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Honouring our
Heroes
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013 | CAMPBELL RIVER MIRROR | B7
Aniela Plonka: Personal Experience during Canada's Veterans, Brave and Proud the second world war Each year, from November 5 to 11, hundreds of commemorative cere-
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just like Hawaii there. I went to Jerusalem four times. We visited the Holy Land and churches, and went to Bethlehem and Nazareth. I also took a tour to the Dead Sea. I enjoyed every minute of it. Because I wanted to do more than work in the canteen, I applied to join the air force and go to England. I was accepted. In December 1943, around Christmastime, our transport left for England. We travelled by train to Alexandrai, Egypt, and embarked on a big ship on the Mediterranean Sea. The ship had to go slowly and very carefully because there were mines in the water. We had to stop right by Gibraltar and wait there for a week until the navy fished out all the mines. The first week of January 1944, we arrived in Glasgow, Scotland. In February, I enlisted in the RAF with the WAAF. They sent me to the Halton station near London for a mechanics course. In eight months I finished the course, and was a flight mechanic E, working on engines on Lancaster bombers stationed at Sillloth (between England and Scotland). Living in England for four years, I visited many cities and made a lot of friends. It was there that I married and had my son George, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since August 1929, when I last saw my mother, I didn’t know what had happened to my family. It was useless to write because the Russians and Germans fought on Polish territory. The Polish army fought for freedom on many fronts; in Poland, the Battle of Britain, in Italy and Monte Cassino, Narvik, Norway and other areas. But it didn’t bring freedom for Poland.
Epilogue The Conference at Yalta Crimea, USSR,
was held Feb. 4 to 11, 1945, by American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Russian Marshal Joseph Stalin. They decided the future of Poland. Stalin demanded the eastern part of Poland – Lwow, Wilno, and many other towns like the one my mother lived in. Stalin also demanded to take Poland under his wing and set up a communist government there. Poland was not very important to Roosevelt or Churchill so they agreed. The Polish army had fought and died for nothing. Poland did not regain her freedom! The Polish army that had fought with the Allies wanted to have an independent government elected by the people – not one ruled by the Soviets. That’s why, on return to Poland, the Polish soldiers were treated as enemies of Soviet Russia. When the war was over, my husband’s mother wrote us and told us not to come back home. “Stay where you are. If you come back, you will be sent back to Siberia,” she wrote. She also told us my mother was alive and had been ordered by the Russians to leave her home and go onto the Polish side of the border because her house was in the newly acquired Russian territory. She also said in her letter that my brother was taken by the Russians, beaten and sent to a prison somewhere in Siberia. My two younger sisters were also taken to Germany for hard labour. When I heard the news I cried so much I thought my heart would break. We knew it was too dangerous to return to Poland. When my husband had been in Canada for navigation school, he knew how it was there, so we decided to come and live in Canada. Aneila Plonka was born Sept. 18, 1919, in Poland and passed away at the age of 89 on Jan. 21, 2009, in Fernie, B.C.
Ways to share online Use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and Flickr and show you remember Canada’s Veterans. Post photos, videos, and messages using the hashtags #ShowYouRemember and #ShowYourThanks. Thank you for all you have done to keep us safe, Thank you to those of you who are continuing to keep us safe.
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Thank you for the contribution you have been Let us not forget.
monies and events will take place across the country to commemorate Veterans' week. These are opportunities for all Canadians to recognize the contribution our Veterans have made and to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of Canada.
There are so many ways to remember and honour our Veterans: • Wear a poppy. • Attend your local Remembrance Day ceremony on November 11th. • Thank a Veteran by sending a postcard for peace. • Teachers - order some of our free learning materials and use our Teacher's Guide to lead your classroom on a remembrance journey. • Students - read one of our remembrance newspapers written just for K-2, K-Grade 6 and for Grade 7 and above. • Talk to a friend or relative who served with the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan or in other areas of conflict. • View our Heroes Remember videos and listen to Veterans talk about their experiences. • Plant your own Garden of Remembrance. • Visit the remembrance challenge page where you will find videos and images you can use to create a mashup, build a virtual scrapbook, a fan site or just decorate your own Web space. Share what you build with others and link back to our site.