In school, we have been learning a bit about World War 2. This was very exciting to hear as I find it all quite interesting. Since I was in elementary school, I have been reading fiction novels based on the war and different characters’ life throughout it.

 

My great-grandfather, Zach, was born in a part of Poland which is now Yasenivtsi, Ukraine. The war started when Zach was 10 years old and his brother, Michal was 17. In May 1944, Michal was taken to Auschwitz. He was 22 at the time. Their father, Jan was taken to Mauthausen, a subcamp in Austria, to work as a shoemaker. On July 15, 1944, Zach, who was 15 at the time, his 12-year-old sister, Stanisława and his 42-year-old mother, Anna were taken to Siberia as prisoners by the Russians. The Russian soldiers asked him and his family where their brother and father were, and when they told them they were at a camp, the Russians said they were lying and accused them of helping the Germans.

They were told to pack their things before they were taken on a train to Siberia. Zach smuggled an axe onto the train by stuffing it into a bag of wheat grains. Nobody knew he had the axe. When the train stopped, he opened the train door to grab wood to make a fire. He made a fire on the train to keep everyone warm. Whenever the train was in motion, they left the windows open to let the smoke exit the cart. When the train stopped again, they had to close the windows so that the guards wouldn’t see the smoke coming out of the train and catch them. It would get smoky inside and it was hard to breathe.

People would also hop out of the train when it stopped to get water from the hoses that were used to rinse down the train at the stations. They used anything that could hold water; people used shoes, cups, buckets, or anything they had that could hold water. They spent 6 weeks on the train before they were in Siberia. There were roughly 28 wagons and up to 40 people per wagon. Zach estimates that there were roughly 800 people on the entire train.

After six weeks on the train,  every family got their own 8ft by 8 ft room to temporarily stay in. After a day and a half, a car came and started moving people to a new location. Zach and his family were moved and put into barracks. There were about 1.5 kilometres of just barracks at the location. Each family got a 4-by-5-meter room with no bed or anything else once there. After a day and a half, they started getting potato and cabbage soup every other day. The outhouse was 50 meters away, and it was negative 30 to 40 degrees Celsius. They were there for about a week and then taken to the dugouts.

They all called the dugouts “ziemanka” with roughly translates to “dirt house”. The dugouts had about a foot sticking out above the ground, and the rest was underground.

This is a rough sketch of what the floor plan for the dugouts looked like. As you can see on the bottom right of the page, they were built to try and keep the prisoners warm in the cold weather.

Zach, Stanisława and Anna stay in Siberia for the next 11 years.

 

Photos

This photo was taken one year before Zach left Siberia. Anna Kokiet, Nadia Kokiet, My great grandmother, Zach’s wife, Zach Kokiet, Halina Kokiet, my grandmother and Olga Kokiet, my grand aunt.

Both photos are the same.

 

This is a photo of people working the machines in Siberia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Siberia, with bikes.

 

 

 

 

This photo was taken in Siberia. My grandma is the little girl closest to the camera. She is being held by my great-grandpa, her dad.

 

 

 

In January 1945, Michal was liberated from Auschwitz by the Russians. While he was there, he met his future wife (who, coincidentally, has the same name as his sister), Stanisława. She was a cook at the camp and would help him stay alive by giving him extra food. After the war, Michal and his wife started a family together.

Once liberated, he assumed that his family was all dead because he didn’t know they were in Siberia.

In 1947, 2 years later, Jan was liberated from Liebenau, Austria by the Red Cross and taken to Canada as a refugee.

 

 

Jan when he arrived in Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

After about a decade and a half, Michal reunited with his family in Poland.
This is a photo of Michal, Anna and Zach together after the work camps

 

 

 

Zachery Kokiet.

 

 

 

Michal, Zach, Anna and Stanisława (The sister).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zach and Nadia Kokiet’s Wedding.

 

Anna and Jan in Canada.

 

 

 

Anna and Jan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in life, this is Michał on the left and Stanislawa, his wife is standing behind Zack.

 

 

 

 

Family Photos. I don’t know most of who is in these 2 photos.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this photo: Olga, my grand aunt, Michal Kokiet, Stanisława Kokiet, Michal’s wife, Stanisława Koszil, the sister, Halina, my grandma, Zachery Kokiet, Nadia Kokiet, my great-grandma, plus 3 others that I don’t know.

 

 

Family Tree:

 

Nadia Kokiet, my great-grandmother and the man himself, Zachery Kokiet, my great-grandfather.

On May 10th, 2023, I met up with my great-grandfather and grandmother to go out for dinner so I could ask questions and hear more about what he went through.

During our conversation, my younger sister asked him if talking about this all was sad or difficult to talk about. He said no, that he was angry, not sad.

I am beyond grateful to have this opportunity that not many people have.