Us, boys, we had the hole dug somewhere in the ditch, so we could have, you know… And even once, a boy fell into that ditch, too. Yet… not everything was so great.But the food was fresh.Those Persian lepyoshkas, they were so delicious, especially when smeared with butter.And then, our Polish ladies said that they would rather… They wanted bread, real bread. So in Isfahan someone was making, baking bread, perhaps upon request.So, we were delivered this bread and you know? It is strange how the man can change his ways. Bread, that used to be… of great value, stopped being valuables any more… We don’t want bread, we want those… we want those lepyoshkas, because they tasted better. So far, the taste of those lepyoshkas, fresh, delivered every day…Later on, we missed those lepyoshkas and we ate bread tastefully, too. And we had fruit and boiled eggs there. Persians were bringing them from the market. Our ladies bargained the price, begging and doing all that stuff. Well, we were fine there. They cared for us warmly, our wounds were treated, as there were nurses, who look after children. One lady decided that the school soul have been established. That we were at that age. And she invited girls, so that they… Girls, we will be having the school. Why did she choose girls, I would leave this case for psychologists, you know? Anyway, it happened and, with all due respect for her, at least something started off. As there was neither blackboard, nor the classroom, nothing, so we had our classes outdoors… at the sand. And then, us, boys, we were standing and looking what was going on there. And the other lady came over and said: “And would you, boys, like to learn, too?” „We would, we would, we would, we would”. OK., then, so let’s get it together. Afterwards, they arranged the blackboard. And they appointed me to write first letters on this brand new, green board.And I remember my first letters, as they show me how to write the Word „As”. You put “A” and then “s”. And I repeated this, I wrote it. And I was a leader in the class. This boy can write these two letters right away. So, in my first year of the Polish school in Iran I was a top student. Yet, step by step, year by year I stopped being the top student and finished in the bottom of my class.
The first impression was clear sky, hills, grassy mountains, and houses, settled between these hills, mountains. As a chicken leg house, as in the fairy tale.We had never seen such things in our lives. At the region of Podole we had had nothing like that, in Siberia, either, in the south was Central Asia and the building structures were different.Then, vastness of the Indian Ocean, so nothing like that… It was unexpected. And we had a feeling that…For me, it was like an oil-painted picture, sprinkled with fresh rain. As it made me feel that way. And so far, our city has been making such an impression. I feel free indeed there. This is my city. I am willingly return there. I can’t imagine myself living in other cities. I used to reside in other cities, but that is a place I like.
And we were treating us like royalty. We thought that everything was for us. There were two vessels… two vessels. I’m sorry, there were two orchestras. And what for? After many years, we got to know that it was a mistake, a misunderstanding. They had ordered one, but two appeared. That was fine, as one of them was performing under our section of the vessel, and the other one – in the place where the New Zealanders stood. Crowds showed up. And these crowds were not especially for us, as, surely, many people came over from the city, curious about the ship arriving, as those days, in Wellington, it was actually a phenomenon. And Peter Fraser, the Prime Minister of New Zealand,our hero went onboard, assisted by the consul of the Republic of Poland, this real one, the other one. And his wife, too. And also, there was… there was a huge party there. There were so many cameras, two camcorders were recording movies. New Zealand soldiers were there, some speeches were made, too, yet we understood nothing at all. We were just peeping through the holes… And they sat us to the trains that had been awaiting. Two trains moved just to the side of the vessel in order to make it easier and not to let us stroll through the city with all these bags. And the New Zealand nurses were waiting.The whole troop of New Zealand nurses and service men, who were looking for us and checked whether every child had everything she or he needed. People showered us with sweets.And they were bringing packs of sandwiches of various type from the railway canteen.These awesome New Zealand sandwiches. And barely we got on the train, we had already been filled in, and the last meal on the vessel had been huge, too. So, there it was… And as we were going, on our way, on the way people were waving to us everywhere, as it was strange that such a train was passing and it would be… as we reached with these trains one of the cities, 150 km off, so on the railway station we had a stopover… and it was supposed to be half an hour or so, and we actually stayed there maybe 2-3 hours, because the city declared vacations on that day. Schools were closed and many people were let to leave from their work, so there were people standing over the distance of a few kilometers.They were waving with white and red flags and some of us even thought that these were New Zealand scouts, who came out with Polish and New Zealand flags. And then greetings and food again and again, and after that people were giving us little gifts through the windows and one New Zealander described that he had run to his home, managed to go there and bring his toys, you know. And he eventually got married with one of the Polish girls from the train.
The Camp, ma’am, is written with the capital letter and it is absolutely not associated with some concentration camp or Russian something.We knew such camps, but we clearly recognized the difference between it. So, unfortunately, I have to point out to many historians, who try to use and say in a politically correct way, that it was some sort of a campus. No campus, dear all, there was none, but the Camp, starting with the capital letter. And it was our house for the next few years. From some it was shorter period, depending on the age, since as they turned certain age, then they were sent either to New Zealand schools, or to work, depending on… how old they were, or we stayed… until… almost everyone could have finished the Polish primary school, until the 6th grade. And it was in the camp. As it was a little Poland. It was the Polish administration, and generally it was internally... Externally, it was the New Zealand army that governed the Camp, so… they gave as a technical staff. They ran the boiling room, the kitchen, and cleaning, that all of it was technical. And New Zealanders, along with the Ministry ofPublic Works. So, these functions were divided.And the Polish was used on a daily basis. You hardly heard a word in English. The streets were named in Polish, all had been renamed and there were Kościuszki and Piłsudskiego streets. One… Only one street was named Kiwi. This was a non-Polish name.
And a special kind of group was created. Some defined it as a huge, big family. Like always, there is some exaggeration and truth in it, yet it was closer to the truth, because even those, who… There were 733 children and 105 persons from the staff, and it was impossible that everyone knew each other.However, they saw each other and could recognize the face. Well, I know these people while looking at the photograph. So, when you met such a person, he/she greeted you as if he was your brother or sister. The relations were developed to such an extent that… it is so specific that once we had to settle there, we had no choice, so these relationships in the Camp we established, this camaraderie, were like ties, stronger that family ties. It was such a … It was materialized in that way, that there were such situations, that can be sometime hardly understood even by the psychologists, that if the soldiers were coming, like several hundred soldiers from the former Polish Army in the West – the 2nd Corps, Anders Army among other things, they came to New Zealand to join their children, so… because they were half-orphans.The majority of them were full orphans, but there were also half-orphans, meaning that they had… in most cases father, as mothers had died in Siberia. Mothers delivered their best. So, there were such situations that some children were afraid what would happen, if father came, since they hadn’t seen him for 5 years, and the life went on, they grew up and didn’t know what individual they would meet. And them, they didn’t know what children they would meet. And those encounters were sometimes somehow strange… sometimes even formal, you know, as it was like… And, in consequence, later on, the New Zealand government demanded that… if the Polish soldier at the prime of his life came over, he was allowed to work, as there were lots of jobs in New Zealand.The idea was to let him take the child and take care of him or her. He took it… He had to take it from the Camp.These children were jealous about these orphans, as suddenly their world collapsed. Here was the whole group, I mean we lived in large groups and together, and unexpectedly, father and child, or something, and they stayed in a house, rented apartment, or something. So, you can imagine, that it was a huge leap of the world again.
Well, ma’am, I didn’t decide to stay in New Zealand. Despite the fact that I was 10 those days, I wanted to get back home.Home.Home was something vague, dream-like, since there was no home, there were no parents. And there was actually nothing to return to, but we had lots of relatives in the western part of Poland, we originally come from. Our close relatives, uncles and aunts, and all of those, they had their families there, they were farmers. And a few of our guys from these families from New Zealand mov… in Poland they decided to get us there. And us… my family, me, my sisters had already been packed after we arrived, as my sisters… our suitcases had already been tailored with canvas. However, we receive a message, that unfortunately we didn’t come back to Poland as a family, because smart people had decided that it was impractical, as there were five of us – who was going to take five children to their home? Post-war conditions, well,who was going to take? Even in the countryside.Yet, it was suggested that we might have been sent to various relatives there in the neighborhood. And my sister, Krysia, she didn’t let them separate us, as before, in Iran. She said that, no way, she wouldn’t allow for breaking up the family and it was good, as… well, this is the other story why it happened. And, when it comes to me, I felt great sorrow for those who decided that we wouldn’t return to Poland. After many years I realized that it made sense. Well… it was the most reasonable thing that had done. Out of two things that could have happened – either we would stay in a foreign country, get an education and would have fine living, or come back to Poland, the family broken up and future unknown. As it turned out that those, who returned, and there were few of them, like 30 children plus the staff, mothers and so on, they faced up hard times there in Poland. And the majority of those, whom we met after many years, they regretted deeply, really deeply. Both adults and children, they (regretted) they had came back to Poland.
Leaving the Camp was the cultural clash. We didn’t want to leave that Camp, but once they told us to, they sent someone to, so… Me, I was moved to a private room, a lodging in some widow’s place, in Wellington. I had a school nearby, I later attended – I was going there by two trams or on foot. The adoption was made in a way, that it actually wasn’t an adoption. Well, with some minor exceptions. There were several (guys), I knew, two persons, I guess, who had been adopted. They wanted to adopt me. Very kind people, who wanted to adept me, a farmer’s family. And they were deeply surprised that I didn’t agree, why I didn’t… I had to explain it to them with my broken English that I simply had my parents, and I kept fresh memories about them, as it had been just a couple of years and, what’s more, I had sisters, who were my family, and them, upon my adoption, would consider it a some sort of a separation from my family. And practically speaking, it works this way, doesn’t it?You can’t live two lives. And that was it. And, apart from that, I felt a real Pole and I still do. And I didn’t want to have New Zealand parents, honestly speaking. Later on, I was wondering a few times in my life about this particular decision I made. And I event don’t have an answer, but I think I did right.
Did I find the happiness? Well, I have to tell you, without hesitation, although it has been many years since that moment, that I did. I feel that… I feel that I belong to these, if we refer to mathematics, to these 5% of the population, who feels… who feels fine. I ‘m not a rich man. I’m not a poor man. I have a good wife. I have good friends. I have good neighbors. What disadvantages should I search for?
And do you feel a Pole all the time, or a New Zealander?
Oh no, no. This is… I have been asked this question in a different manner for many years, and there were sometimes moments when I wanted to response to New Zealanders politically, that I was, I felt New Zealander-Polish. Yet, indeed, now, from the time perspective, it is not like that. Perhaps, many Poles could be surprised. Yet, I feel Pole actually. None of those… However, I am the Pole living in New Zealand, for whom this New Zealand culture is deeply accepted. I am used to it. I see great advantages in it, well, some disadvantages too, you know? And, this is like I see great advantages and disadvantages in the Polish culture. Maybe not in the Polish culture, but in distortion of the Polish culture, that have occurred. I genuinely regret that in Poland Polish language is nearly vanishing. When I go around Warsaw and see no word in Polish… I see the Polish one, well, the name in Polish. For me, this is a very sad phenomenon, that I guess… I can’t get used to. We cherished the Polish language very much. To us, it was a prerequisite for survival, as being in the strange land, actually a tolerant country, you shouldn’t complain, as it would be unfair. A very nice country, people are generally so informal and they had those… The New Zealand culture is rather unlike the Polish one. Despite Mc Donald’s and all these hamburgers are the same in these states, yet under the skin, everything is different. In New Zealand there is no formality.I like it so much. In Poland I also appreciate part of this formality, but I can’t stand this office formality. When I go to the office, or a store, and a man or woman tells me something in an official manner, I get angry. Then I think… someone points out that, my wide points me out “Don’t comment on”. Don’t comment on –well, but how can’t you stay calm? I am a man actually. And in New Zealand I am treated… in offices, as a man. To such an extent, that when I worked here, in Poland and paid taxes, and was a business entity, then… When I returned with my wife to New Zealand for may vacation each year, then I must tell you, people may make fun of that or not, that I had two wishes. Once I come back to New Zealand – the first thing I am going to do, I will go to the Tax Office, I’ll get into this office, smile, say good morning and get out. I would never do it in here. I guess they would cut me with the axes, to exaggerate it, but the cool air would blow in at once. So, this is it. So, this culture is split somehow. There is no roughness in their behavior. People call each other by name, and, to be honest, I even offends be a bit, since… But, it is such style these days that everyone… You call the Prime Minister by name, you call the Queen by name, people, call priests by name. This is such a… Kids all elderly people by name. Yet, this is a cultu…. But this is another plot. You can get used to it.
In 1979 I came to Poland for the first time, with my sister, the oldest one, Krysia, and I had a feeling, it’s hard to say… unbelievable.We had just arrived by ship, no, we came, we arrived by plane, only moved on a ferry from Copenhagen, a Polish ferry, the one from the communist era.It was such a rusty boat, you know. And, it was the first time I heard people speaking Polish on the Polish territory. It made a huge impression on me. Yet, one moment it was sad, as I came across bureaucracy at the very start. Such a ruthless, cold, one, such a human acting, you know, and I was used to something different. As, us, the Poles living abroad, there in New Zealand, as we heard someone speaking Polish or saw somebody, then we welcomed this Polish guy as our own brother. Seriously, it worked this way. Oh, Mr. Polishman. In the street, oh, Mr. Polishman. They shake their hands and all that stuff. Now, God forbid. In case of some guys, you’d better stay away from them, you know. But.. and that’s why I felt it deeply, but I felt it when I was travelling across the Baltic Sea, oh yeah, God, that Pomeranian Coast impressed me so much and I was imagining how warriors of Ścibor, brother of Mieszko the First had been moving this path. And, in general, my young blood, fantasies and so on, but I felt it that way. We arrived and… I was surrounded with the Polish language.For me, it was a phenomenon, as by that moment, I had been feeling surrounded with English, correct? And Polish was selective. And here, everyone spoke Polish. People called each other by name, some of them said „Stanisław”, so I turned around immediately as if he was talking to me. I reacted that way, you know.
You know, ma’am not everything goes so poetically fluent. Some things are just a pure coincidence.And that book almost stemmed from the pure coincidence. It had always been said to describe the stories, but who was supposed to do it? It had always been said so. But, there was the 60th anniversary of our arrival to New Zealand and our committee was established, and we were sitting at our place, having a meeting, and decided what every person… we divided functions and now: “And who is going to be in charge of programs?” What program, as there is a need for a decent program, two pages long, something smart, as it will last four days and there will be a mass of people. Well, the program. And how to fill this program? And, of course, it was the issue of the day. Well, but such a rigid program? Perhaps, it is a good idea to add up some photos from Pahiatua, right, group photos. Well, but what photos? There are so many of these photographs … My friend, acquaintance, Józef Zawada, he is an unofficial archivist of this Pahiatua. He has got sever thousand archived photo. So, which of them to pick? One is not enough, so maybe two, or three. And some editorials, too. But what? It is necessary to provide a wider background.And I started looking for. I called my son at that very moment, asking who would do it? OK. My son, as… this is his field, editing. And I tell him, listen Adam, could you make such a program for us? “Well, father, I could”. Great, then. „Well,. Bring me this footage and I will handle it”. So, we took him the footage and he started working on that. And later, there were more and more of those materials. But I say, it had not been planned. And, there were more and more. At first, it went slowly, and then it could be seen that we would make a small book out of that. Later on, we stopped by at some 100 pages or so, and we couldn’t go on, as the people didn’t want to talk and I couldn’t write, and I didn’t want to talk about these hard… Russia, and all of that. So, tell about Pahiatua, as it was the 60th anniversary of Pahiatua, so tell about Pahiatua. And it was like snowballing – everyone started talking aboutPahiatua. Before we realized, we had already had masses of footage covering memories from Pahiatua. We came to a conclusion that there was a disproportion there. There had to be Iran, a bit of Russia, Poland, in order to make people read this book and know what was going on. And, as long as some heard that others had their articles there, then the snowball started moving on. Finally, we had the book of 400 pages, including 40 pages of photographs. So, I guess, the total was 410. 400pages to be printed and my son later said: “Father, stop, no more.” As he had been already working intensively on that for nine months. He came right after work, so me and my wife carried a hot meal to his place. He only had enough time to eat and even he ate while sitting at the computer and editing this book. We handed him over the footage. And it was issued in English. So this is how it went. It was issued... we printed it somewhere… and it was a very appreciated release. And now, the 4th edition is waiting for me in New Zealand, my son received it from the printing house, in English, and that’s why we wanted so much to have at least the 2nd edition in Poland, released in Polish. We were waiting for 10 years. We were given promises from different… Not to mention them, as we will only hurt some… And one moment Mr. Michał Stępniewski showed up, who, being in New Zealand, as we had met there accidentally, took the phone and called the Museum In Gdynia, telling that the museum would handle it, and then everyone found sponsors and here we are, in this city. And that’s why I’m saying that such moments… that exactly something like that happened and it has been following somehow and something has been going on and so on.
I am a religious man, ma’am. I am a Catholic person and I’m looking at that, I must say, that I pray every single day. And in my prayers I express gratitude. I remember the story of my parents, and I wouldn’t like my children to experience all of that. In any way. So, this is destiny, a little bit at the edge of the common wisdom. I don’t believe in such things. I mean… I don’t feel that some random destiny dropped me here or there. And, here I strongly feel in the place, where… where there was hard, there was hard, I felt this hand of providence, the God’s hand. If it hadn’t been like that, I would have stopped believing long time ago. Yet, since I experiences so many things in my life, even when coming out of….that even the mercy, that my parents had received somehow in a strange way, that they could have left their children for good for the Anders Army. It has some sort of meaning, people may interpret it differently, and then everything was like a piece of cake. And then, this stay in Iran, it was apparently fantastic, awesome, only good memories. Afterwards, our New Zealand stories, so… the goodness goes through. I feel human kindness very much, the one I get from people.And I feel it very much.
