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Finally, the train arrived and took us to the docks where we
had to wait a couple of hours to board the ship. It was packed with people, squashed like sardines. I don’t know how to describe
it; we waited for a day on the ship and, then, during the night, started to move. A day and a night later we arrived in Pahlevi,
Iran. The harbor was too shallow for the ship so we were brought onto the shore by smaller boats.
We lay in the sand
on a beach about half a mile long with just a straw roof over our heads. The army was not far away, but we were all civilians.
The British gave us heavy food, such as lamb, which was full of fat. Our stomachs were not used to that and the effect was
terrible. The latrines were at one end of the camp; people were sick there and they didn’t bother to go home, they just lay
there on the sand. We stayed for a few weeks after which we were put on trucks; the Persian drivers drove at break-neck speed
through steep mountains. We stayed overnight in a town between Pahlevi and Tehran, in what appeared to be a school; we slept
on the floor.
Romuald Lipiński
b. 1925, Brześć
June 1941, deported to the Soviet Union
1942-43, Iran, Iraq,
Palestine, Egypt
1943-46, Italy
1946-53, England
1953-present, USA
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I remember that we traveled for a week on rafts and reached
a cotton-growing area where we stayed until the Polish authorities heard that the river would freeze; they quickly ordered
us to return to the port so that we could get out. It was a nightmare journey and people drowned. My father went into the
Army. My older sister and I entered the Cadet School so that we could support our family. My younger sister, grandmother and
aunt all died and, then, my older sister got ill. She got typhoid and then dysentery; we had to leave her behind in a Soviet
hospital. We never heard from her again. Being an adult, if she had survived, I am sure that she would have found a way to
contact us. The British were fantastic to us in Persia; when we arrived in such a terrible state they already had everything
ready for us. Our clothes were burned, we were disinfected, and our hair was cut off; they were concerned about the spread
of disease.
Zdzisława Bilewicz Korniłowicz
b. 1926, Dolinóków
February 1940, deported to the Soviet Union
1943-47,
Iran, Palestine
1947-53, England
1953-present, USA
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The
Ciupak family, Tehran, Iran, 1942
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In Pahlevi we lived in the so-called ‘beach camps’. There were
several camps; the disinfectant camp, and the one where you got used to ‘regular’ food. My mommy got very ill but she told
no one; she would sit in the sea because she hurt less in the water. She was scared that we would be separated. Here, we found
my brother; he had left the Soviet Union for Tehran before us. My mommy was almost unconscious; she had pneumonia and two
types of typhoid for four months. Our roof was a blanket balanced on four sticks. When we got to the main camp, it was better.
First, my mommy was taken to a small hospital and, then, to the main one, so I had to take care of everything. She left the
hospital in December. When she was returned to the camp she was so weak that she had to crawl on all fours to get to our barrack.
Maria
Pawulska Rasiej
b. 1927, Lwów
April 1940, deported to the Soviet Union
1942-47, Iran, India, Africa
1947-51, England
1951-present,
USA
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