I thought I'd lost the above photograph. I found it a couple of days ago in a packet of photos after it had disappeared from a drawer I remembered putting it in several years ago. There is no other copy that I am aware of, so it's loss was devastating. Now that I've found it, I'll tell you all about it!
This photo was taken in Persia during WW2. I'm not sure what year, but it was during the time that the Polish 2nd Corps, under Lieutenant-General Władysław Anders was in training in Persia. The men all had to be fattened up, you see, as they'd been starved during their time in the Gulags in the Soviet Union.
My Dad is the boy on the left. He was too young to be in the army as a soldier, so instead was put into the army cadets and trained in fitting and welding.
My Aunt, the girl in the front, was sent to New Zealand in the boat of Polish children that lived in the Pahiatua camp for Polish orphans in the central North Island. My Aunt was considered an orphan as her mother had died (starved to death in the USSR) and her father was a soldier in the war and was therefore unable to care for her.
My Grandfather (at the back) and Uncle (on the right) fought with 2nd Polish Corps in 1944 at Monte Cassino, and in other Italian battles.
All of them survived the war, though only the Uncle on the right is now still alive (and one other Uncle, not in the picture).
Related Link: Experiences of motherhood and conservatism ~ NZ Conservative
My grandfather was a carpenter at the Pahiatua camp.
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