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Week 38: Adversity #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

Sometimes when you find yourself in the very worst of circumstances, it is the actions of other people which can make all the difference.

It is the 6th of December 1941. In a cattle train on the outskirts of Moscow are a hundred or so Polish refugees. They have all been recently released from Soviet labour camps and are trying to find their way to safety. Among these people are my husband's grandmother and her three children. They haven't eaten for days and death from starvation is near.

The train is stuck in a railway siding due to heavy snow on the tracks. Hours pass by. Then they hear the sound of another train approaching. It also grinds to a halt because of the snow. It is full of Russian civilians fleeing the German advance which is nearing Moscow. The hungry Poles leave their train to beg for some food from the Russian passengers. But Martin's grandmother, Janina, is too near starvation to stand let alone get out of the cattle train. So her younger daughter Danuta stays with her, while the elder brother and sister leave the train to try to find food.

Some time later they return - empty handed - and are in despair. Danuta looks out of the open cattle train doorway. Suddenly she hears someone calling out in Russian. "Divotchka!" (little girl). Danuta looks and sees a lady on the doorway of the other train, with her fur hat and coat on to protect her against the cold. The lady then leans down and picks something up and throws it across the track to Danuta. The young girl doesn't know what she is throwing but manages to catch the object. It is a very large loaf of bread. She looks up to thank the lady, but she is no longer there.

This loaf feeds the family for a week. Without it, they would have died of hunger. It was given to them on the 6th of December, the day Polish children receive their Christmas presents.

This story was told to my husband by Danuta herself, late on in her life. Without that Russian woman's kindness, my husband would not have been born, I would not be able to write this down and my two children would not have existed.

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