AN event to mark the 80th anniversary of the arrival of Allied Polish troops in Checkendon was held on Saturday.
The Friends of Checkendon, Nettlebed and Kingwood Common camps hosted a celebration at the Black Horse pub to commemorate the arrival of the soldiers in 1946 to the village military camp after being exiled from communist-occupied Poland.
They had fought under the command of General Bernard Montgomery during the Second World War.
Graham Drucker, 69, from the Isle of Wight, is a historian and author who organised the event.
Mr Drucker began researching the military camp in Checkendon after being approached by two former colleagues last year, Zbigniew and Barbara Karpowicz, both 70, who were born in the camp to Polish refugees in the Fifties.
The couple now lives in Cambridgeshire.
Mr Drucker said: “I found out very quickly there was next to no information about this, it was a mysterious, former military camp in the woods.
“It’s folklore for the villagers in surrounding areas. Last year, when I first started asking questions, they said they remembered a camp a long time ago, but no one knew anything else about it.
“So that really pushed me to try and make sure the legacy and memory of those families is never forgotten.”
Many of the 228,000 Polish troops in the British Army were displaced after the war and offered a home in the UK under the Polish Resettlement Act of 1947.
These families were housed in former military Nissen huts – invented by Major Peter Nissen.
Most of the buildings have been dismantled or become derelict but some still survive at the former camp.
Mr Drucker is in the process of making a roll of honour for the Polish families who settled in the camp. He has named about 500 families so far — about 2,000 individuals.
He also plans for a plaque to be unveiled at the Black Horse pub in Checkendon in July, and to launch a preservation project for a currently derelict Nissen Hut that was a chapel for the camp, to turn it into a museum or heritage site.
Mr Drucker said: “I am so inspired hearing the stories of the efforts and endurance that these Polish soldiers and their families experienced.
“Some of the children were born in Poland and forcefully taken out, or in Siberia and they had to endure starvation or freezing cold weather, so trekking across the Himalayas or through the desert in the Middle East to settling in the countryside of Checkendon, it must have been heaven in comparison.”
He added: “These people left their countries with nothing and they could never go back, because the home they knew didn’t exist anymore. That is my passion, to try and keep the stories of these people alive.”
About 300 people gathered in the village on Saturday to celebrate the anniversary.
Military vehicles drove onto the lawn with VIP guests, greeted by a guard of honour, including 100-year-old veteran Czeslaw Btachucki “Black”. Members of the British army were also in attendance.
Guests wore printed dresses and shawls, Union Jack T-shirts and traditional Polish costume as they gathered underneath bunting displaying British and Polish flags.
Father Ryszard Maniak, a Polish priest, opened the event with a speech. Both the Polish and English national anthems were played before a two-minute silence was held.
Czeslaw Adamczyk, 70, lived in the Checkendon camp until he was four years old and helped Mr Drucker put the commemoration event together.
His parents, Jan and Rozalia, arrived from an area of Poland, that is part of present-day Ukraine, after being displaced by the Soviet Union.
Speaking to the gathered crowd, Mr Adamczyk said: “From 1948 until 1961, these woods were transformed into Checkendon’s Little Poland.
“It was a place where displaced soldiers and their families found sanctuary, raised their children and preserved their culture after being exiled from their homeland.
“Today, we are here to ensure the sacrifices of our parents and ancestors are never forgotten. We see it in the continued bond between the British Army, the government of Poland and our community, all of whom still carry the torch for freedom that our parents fought for.”
He told the Henley Standard: “We felt that the Black Horse was a great location to have our event as it was a drinking hole for Polish people in Checkendon. “It was a short walk away from the camp and probably the closest introduction to a part of English life, the British pub. I certainly visited the pub on a number of occasions once I was old enough to be drinking and members of the community will visit it because of its significance.”
Irenka Motyka, 75, lives in Sonning Common and said her parents travelled to the UK in 1947. Ms Motyka lived in the Checkendon camp until she was about five, before moving to the house that she still lives in now.
She said: “When we arrived in Checkendon, I remember feeling quite intimidated by the woodland around me. People had spoken of the beautiful woods, but I felt a real sense of mystery, a sense of allure, possibly a degree of fear and concern.
“I was scared there were bears in those woods and I had no knowledge of the world beyond them.”
She added: “It’s amazing hearing the experiences of others because it’s a consolidation of our identity.
“It’s extraordinary that people have carried these memories, these thoughts and concerns, these sadnesses as well as the joys and they can still remember them and feel an affinity with what was.”
Miranda Milnes, 66, lives in Woodcote, having moved from Checkendon when she was about 25.
She explained her father, Ryszard Habasinski who died in 1993, was a Polish soldier who settled at the Checkendon camp in 1948.
She said: “He couldn’t return to the town he’d lived in, Prozeroki, which is now part of Belarus, because it was under communist rule.
“He lived at the camp, and he met my mum Anne, an English lady who is now 87. The camp was a real community, they had their own shop, as well as a school and a library and they held dances and went to the cinema. They really integrated with the local people and that’s how my parents met each other.
Marion Grezcy, 79, arrived at the Checkendon camp when he was six months old in September 1947. He lived there with his parents for about 13 years until 1960.
Marion’s father, Mieczysław, served as a major in the second Corps in the desert with General Montgomery’s eighth army.
He said: “I’ve visited the camp many times and I’ve found where my Nissen hut stood and I’ve also found my favourite oak tree, which was only about 30 yards from the hut, which is still standing there.
“Walking around, I can remember where everything is and what stood where and I thought about two years ago that it would go completely and disappear, so I thought that there was no point visiting there anymore.
“But to have nearly 300 people turn up to a small village in Oxfordshire is amazing. We can try and imagine what these people went through and what they’ve suffered. They arrived in Checkendon and they finally had a roof over their heads and they formed a community.”