Septfonds

Last month I went to visit Septfonds. I had to walk there from Caussade as there was no transport at the time I wanted to go. When I arrived I could not find any signs indication where to find the camps, finally I stopped at the Town Hall. Here I was in luck, the Mayor was in the reception area and he instantly offered to drive me to the camp-sites, which are well out of town. He was very proud that the town keeps memorials of the camps and has a reunion every year to remember those who were there and to pray for peace.

The site of the Septfonds camp

 

Plan of the camp

A model of one of the barracks



The water deposit for the camp

 

Memorial

 

Little chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Czestochowa, put there by the Polish airmen who were interned for the duration of the war.



 



Dedication plaque at little 'chapel'

The little chapel was repaired recently and they found a document, written in Polish and French and signed by the officers and various localpeople who helped them. It was photo copied and a copy returned to the plinth of the 'chapel'.

The main square of Septfonds

The camps were well outside of the town and I would have had great difficulty finding them on my own. I was very grateful to the mayor. I had thought that the airmen were near a town but it is evident that they got very little freedom.

In the afternoon I visited the Museum of the Resistance in Montauban and was given the email address of a lady who may be able to give me more information.

what a difference a week makes!

I haven't heard anything from Dareck or from the Ukrainian Embassy, the British Embassy suggested asking the Ukrainian Red Cross, who apparently do research, I bet they are kep busy. However my feelings have changed completely!
I have read Timothy Snyder's book and I have a very different perception of the whole situation. last year I met 2 Polish men, we did not really have a common language but I told them my father was Polish, from Kovel, the response was: 'That's Ukraine, thst's history.'  I rather resented what I saw as a glib respones but now I see what they meant.
My father was from Volhynia, this was never really in a Polish State, it was a multi cultural, multi ethnic area, in a larger area that was also multi cultural and multi ethnic. Eastern Europe did not have country boundaries in the same way that we know them now. Although I had read that the borders of Poland were changed after the 2  World Wars I was very naive to imagine this was a simpe excercise, it was not just a matter of drawing lines on a map, the processes took years and thousands of people died, on both sides. (Actually there were many sides and the population that suffered the most losses was the Jewish one.)
I will continue to read up on the area, and I will still try to find out about the route my father probably took to reach France, but I think I will now just rest with my British Nationality and the fact that my father came from Volhynia, in Eastern Europe.

making enquiries!

I have been motivated to try making enquiries about Polish archives in Ukraine. There is a Pole living near, who speaks both Polish and Ukrainian, his partner says he will be happy to help me, whether Dareck feels the same way I'm not sure, we visited before he had had his lunch and it is not good to keep a man from his food!
He said he would make enquiries at the Polish Embassy as he was to go there on Wednesday.  This has set me thinking and re-looking at the information I have. My father was born in 1912 and the part of Poland where he lived was not in Poland at that time, was he born elsewhere? What makes nationality?  I have been feeling very philosophical and rather resentful. When I knew nothing I was happy just to know that my father was Polish, now I know less and I am not happy about it. The result is that I have: 1) emailed the British Embassy in Kiev and the Ukrainian Embassy in London; and 2) downloaded 4 books on Polish history, to try and resolve my lack of knowledge on the boundaries of the country prior to WWII.
I don't expect to get much help from the Embassies, I expect that all document were destroyed, either during the war or during the 'Cold War'.
The books are:
The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 by Timothy Snyder
Polish History before 1910 by Robert Nisbert Bain
With Fire and Sword, an historical novel of Poland and Russia by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Pan Michael An historical Novel of Poland, the Ukraine and Turkey by Henryk Sienkiewitz

Two of these are novels but may give me some insight, of the ohers I hold the most hope withTimothy Snyder who starts his book by asking: 'When do nations arise, what brings ethnic cleansing, how can states reconcile?'
If he can start to answer some of those questions to my satisfaction I will be very happy! I will try and reconcile myself to the fact that I will probably never know anymore about my father though I will still go to Septfonds in October.

War service.

My father was called up for his 2 years National Service in October 1935, after his 2 years National Service he remained in the Voluntary Reserve. He was called up again on 29th September 1939 with the 6 Air Force Regiment and participated in the 1939 Sepember Campaign from 01.09.30 to 17.09.39.
After the fall of Poland to the Germans and the Russians he left Poland via Romania. What happened at this time I do not know, from what I have read both the Polish Government and most of the Armed Forces fled to Romania, which was supposed to be neutral but some people were interned. Those who managed to flee escaped via the Black Sea. How he got there and with whom, I don't know but he arrived in France, and was at the Camp at Septfonds, Tarn et Garronne, South West France. Apparently he arrived here 07.02 1940, what happened between leaving Poland on the 17.09.39 and his arrival in France is a mystery. This is testified by papers signed there, though on another document he states that he did not go to France!
This camp had been an Internment Camp for Spaniards who had fled Franco's Spain. On 01.03 1940 part of the camp became a camp for Polish Forces, most were moved on to the UK. In July 1940 when the camp came under the Vichy Government and became an internment camp.

" Polonais et Français, de tout temps amis."
Depuis deux siècles, les Polonais partagent les luttes et les espoirs de la France. Leur engagement a été absolu pendant les deux guerres mondiales. Des monuments, partout sur le sol de France, rendent hommage à leur bravoure et à leur loyauté : à Neuville-Saint-Vaast (Pas-de-Calais), au cimetière polonais d'Aubérive (Marne). Place de Varsovie, à Paris s'élève une statue, œuvre du sculpteur français André Greck, commémorant l'héroïsme des polonais qui ont participé à la défense et à la libération de la France pendant le deuxième conflit mondial. Dans le grand Sud-Ouest, signalons les monuments de Pau-Idron et de Port-Vendres : ce dernier rappelle la part déterminante des aviateurs polonais intégrés à la Royal Air Force dans la bataille aérienne de 1940-1941, avec ces mots de Sir Winston Churchill : " jamais dans l'histoire tant d'hommes ont dû autant à si peu d'entre eux ".

Un édifice, à bien des égards plus modeste, s'élève aux bords du camp de Judes, près de Septfonds, dans le Tarn-et-Garonne. Il s'agit d'un simple oratoire, d'une " kapliczka ", comme en rencontre le long des routes de Pologne, et qui relèverait plutôt de l'art populaire ; il fut édifié par vingt officiers polonais détenus au camp. Ce point minuscule dans la grande histoire concentre pourtant en lui des renseignements qui ne sont pas dénués d'intérêt.


(L'oratoire, tel qu'il fut édifié en 1941, tout en bois). Qui était ces hommes et cette femme ? Comment ont-ils été amenés au camp de Septfonds ? Tout d'abord, ils venaient de Pologne, de leur patrie qu'ils avaient vu terrasser, agressée par l'armée hitlérienne le 1er septembre 1939, envahie par l'armée soviétique le 17 septembre. Aucune action militaire n'étant plus possible en Pologne, c'est ailleurs qu'il leur fallait " accomplir leur devoir de Polonais "(1). Le général Louis Faury a raconté cet exode par la Roumanie et par la Hongrie, dès octobre 1939, des masses compactes, en ordre, ou bien de petits groupes, sans armes. Tout un système d'évasion fut alors organisé, par la Yougoslavie et la Grèce, pour arriver à Modane (France) ou à Vintimille. En six mois, plus de 25 000 officiers, sous-officiers et spécialistes gagnèrent ainsi notre pays(2). Comme d'instinct, ces Polonais de notre siècle retrouvaient " le chemin tracé par le sang de leurs aïeux et de leur pères "- celui des Emigrations de 1830 et 1863. Arrivés en France pendant les mois de la guerre, intégrés à " l'Armée Polonaise en France ", les plus jeunes recevant une formation militaire au camp de Coëtquidan, ils participèrent à l'expédition de Norvège et aux combats qui se déroulèrent en France, " à Saint-avold, Kirviller, Dieuz et Lagarde, à Belfort et en Bretagne ". Après l'armistice en France, dans l'été 1940, environ un quart de " l'Armée Polonaise en France " fut évacué sur la Grande-Bretagne. Les autres soldats polonais, répondant à l'appel du général Sikorski, s'efforcèrent de gagner le sud de la France, afin de rejoindre " la Grande-Bretagne et l'Armée Polonaise Combattante ". C'est ici que la police de Vichy les arrêta et, pour ceux qui nous intéressent, les conduisit au camp de Septfonds. Le 4 avril 1941, la direction de la Sûreté, au Ministère de l'Intérieur, faisait connaître au Préfet du Tarn-et-Garonne, sa décision " de créer au camp de Septfonds un centre spécial destiné aux officiers des armées ex-alliées, ayant tenté de quitter la France clandestinement ".(3)

1) Les passages en italiques sont des citations du document polonais.(2) Général Louis Faury : " Pologne terrassée. L'épilogue en Roumanie (septembre-octobre 1939), Revue historique des Armées, n° 168 (sept. 1987).(3) Archives Départementales du Tarn-et-Garonne, 1W15.

My father was lucky he was moved on quickly, exactly how quickly is unclear, according to his documents he was under French command from 28.03 1940 but they also say he arrived in England on 28.03.1940 and was posted to the Aviation Training Centre, RAF Station, Eastchurch. He enlisted in the Royal Airforce Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR). On the formation of the Polish Air Force he enlisted in the Force with effect from 05.08.1940.This information is confused, some of the dates do not agree.

On the above pictures my father is the one leaning on the shed, I do not know who the others are or where it was taken.

My father was a Fitter 1/Armourer with 301 Polish Bomber Squadron on 23.07.1940! My father served with: 301 Squadron; 300 Polish Bomber Squadron; 1586 Special Duties Flight. This latter was stationed in Brindisi.


The above picture was taken in Brindisi and is published here by permission of Barry J Raymond esq. The men are; (left to right) Jozef Mierzwinski, Jan Musialik, Jozef Materna and Winzenty Luczak.

Background

I never knew my father, not because we never met but because I was too young to remember. For example, I have no memories of this photo being taken!



My parents met during WWII, my father was in England, fighting with the Polish Airforce. They married at the end of the war and divorced a few years later. My mother almost never spoke of my father, and certainly had nothing good to say about him. Initially she tried very hard to keep any information away from me, later she spoke a little but by this time she had very little information to give me. Things were very different in those days to now, divorce was still frowned on.
After the war my father chose to remain in the UK and was trained as an explosives expert in the mines. In 1950 he married again, by this time he was naturalized and known as Winston Lawrence, he subsequently had a son.