The Polish Diaspora, 1939-55

AFRICA
Emilia Kot Chojnacka’s home, Tengeru, Tanganyika Although we lived in very primitive conditions, life in Africa was good. We had three beds, sisal mosquito nets, a table, three chairs, and a cupboard for our food. There was a kitchen where we got food; later, they gave us provisions. Four columns supported the roof which was made from corrugated metal. We had a stove with a chimney; we also had a baking oven and some sort of iron-framed door. The breads and biscuits we baked were amazing. We had a plank of wood on which to sit. I went to Polish School; we had books and exercise books that came from Palestine and England. In the sanatorium we did not have books; the teacher taught from memory. We didn’t have ‘real’ teachers until later. Emilia Kot Chojnacka b. 1931, Bartesowa February 1940, deported to the Soviet Union 1942-50, India, Africa 1950-present, England	Aniela Bechta-Crook with her mother and brother, Koja, Uganda, 1943
We were assigned to Uganda and, in December, 1942, travelled by ship to Mombasa, then, by train to our Polish settlement, Koja, by Lake Victoria. The settlement had about 3,000 people, mostly women and children for whom this was an idyllic place. In spite of frequent bouts of malaria, our education continued; we had a jungle to play in and the inviting waters of Lake Victoria in which we were not allowed to swim. However, we almost lost my brother, Emil, to the lethal strain of encephalitic malaria. It left him with memory lapses and deafness for a long time. Mother worked in the gardens and on road-building to help her sister in Poland. We sent dolls stuffed with a coin, ring or watch. This tight community was almost self-sufficient by the time it had to be liquidated in 1951. Aniela Bechta-Crook b. 1936, Borszczów February 1940, deported to the Soviet Union 1942-49, Africa 1949-51, England 1951-61, Argentina 1961-68, USA 1968-present, New Zealand