Week 24: Last One Standing #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

Maria Danuta Stepek (known as Danka) was born in 1927 in Maczkowce, Poland. She was the youngest of three children of Wladyslaw and Janina Stepek, my husband's grandparents. She had a happy childhood on her parents' farm until the outbreak of war in September 1939.

When the Soviet Union invaded from the east, her father Wladyslaw was quickly informed that he was on a list of those persons to be arrested and executed. He fled into hiding with the Resistance and this was the last time she saw him.

Four months later, 12 year old Danka, her sister Zofia (14), her brother Jan (17) and her mother were deported to northern Russia near the Arctic Circle. The journey took three weeks by cattle train and ended at a political labour camp where they lived and worked for the next eighteen months. All her family members, including Danka herself, fell ill in the camp and all were malnourished. Her mother lost 4 stones in weight. On their release in October 1941, they had to make their own way south to Kazakhstan, where they were told there would be Polish officials who could help them.

However, with no resources or awareness of the geography, it took them almost four months to find the Polish officials. By this time, Janina, the mother couldn't stand, all three children were suffering from tropical diseases and were close to starvation. They were taken across the Caspian Sea in August 1942 and Danka was weighed on arrival in Persia - she was 15 years old and weighed 3 stone 12 pounds.

Worse was to follow, their mother died of hunger and exhaustion in the October of that year in Persia. The three children survived, with Jan joining the Polish Army and later transferring to the Polish Navy. Danka and her sister were taken as refugees to Palestine.

After the war ended, all three siblings made separate journeys to the UK, where they learned their father had also died. They never returned to live in Poland, spending their lives in the UK.

Danka herself married a fellow Pole and went on to have five children. She was entrepreneurial and ran several successful small businesses. She took part in a Polish Dance Troupe for several years touring Europe. Remarkably, all three siblings lived very long lives, despite the trauma of their early years. Jan was first to pass away, aged 90, followed by Zofia aged 91. Danka herself passed away in November 2019 at the age of 92. A vibrant, cheerful and practical woman to the end. She was the last one standing of the Stepek family from Maczkowce.

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