Henryk
Helena
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Ryszard
THE GRZYBOWSKI FAMILY
RYSZARD GRZYBOWSKI
Ryszard GRZYBOWSKI was born in Wołyń, near Równe in 1929 on osada Krechowiecka. His older sister Helena was born in 1927, and they were followed by Henryk in 1931, Aniela in 1933 and in 1938 by Michał. In February 1940, the family and hundreds of thousands of other Poles were deported to Siberia.
After the amnesty in 1941, the news spread that a Polish army was being formed in the south of the USSR. Those who had the strength and by whatever means, headed south.
Ryszard and his family made their way to Turkestan in South Kazakhstan. Their four-year-old brother Michał died on the way to Tashkent. On the Kiziol-Ziol state farm they lived in a private, mud hut. Their father, Klemens, left to join the newly forming Polish army. Their mother with four children waited for Polish organisations to take care of her and the children. Unfortunately, no one concerned themselves with their fate. After a short time, without any support and being unable to feed the children, she was forced to take the three older children to a Polish orphanage in Turkestan. Aniela was sick and could not be admitted to the orphanage and so stayed with her mother on the state farm. The 7-year-old child was left alone when her mother died of typhus shortly after. Thanks to God's providence, Zbigniew, the manager of the farm who was of Polish descent, took care of the burial and Aniela. He was childless and his wife was Uzbek. However, he was soon drafted into the army. Zbigniew's wife could not show any feeling of love and gave Aniela to a Russian orphanage.
In August 1941, the three siblings were evacuated from Turkestan with the Polish orphanage on the last transport leaving the USSR to Pahlevi in Persia. Later it was moved again to the camp in Valivade in the principality of Kolhapur, India.
In 1945, his brother Henryk died in a tragic accident.
In 1946, the three children were returned to Poland. Aniela, aged 13 was placed in an orphanage in Kwidzyń.
In 1947, Rysiek went to England with his older sister Helena to join their father, who came to Great Britain with the Polish army after the war.