Presenter and writer MEL GIEDROYC was deeply moved by her father's poignant
memoir of his struggles as a Polish refugee during the war Mel, 42, lives
in Ealing, west London, with husband Ben Morris, a television director, and
their daughters Florence, eight, and Vita, six.
Mel Giedroyc's  father Michal, 81, lives in Oxford with wife Rosy, 73. 

FOR AS long as I can remember my dad has been fascinated by his family
history. It has been something hugely significant and important to him. Dad
came from a respected family from the eastern borders of Poland. His own
father was a senator and a judge. 

However in 1939 when dad was only 10 the Russian police seized his home
and imprisoned my grandfather. Dad was flung on to the streets with his
mother and sisters. 

With other refugees they were taken in cattle trucks to Siberia where for
two years they were forced to work on a farm. 

Hunger and neglect killed thousands. In 1941 Stalin released all Polish
deportees and dad and his family who were on the brink of death escaped and
began a long j ourney to England. 
Hunger and neglect killed thousands

I knew bits and pieces about dad's past but not the whole picture. It's
such a dramatic and sad story especially when you remember my father was
just 10 when it began. 

Dad's constant fight for survival meant his childhood was very fragmented
and he met many people along the way. It also meant that over the years
people have sent him little jigsaw pieces of his life. Recently someone
sent a photo she had of him as a child. 

Of course dad must have told us things about his life when we were
children but when you are young details don't really register. Now his
story has really affected me. I feel deeply upset he went hungry for so
long in Siberia. 
	
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Imagine being 12 or 13 when y ou're growing like the clappers and having
nothing more to eat all day than a scrap of bread or a potato or when
you're in temperatures of minus 20 or 30 without warm clothes. 

I knew dad had lost his father in the war. Years later he discovered my
grandfather had been shot on a roadside by Russian soldiers. He had also
been incarcerated and tortured. It must be very hard for a fatherless child
to make his way in a big world in the shadow of such horrific events. 

Despite dad's extraordinary past we were a normal family and he was j ust
our dad to me, my older brother Miko and sisters Kasia and Coky. He must
have thought we were totally spoiled as kids. 

Dad lost all material possessions but maintained a deep sense of who he
was. That has been passed on to me along with a strong pride about where I
come from. Dad has also instilled in me a need to make my mark in life and
I hope that some day we get to prove ourselves. 

There is definitely a strength in all of us as a family. I have a strong
need to achieve things for myself and I think that comes from him. 

MICHAL SAYS: 
MY story is that of how our family estate in Poland was seized during the
war. My mother, two sisters and I were deported to Siberia. 

My father was imprisoned and shot in 1941 but we didn't find out he was
dead until seven years later. 
We were forced to travel to Persia, Iraq and Palestine. In the end we
escaped to England. 

I wrote the book so that my children had a record of where I and they came
from. There was also a political reason which was to point out that the
Second World War was dominated not just by one tyrant Hitler but also the
Soviets. 
The other perhaps more secret reason was because I was plagued by memories
and it was rather therapeutic. I used to have some very disturbing dreams
about what happened to me as a child but after I started writing they
became much less frequent. 

I had never really talked to my children about what I have now detailed in
the book. I didn't want to burden them. 
Writing the book has helped me fill in a great many blanks in my life. 
I was sent an extraordinary photo from a lady in Devon. 

She had a picture of me and her together in the Netherlands in 1947 when I
was in the army and had sent it because she'd read something about the
book. 

Things like that are so important because they help me piece together my
past. The world collapsed for me in 1939 and everything was gone. The rest
of my life has been a process of reconstructing and collecting bits and
pieces of my past. 

As a father I tried to give my kids as much materially as I could, I
suppose because I had so little but I had to work and, as a consultant to
developing countries, I was away a lot. I don't know if I was around
enough. I don't know how much the children took in about my past when they
were young but they certainly remembered bits of the story. When they were
young we lived in leafy Surrey where we made friends with our neighbours
and everyone was very nice. 

Then suddenly the neighbours became very cool and distant and when I
confronted them I found out my children had been telling people that their
father had been in prison. 

I had been briefly imprisoned with my family as a boy before being turned
on to the streets in 1939. 
My neighbours thought I was a hardened criminal and I had to do some
damage limitation. 

I have often been asked what lessons I learned from my experiences and the
main one is how to start from nothing and achieve something. 

Having to do that is a very good lesson and I hope I've passed that on to
my children. Mel started out pulling pints and worked really hard to get to
where she is and I hope she has been driven by my example to a small
extent. (express.co.uk)

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