Welcome to Grace!
Stefan
----------------------------
Hi,
My name is Grace Pundyk and I have just started researching my father's
family history - thus have come across your site. My father, Stanislaw Josef
Pundyk was born in Kolomyja in 1921. In 1940 his mother, Zofia (nee)
Stratkowska was taken to a camp in Kazakhstan, though I have no idea where
and I think this is where she died though I do remember vague stories of her
escaping and being recaptured. My grandfather was a sergeant in the Polish
army. I don't know what he did during the war but he ended up immigrating to
Scotland. I gather he was already away when the Russians came in 1940 as my
grandmother was taken to Kazakhstan alone. My father had been sent (by the
Polish government?) to Switzerland as an intern to study and so he never saw
his mother again. He immigrated to Australia where he tried to close the
chapter of this tragic part of his life. He never talked very much about the
war but I knew he was terrified at the thought of the then Polish communist
government tracing his whereabouts and taking him back to Poland. The story
goes that he was one of eleven students selected and sent to Switzerland by
the Polish government who then expected them to return to help re-build the
new state. Don't know how true this is - if anyone can verify this or not
would be great.
Grace Pundyk
grace@...
