NKVD In March 1940, in the middle of the night, NKVD guards banged on my grandmother’s door. Maria was to be deported by the Soviets from Poland to Siberia. Her crime? She was a teacher. The guards gave her 20 minutes to pack up, take her children, and leave the house. She had three kids: a 10-year-old son (my uncle), a 4-year-old daughter (my aunt) and another son, a 1.5-year-old (my dad). My dad was sick, and Maria worried he wouldn’t survive what was coming. She managed to quietly pass my dad to her neighbour—Balbina, a Russian lady who helped her around the house. With two children beside her, my grandmother would spend several weeks on a cattle train in inhumane conditions, going east,
Intrusion detected
Intrusion detected
Intrusion detected
NKVD In March 1940, in the middle of the night, NKVD guards banged on my grandmother’s door. Maria was to be deported by the Soviets from Poland to Siberia. Her crime? She was a teacher. The guards gave her 20 minutes to pack up, take her children, and leave the house. She had three kids: a 10-year-old son (my uncle), a 4-year-old daughter (my aunt) and another son, a 1.5-year-old (my dad). My dad was sick, and Maria worried he wouldn’t survive what was coming. She managed to quietly pass my dad to her neighbour—Balbina, a Russian lady who helped her around the house. With two children beside her, my grandmother would spend several weeks on a cattle train in inhumane conditions, going east,