12 R E C O L L E C T I O N S
Jaroslaw (Jerry) Kubica
was born in 1939 in what was then Poland, and is now Belarus. In April 1940, he, his mother and two sisters were deported by the Soviets to Kazakhstan; his father was sent to GULAG camps near Murmansk. The German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 reprieved many Poles; his father joined the Anders Army and fought at Monte Cassino. The family were eventually reunited in the UK in 1947.
Jerry has very kindly given Kresy Family permission to use excerpts from his books ‘The Road Home’ and 'The Gulag Trail', as well as some of his beautiful photos, for our website and we are very grateful.
He has written about the journeys he has undertaken in the footsteps of his family during the turbulent war years and he also writes about revisiting his birthplace and the area where his family lived pre-war. He has also described his life and experiences, often amusing adventures, in the Kelvedon Polish Resettlement camp where he lived for 10 years.
Gulags
GULAG 72-km
Settlements
Kuropole/Postawy
Stary Dwór
Rozanpol
Cemeteries
Jangi-Jul
Army Formation Centres
Totskoye, Buzuluk and Tatischewo
KELVEDON CAMP SNAPSHOTS by Jerry Kubica: Growing up in a Polish Resettlement camp 1947-57
Jerry is the founding member of the charity ‘Our Roots Trust'.
https://www.facebook.com/jerry.kubica/
Jerry has not forgotten his connections with either his past or the land of his birth. For over the past 14 years, through Our Roots Trust (ORT), he has been actively supporting families of Polish origin who had been deported from Kresy and are now living in what is today Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
The objective is in the main three-fold:
- to promote education, especially of the young;
- to maximise capacity for social cohesion;
- to help the aged.
The main thrust of the work is realised through sponsorships and competitions.
Jerry is the author of three books:
‘The Gulag Trail Footprints into Exile’
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gulag-Trail-Footprints-into-Exile-Jerry-Kubica/dp/1502851520
'Footprints on Monte Cassino’
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Footprints-Monte-Cassino-Jerry-Kubica/dp/149520197X
'The Road Home’
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Home-Jerry-Kubica/dp/1523397799