Translation from the book
Z Kresów Wschodnich R.P. Wspomnienia z Osad Wojskowych 1921-1940
(From: The Eastern Borderlands of Poland, Memories of Military Settlements 1921-1940)
Pub: Ognisko Rodzin Osadników Kresowych (OROK) (Association of the Families of the Borderland Settlers)
London, UK. 1992 and 1998
ISBN 1 872286 33 X
Province (Województwo) WOŁYŃ
JÓZEF PAJDOWSKI, IRENA BIEŻAŃSKA (PAJDOWSKA)
OSADA KARCZÓWKA
Municipality (Gmina) Rożyszcze
District (Powiat) Rożyszcze
My parents, Tymoteusz Pajdowski and Natalia, maiden name Wośkowska, spent their early years in Urzędow in Lublin province where they had been born. In 1916 my father and two brothers, Victor and Mikołaj volunteered to enlist in the Polish Legion under General Józef Piłsudski. In 1923 some WWI volunteers were offered government land in Eastern Poland. Land of approximately 200 hectares became known as Osada Karczówka. This was situated 20 km. northwest of Luck and consisted of ten families: Bar, Jabłonski, Lewandowski, Machczyński, Olszacki, Kopiec, Stec, Wojnarowicz, Zielinski and my family, Pajdowski.
Settlers began with nothing, as the land was a wilderness. Houses had to be built, trees and bushes dug out, war trenches to be leveled and the land drained. After 16 years of intense labor the results were astonishing. My father had two sections which with his brother Mikołaj’s totaled nearly 40 hectares. Mikołaj was a director of the Agricultural Institute in Lublin and traveled regularly to Belgium and Holland to learn about new techniques in farming which he imparted to my father. By 1939 a four-bedroom brick house had been built in six hectares of fruit garden. This proved highly profitable as the fruit was generally sold to shop keepers whilst still on the trees. There were no tractor, but we had 8 horses for plowing and to operate other farm machinery - also a carriage, pulled by two beautiful and identical dark red mares.
Students from the Agricultural College in Warsaw and Krzemieniec came to learn about model farming and raising herds of Polish bred cows, astrakhan sheep, carp fishing and fruit growing.
On the 1st of September 1939 Germany invaded Poland from the west, south and north and on the 17th of September Russia attacked from the east. The Red Army took all our horses and their soldiers sought our food, particularly bread and lard. The NKWD (secret police) were everywhere necessitating my father to go into hiding to avoid arrest. On the 10th of February 1940 my family and all the other settlers were deported to Siberia.
A few years after the war, we learned from friends that nothing was left of the model farm. The farm buildings had been demolished and every brick of the new house had been taken away and the entire settlement had been laid waste.
Józef Pajdowski (Irena's brother) has written about the family's experience of deportation from Karczówka and exile.