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-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Kaczanowski [mailto:annekaczanowski@...]
Sent: 06 November 2004 09:34
To: Kresy-Siberia@...
Subject: [Kresy-Siberia] Polscy Chlopcy


For new members....

Here is a poem I wrote last year for Rememberence Day. After all my
education from the Kresy site, I finally understood our families plight, and
had my father lived... these were words I would have liked to have finally
told him. Perhaps for new members just starting, this will be helpful.
This is also listed in the Kresy-Siberia site under Files and has the Polish
Eagle emblem for those who wish to print with the emblem.

hania


Polscy Chlopcy




Lest We Forget was boldly printed on the card

To honour those who died for their countries while standing guard.

They were men and boys, young and old, weak and strong,

And each one was to be remembered with patriotic song.



As long as I can remember, Nov. 11th was your special day.

You shined up your war medals and donned your beret.

As veterans paid tribute with wreaths of poppies upon the square,

You proudly saluted the heavens to all the soldiers there.



With old trembling hands you held your card and thought to years gone by.

And every time the trumpets roared, I saw the tears that filled your eyes.

What were you thinking that brought you such pain?

Were you remembering Polscy Chlopcy that died in vain?



Or were you thinking of your own sorrow and how this all began

Because of greed and hatred, best expressed by man.

Were your tears for your little village and all that was once yours?

Or were your tears for the broken dreams snatched away by war.





Germany was creating havoc and Poland knew there might be trouble in sight

But she was assured there would be help, if she needed to fight.

Great America and England promised if needed theyd rise to the plate

But instead sat silent while Polands defeat became your fate.



Were your tears for the broken promises made man to man?

Or for how meaningless had become the shake of ones hand?

Germans abounded from the west and the army was ready for almighty war

But as they were pushed back, from the east came something more.



On Sept 17, 1939, the Rusks like hungry vultures awaiting their prey

Swarmed all around you with bayonets and for being Polish, youd pay.

They occupied quickly and took Lwow, Wilno and Luck

What did a young peasant boy know of promises the Nazis had made to the
Rusks?



In the cold of winter, they knocked on Kresyland doors ripping people from
their sleep

And yelled you have an hour to pack, dont waste the time to weep!

Old people and children were herded like cattle into the snow

And guns blasted loudly at those who said I wont go!



Sleds and wagons carried you to the nearest railway stations

Thus beginning for Kresowiacy, heartless and cruel deportations.

Crammed into frozen boxcars with little food and hardly room to lay

They prayed Swiety Boze i Matko Boska, please show us the way!



After shuffling you into prison, black raven trucks and a windowless train

They said Comrades dont cry, save your tears for future pain!

We will send you Polscy Chlopcy to Archangel and Siberia

If hunger doesnt kill you, therell be scurvy, typhoid and diptheria





Oh God they were right when they said

that God created heaven

and the devil created Archangel.



Temperatures so cold, you couldnt bear your skin,

And if you dared spit, it froze in the wind.

Newspapers and rags gently wrapped around your feet

But be damned if youd let your spirit be beat.



With backbreaking labour you crushed rocks for their roads

Swinging axes and shovels load after load.

For a grueling days work they fed you 700 grams of bread

Anything less and youda soon been dead.



At night, with barely enough clothing to warm your bones

You fell fast asleep only to dream of more stones.

And whoda thought in this land of Godforsaken ice

Millions of bedbugs and those bastardly lice.



On barges and boats they shuffled you around

Then rumours of freedom started to abound.

Dirty ol Stalin had found himself in a fix,

As his good buddy Hitler pulled out a few more tricks.



Stalin said Polscy Chlopcy, try to understand,

This wasnt about you, I just wanted your land.

Well toast to freedom, and with a new Polish Army well work side by
side.

Forget about all those men who died!





So with release cards and empty stomachs he set you free

You headed south where the army was supposed to be.

Sikorski and Anders waited for the Polish Army to regroup

As thousands of you half starved and sick arrived for bread and soup.



Were your tears for all the women and children you passed on the road

Each one beyond their years, showing scars of their merciless load?

Did you cry for the corpses they callously threw into the wind?

Or ask if this was punishment for man who had sinned?



The Brits gave you uniforms and a white Polish eagle to wear on your
shoulder

General Anders restored your faith and put things in order.

Stalin held back your bread and insisted that Polscy Chlopcy be sent to
the front.

Anders refused because he knew on Stalin he could no longer count.



Anders moved his army to Persia in order for Polscy Chlopcy to survive.

The Caspian Sea carried you to Pahlevi, some barely alive.

With wounded souls and bodies frail

Thousands were left behind and missed the last sail.



Were you thinking of this when you choked back the tears?

Knowing how much they continued to suffer for many more years.

You became a proud soldier in Polish 2nd Corps

And fought in Monte Cassino with much determined force.



Pulled from rags in Russia, Polscy Chlopcy passed the test

They became a great army and certainly one of the best.

Polish blood soaked the soil from your countrymen that laid dead

Amongst the shattered poppies that were already red.





Polscy Chlopcy stood proud and still

As they placed their countrys flag upon the captured hill.

The white eagle soared with victorious delight

For all the exiled soldiers who had won their fight.



The world celebrated with victory parades and promised fences to mend

But Polscy Chlopcy were not invited to attend.

Great America and England let Stalin take your land

So what exactly you had fought for, was hard to understand.



To appease the Communists you were again deported and pushed aside

With spirits crushed and broken hearts, valiant soldiers cried.

Instead of paying you tribute they made you search for home in a new place

While they demobilized your army just to save face.



Did you weep for your family for whom you would never again see?

Or the loss of their freedoms, while you were in a new land and free?

Were your tears for Polscy Chlopcy as they were being called D.P.s

Or for the suggestions that you change your Polish name and drop the ski
?



You remained proud to your heritage and kept your name.

This was all you had left and it bore you no shame.

On Remembrance Day, you stood alone as you remembered those who died

Because there were no Polscy Chlopsy to share your memories, at your side.



There was no one here that had shared your footsteps from the past.

And many of the young never cared to ask.

They had never been to war, and they didnt understand

What it really meant to lose ones land.





Today I stand alone, holding your polished medals at your grave,

And I thank you with all my heart for being so brave.

I thank you for the Polish heritage that you passed on to me

And for raising me in a country, where I am blessed to be free.



For Polscy Chlopcy, I will scatter red poppies in the wind, just for you

And I will do my best to my heritage be true.

And when the trumpets roar, I too, will salute the skies

For now I finally understand the tears in your eyes.








Written in memory of my father

Kazimierz Kaczanowski





Hania Kaczanowska 2003


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KRESY-SIBERIA GROUP = RESEARCH REMEMBRANCE RECOGNITION
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deported, enslaved and killed by the Soviet Union during World War Two."

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