111 The Royal Canadian Legion www.mbnwo.legion.ca KALINOWSKI, Stanley WWII Stanley was born in the village of Milanov, Poland during one of the many upheavals of his homeland. The country was changing from a feudal system to what has become known as communism today. His father had been a judge under the old system and the change made it necessary for his family to move 300 miles east to Woronczyn. His father bought a farm from a rich landowner who knew him. It was from that farm that Stanley remembered walking two miles to school. He and six other boys took mandolin lessons at his home. He had great memories of learning to play the mandolin. Later, his father divided his property amongst his children. Stanley and his sister sold their share to a brother and bought a flour mill. In 1938, Stanley was conscripted into the Polish Army. At the outbreak of war in 1939, Poland was crushed between the Russian Army and the German Army. It took only eighteen days as the Polish Army had little equipment with which to resist their foes. Stanley was taken prisoner by the Russians and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Siberia along with many other Polish people and German soldiers who had been taken prisoner. The prisoners, men and women alike, had to cut logs unless the temperature got colder than -40°F. In winter, these logs were piled beside the river to be floated downstream in the summer. These logs were floated some 500 miles where they were used for bridges, telephone poles, etc. The prisoners had no part in the floating of the logs, they only cut them. Everyone who was able to move, cut logs for eight hours a day and were paid the equivalent of $2.00 per day. No clothing was supplied. The only free thing was boiled water – all you could drink. A cookhouse of sorts would sell a bowl of water with a few oats at the bottom for $1.45. Black, soggy bread was available for $1.05 for a few ounces. Because of the penetrating cold and hunger, people young and old died like flies. The prisoners were housed in old log buildings. Stanley, along with seventeen others, lived in very small quarters. There was a stove made out of a 45-gallon drum which sat at the end where people could try to keep warm and cook any food they could find. Stanley credited his sister for saving his life during this time. Although poor herself, she sent him thirteen parcels. These parcels contained pork fat, sugar, flour, and sometimes a blanket. This was his only means of survival. In the spring, the prisoners would take the outside bark from the birch trees and scrape off the next layer – a white coating. They would eat this in order to get vitamins to sustain strength. The misery, human agony and despair of such conditions was not lessened by the fact that, after working eight hours they came back to camp to bury those who died during their absence. In 1941, Germany dropped a bomb on Kiev in Russian territory. As Russia was our ally during World War II, a Polish general, W. Sikorski, who was in exile in London, England, flew to Moscow and negotiated the release of the Polish war prisoners in Siberia. After their release, it took the survivors two months by train, fending for food and clothing, to reach a city in Russia close to the border of India. It was there that they came under the command of Britain, obtaining food, clothing and medical care. Arriving there, Stanley found Polish officers and translators as none of those released could speak English and they were now under the British 8th Army and served in defense of the British Commonwealth. All the survivors were very weak and sick. However, even before even being fed, their clothing was removed and put in piles and burnt as it was practically moving with body lice. Everyone then took a shower, hair and beards were completely shaved off. They were fumigated every day for several weeks to kill the body lice. They had to be treated continued . . .
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