Hello everyone who has come to the Australian multicultural festivals in Toowoomba.
When I was 6 years of age, WW2 began. Even though that was 63 years ago, I remember it well. It was a Thursday night and I and my Mum, Dad and 2 Sisters were at home eating, Pierogi, which is a stuffed dumpling. We had just sat down to eat when we heard on the radio that this man called Hitler, from Germany, had gone mad and was trying to take over the world. This terrified my mum and dad very much; my sisters and I were too little to understand, Mum and dad went off into a little room and then came back and told us to go pack a small bag with a very little amount of clothing and the thing that meant the most to us, I chose my teddy bear I had since I was very young. Very early the next morning we got our bag and we went out to this little cottage somewhere in the country, I thought this was going to be a fun and exciting holiday, but I was really wrong. The cottage only had 2 very small bedrooms were mum and dad slept in one and me and my 2 sisters slept in the other. There was only 1 bathroom, and a small sitting area off the kitchen. The cottage got really cramped and mum said we weren’t allowed outside in fear of being seen. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t be seen but I trusted my mum with my life so I followed her directions. Soon Poland had been destroyed by bombs and other things. I remember one day we all went out to the shops to get some groceries and the army was hunting Jewish men and then they were putting them in these cramped trucks. About a month later we got a letter saying that he had been killed in the gas chambers. That scared mum, now that she was alone and didn’t have anyone to protect us. Dad was the solid provider of the family now we had no-one.
A week later mum said to us that we were going on a long boat trip. So the next morning we left really early, before the sun was out and it was really really cold. We arrived at the boat docks after a 6 hour train trip and boarded the boat. As we boarded many things were going through my mind: I was sad, worried and scared. I also didn’t want to leave dad alone in the country where the mad man was. It was a long time we spent on the boat, it was cold and wet and miserable. After the long time spent on the boat, we finally arrived at this place mum called Australia, which I thought was a very weird name but oh well.
We had to go through medical checks and lots of different thing which scared me. People poking and prodding you, I didn’t like it at all. I asked mum why we chose this place, her response was: this land has freedom, freedom to do what we want, freedom to be whatever religion we want to be, freedom to get a job. This is a safe land. At the time that confused me, but I understand now.
After a couple of years we started to settle in, Mum got a job, she bought a nice little house in the out-skirts of Sydney. We lived a happy life, but I will never forget my father.
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