Zosia Legowska

 Historical Context
The War Years:  1939-1946
Chene Street History Project,
Marian Krzyzowski, Director

A social history of the Chene Street (Detroit) neighborhood (1890-1990) as seen through the eyes of everyday people in their everyday lives.

The University of Michigan



Timeline of Selected Events
Click on links as appropriate.

1939  World War II began with German invasion on Poland on September 1st; USSR invaded Poland on September 17th.
1940 
Soviets began mass deportations of people from Polish territories (mostly Poles) to Siberia, to forced labor camps of Gulag.
  • February -- 1st deportation
  • April -- 2nd deportation
  • June -- 3rd deportation
1941 
June -- 4th deportation of people from Polish territories to Siberia.

July 30th --Sikorski-Majski treaty

August 14th -- Soviet-Polish military agreement (signed as a consequence of the July 30 treaty) -- based on which a Polish army could be formed in the Soviet Union from former Polish Gulag prisoners, under the command of general Wladyslaw Anders.


September -- Gen. Anders’ Army began forming itself in the Soviet Union territory.

Gen. Wladyslaw Anders wrote in memoir:

“The Soviet authorities were surprised by the huge number of Poles reporting for military service. They probably thought that few would get out of concentration camps alive, and that none of them would be fit for active service. I had an opportunity to talk to thousands of men, women and children who arrived in the camp, and to my horror they fully corroborated all I had heard about the terrible treatment the Poles had received at the hands of the Soviet authorities. (…)

I could only form a full and detailed picture of these horrors when, with the gradual organization of the Polish army, I saw arriving from all parts of the boundless Russian territory a flood of thousands and dozens of thousands of prisoners of war and imprisoned or deported civilians, who told of their experiences and of the fate of their families and friends. They were but a small proportion of the people deported to Russia, which  amounted to over a million.
Until then each one had known only his own story or those of his fellow-prisoners, but when they came together  in the army it became clear to us how the Russians had systematically drained from Poland all people of value to the nation, whatever their racial origin, class or religion: Poles and Ukrainians, While Ruthenians, Lithuanians and Jews, landowners and farm-hands, factory owners and workers, officers and other ranks, judges, tradesmen and policemen, Roman Catholic priests and Protestant ministers and Rabbis, all were torn away from their homes, absorbed by the monstrous machine of the N.K.V.D., and sent to Soviet prisons and camps.”

Wladyslaw Anders, An Army on Exile, pp. 65-66

1942 
January --
  • a new center of organization of the Polish Army was established in Guzar (Uzbekistan).
  • The sanitary situation in the camp in Guzor was tragic. Epidemic diseases were spreading.  One of the soldiers recalls:
“W Guzarze szerzyla sie epidemia czerwonki i tyfusu. Codziennie umierali zolnierze, a szczegolnie osoby cywilne, ktore przybyly z wojskiem. Napredce zorganizowalismy posilki, bylismy stale glodni, zawsze dlugo czekalismy na chleb, a po otrzymaniu go z miejsca porcje dzienna zjadalismy aby zaspokoic glod. (…) Pewnego dnia, jako dowodca warty mieszczacej sie w budynku, ktory gorowal nad droga, powolywalem warte pod bron, by oddac honory zmarlym zolnierzom wywozonych na wojkowych furmankach calymi dzisiatkami na cmentarz. W tym dniu robilem to kilka razy co swiadczylo, ze w Guzarze jest zle.”

Piotr Zaron, Armia Andersa, p. 99

TRANSLATION:
"In Guzar epidemic diseases were spreading. Soldiers, and especially civilians who traveled with the army, were dying everyday. We organized meals hastily, we were hungry all the time, we always waited for bread so long, and, after receiving it, we were eating the daily portion at once to satisfy the hunger. (...)  One day, as a commander of the guard located in a building that was above a road, I was calling guard to arms in order to honor the dead soldiers carried on carts to the cemetery. That day I was doing that several times, what meant that the situation in Guzar was bad."

January 17th--
Gen. Szysko-Bohusz reported:

“Z tym wszystkim co stanowilo zalazek 7 Dywizji Piechoty wyjechalem 17 stycznia do Kermine. Nasze wagony byly wlaczone do bardzo dlugiego pociagu towarowego, ktory szedl do Krasnowodzka i godzinami stal na malenkich stacyjkach w szczerej pustyni.”

Gen. Szyszko-Bohusz, report, cyt za: Piotr Zaron, Armia Andersa, p.99

TRANSLATION:

"With all that constituted the seeds of the 7th Infantry Division I traveled on January 17th to Kermine. Our trains were attached to a very long goods train which went to Krasnowodzk and stayed hours on the small stations in the desert along the way."


March - August-- Evacuation of the Polish Army from centers of organization in Uzbekistan to Iran (through Krasnowodzk  to Pahlavi)
  • Gen. Wladyslaw Anders wrote about the evacuation:
“The talk lasted from half-past three in the afternoon until seven o’clock. It touched on all manner of subjects, Stalin sometimes, in his strange way, breaking suddenly in the middle of a sentence to refer to an entirely irrelevant matter. It surprised me that Stalin had so readily agreed to my suggestions. They involved such important decisions for the Soviet Union that I could only attribute their readiness to meet us to the difficulties Russia was experiencing at the front. (…) Not only did Russians take these decisions quickly, but they promptly and energetically took action to organize transport for those to be evacuated. (…) The convoys were to go by rail to Krasnovodsk, and from there by boat to Pahlevi.” 
Wladyslaw Anders, An Army on Exile, p 100

  • Evacuation through the Caspian Sea had two stages:

    I. March 24th – April 5th 1942: 
“Pierwszy transport ewakuacyjny doroga morska odplynal z Krasnowodzka do Pahlavi juz 24 marca i doplynal do celu w dniu nastepnym. Od tego dnia do 5 kwietnia trwala pierwsza ewakuacja zolnierzy polskich i rodzin wojskowych z terytorium ZSRR (…) Ogolem zostalo ewakuowanych 43 858 osob, w tym 1603 oficerow, 28 427 podoficerow I szeregowych, 1159 ochotniczek, 1880 junakow i 10 789 osob cywilnych, w tym 3100 dzieci. Wladze radzieckie podstawily do ewakuacji 34 pociagi ewakuacyjne I 17 statkow morkich.”

Piotr Zaron, Armia Andersa, p. 119

TRANSLATION:

"The first transport of evacuation sailed from Krasnowodzk to Pahlavi already on March 24th and got to the destination the next day. From that day until April 5th the first evacuation of the Polish soldiers and their families from the Soviet Union territory took place. (...) In general 43 858 people had been evacuated, including: 1603 officers, 28 427 non-commissioned officers and serial soldiers, 1159 volunteers, 1880 cadets and 10 789 civilians including 3100 children. Soviet authorities allocated 34 trains and 17 ships."

II. August 9 - 30th 1942:

“Wczasie trwania ewakuacji temperatura w ciagu dnia dochodzila do 60 C w sloncu. Rejs statku przez Morze Kaspijskie trwal przecietnie okolo trzydziestu godzin. W okresie dwudziestu dwoch dni sierpnia ewakuowano z ZSRR do Iranu 69 247 osob, w tym 2430 oficerow, 36 701 podoficerow i szeregowcow, 112 urzedniokow wojskowych, 1765 ochotniczek I siostr PCK, 2738 junakow i junaczek oraz 25 501 osob cywilnych, wsrod nich 9633 dzieci”

Piotr Zaron, Armia Andersa, p. 141

TRANSLATION:

"During the evacuation the temperature was reaching 60 C in sun. The cruise of the ship through the Caspian Sea lasted typically 30 hours. In the time period of twenty two days of August 69 247 people had been evacuated from USSR to Iran, including 2430 officers, 36 701 non-commissioned officers and serial soldiers, 112 military clerks, 1765 volunteers and the Red Cross sisters, 2738 cadets and 25 501 civilians including 9633 children"
  • Over 10 000 civilians traveling with the army died along the way and were buried in SRRs and Iran. There are 13 Polish cemeteries in Uzbekistan, one in Guzar, and one in Kermine (Navoi). This is most likely where Jan, Stanislaw and Janka were buried. However most of the Poles buried there are not identified. 
  •  Also, as Piotr Zaron writes:
"ewakuowana z ZSRR ludnosc cywilna zostala czasowo rozmieszczona w Teheranie, a nastepnie przewieziona do Indii i do niektorych krajow afrykanskich, m. in. do Kenii, Ugandy, Tanzanii."

Piotr Zaron, Armia Andersa, p. 169

TRANSLATION:

"civilians evacuated from USRR had been temporarily located in Teheran, and then transported to India and some of the African countries, among others to Kenia, Uganda, Tanzania"

September -- Evacuation from Pahlavi to Teheran

Gen. Wladyslaw Anders wrote:
“As soon as I had got back to Teheran I had to take most energetic action to organize camps for the civilian evacuees who were being brought from Pahlevi to Teheran, and to establish hospitals for them, for even after their arrival at Teheran the effects of their past privations were so great that many died, and within a few weeks there were over a thousand crosses in the Polish cemetery.”

Wladyslaw Anders, An Army on Exile, pp. 127-8
1943 
July--The formation of Polish II Corps was completed in Iraq, in Kirkuk region.
  • Antoni Kowalski was a soldier in the Anders Army; he joined the Polish II Corps, which was forming itself in the northern Iraq since August 1942. Soldiers traveled to Iraq from Palestine (where the part of them already stationed) or directly from Pahlavi (in August/September 1942).
August - September 
  • Polish II Corps was relocated to Palestine and the army went there through a training, which was impossible in the desert environment of Iraq.
Antoni was allowed to travel to Nazareth two weeks earlier, together with Zosia and with the part of the staff of army’s base.

December --
  • Polish II Corps was transported to Italy where, under British command, fought in the Italian Campaign.
1944 
February -- General Anders joined them in February 1944.

He wrote in his memoir:

“On February 6, 1944, I flew to Italy, and I and all the Army Corps felt that the eyes of Poles all over the world, and, above all, of those at home, were upon us.”

Wladyslaw Anders, An Army on Exile, p. 153


May-- Polish II Corps took part in the battle on Monte Cassino. 


* Czerwone Maki na Monte Cassino (The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino) --

-- the best-known Polish military song, a tribute to the Polish soldiers fallen in the battle on Monte Cassino.

The lyrics, both in Polish and English, can be found here.
1945
1946  Anders' Army began relocation form Italy and Palestine to Great Britain.

Download Zosia's Travels as a .kmz file and take a tour in Google Earth.

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