(History of the Polish School in Slough)
Poles
in England - Polish School in Slough
The story of how the Polish Saturday
School came to be formed in Slough in 1952 begins just after the start
of World War II. On the 17 September 1939 the Russian Army, in collaboration
with the Germans, invaded Poland from the East. In the early morning of
February 10th 1940 the Russian secret police, the NKVD, started to forcibly
evacuate all Polish people from their homes in eastern Poland. The Poles
were given less than an hour to put together a few clothes and some food
before being taken to the railway station and herded into trains bound
for Siberia. The journey in unheated cattle wagons would take over three
weeks, during which time many people died, their bodies thrown from the
train.
More than 1.5 million Poles were rounded up in this way by the Russians.
Many died in the labour camps from starvation and disease. For example
in one camp of 10,000 people only 900 people survived into the following
year. In June 1941 Hitler invaded Russia. The Polish government-in-exile
negotiated an "amnesty" with Stalin for the release of Polish soldiers
and the civilian population and so began the long and horrific journey
from the Siberian camps via Persia, the Middle East, India, East Africa
and eventually England.
Many Poles had fought alongside the British on many fronts. The Polish
Air Force played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain. Many Polish
soldiers served under General Anders in the Polish Second Corps that joined
the Allies in Italy in their fight northwards, where the Poles broke the
five-month German defence of Monte Cassino. However, Poland was not represented
at the Tehran and Yalta conferences when the British, Americans and Russians
rearranged her borders. In 1945, nearly half of pre-war Poland was annexed
by the Soviet Union, and by way of compensation, Poland was given land
in the West taken from Germany. But this new Poland was to be ruled by
a Moscow-controlled Communist regime.
The end of the War saw over 140,000 Polish soldiers settle in Britain,
despite the efforts of the British government to persuade them to go back
to Poland. The Poles knew, however, that they could never go back home.
The soldiers and their families were resettled in camps around the country
that provided them with English tuition and training for the world of
work. One such camp was in Bower
Wood, between Beaconsfield and Farnham Common. In this camp, then
later in Slough, the Poles organised clubs, associations and a Polish
Saturday School that instilled in their children a sense of pride in their
roots through language, culture, history and tradition. The second-generation
Poles, born in this country, now see their children attending the Polish
School in Slough. With pride and gratitude we look back at the last
50 years realising that the burning love for their country, carried so
bravely by the Polish people during the War, has indeed been passed through
the generations.
