Twenty-Six Years Apart: A Family Reunited Behind the Iron Curtain

**Ian Sanders** (0:00)
Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:07)
Get your tickets now for The Dog Stars.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:11)
It's no surprise how fast civilization can disappear.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:16)
Out there, kill or be killed. Jacob Elordi.

**Sue** (0:19)
There are people out there.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:20)
They need our help.

**Ian Sanders** (0:21)
Josh Brolin.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:22)
Shoot first, and inquire afterwards.

**Ian Sanders** (0:24)
Margaret Qualley.

**Sue** (0:25)
Okay, tough guy. And Guy Pearce. Arm up!
The Dog Stars, directed by Ridley Scott, in theaters August 28th. Tickets now. Rated R. Under 17, not admitted without parents.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:37)
Late night bites with friends? Already hard to beat. That first too hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for, followed by ice cold Pepsi. Now that hits different. Suddenly, the energy kicks back in. The night goes longer, and the laughs don't stop. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today.

**Ian Sanders** (1:03)
Can you remember the moment your dad met his sister after so long?

**Linda** (1:07)
Oh yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Oh dear. Yes. Lots of wailing.
Very, so it's set me quite emotional now.

**Ian Sanders** (1:16)
For 26 years, war, exile and the Iron Curtain kept one Polish family apart. Torn from his homeland and sent into Stalin's labor camp system, Aleksander Jablonski survived hunger, forced labor and a wartime journey through Russia, Iran and Italy before fighting at Monte Cassino. When the war ended, returning to communist Poland was impossible. He built a new life in Britain, but the family he had left behind remained painfully out of reach. Then, after more than a quarter of a century, came the chance to cross back behind the Iron Curtain.
In this moving episode, his daughters tell the story of separation, survival and a reunion in Poland.
It's also the story of the Polish community in Britain, the children who inherited its memories and the enduring pull of a homeland that distance, politics and time could never entirely erase. I'm delighted to welcome Linda and Sue to our Cold War Conversation.

**Linda** (2:16)
The dad, obviously Polish, and mom English. Dad was born in Eastern Poland. His mother died when he was seven and his father in 1941, and dad last saw his sister in Poland in 1940 until that return trip in 1966
He was taken initially into the Russian Army, and then we did have a photograph, but unfortunately that's disappeared, and eventually ended up with General Anders and the British Eighth Army. Sue might like to add a bit more on the background. Yeah. From what he told us, which really was very sketchy, wasn't it Linda? He didn't talk about those early times, but we know from other family members from visits and what my mum learned, that he was out and about minding his own business, really, in the village where he lived called Wapowicz, which was very near to the Russian border. So they were very much at risk in that area anyway, and was just taken to, I think originally to Moscow, was it Linda? Yes.
With other young males that were taken, were strict to their identities really, put in Russian clothing and were expected to fight or labor for the other Russians. So he was in a labor camp for a while, and when they were liberated, he did the long walk, which ended up going through the Ural Mountains, and through, I think it was, it's Iran, or it was...
It was Bekstan. Bekstan. Finished up in Egypt and fighting in Egypt, and then was in Italy at Monte Cassino. So he did that whole sort of well-known General Anders journey really through the Second World War, and then initially landed in the UK in Glasgow, was where he first landed, and I think was moved to Wales before settling in Blackshamore Camp initially in Leek. Yeah, interestingly, when he was arrested or taken, taken over, it was the NKVD that later became the KGB, or they just closed the roads and they were arrested. From what I do remember dad saying is that he was allowed to go and his sister gave him a jacket and some bread, and some shoes, and that was it. And that was the last time he saw his family until 1966

**Ian Sanders** (4:46)
Wow, wow. And what age was he when the Soviets invaded?

**Linda** (4:52)
He was 20 Yeah, he was 20

**Ian Sanders** (4:54)
And did he have a job at that point? Was he working?

**Linda** (4:57)
He worked in the butcher shop and it was a town that I can't pronounce, but I can't find it on a modern map anymore. And he was there for five years.