Item UF1994.023.c220 - Interview with Mr. Zdristas Jan Krywkowski a teacher in High School in Barrhead

• Sound recording

2 audio files, mp3, duration: 0:45:21 min. and 0:45:02 min.

This item contains an interview with Zdzisław Jan Krywkowski, conducted in Stoney Plain, AB on April 19, 1977. The
How did he come to Canada during the war? He came completely legally, from Switzerland where he had been a student. He studied political sciences at the international labor office. Then he came to France, where the so-called 4. Polish division was formed. He never took part in any battle as there were not enough people. He embarked a ship close to Bordeaux in 1940 and arrived in Plymouth. He English were much friendlier than the French from whom the had received no information. As he spoke some English, he went around with a colonel called Koszałkowski Marian. Afterwards, they were brought to Glasgow, then they were living in tents. He spent the whole war in Britain, predominantly in Scotland. He joined the 1. Corps of the Polish Army (the 2. Corps was commanded by General Anders). Among his superiors were General Maćko, his direct superior was Karol Kraćkiewicz (or Kraśkiewicz). In 1944, the worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Jewish matters. They countered the propaganda (also in the English press) that all Poles are anti-Semites and that they are persecuting the Jews together with the Germans.
His parents remained in Poland, they spent the war there. He calls Włocławek his native city although he was born in Warsaw, but he spent only four years there. His mother was the headmaster of a large school in Włocławek, a former student of her (an ethnic German) warned her after the German invasion in Poland, and his parents relocated to Warsaw. His father spent a part of the war in Żarnów close to Opoczno, his native village. He recalls a family legend that his ancestors came from Ukraine during one of the Cossack uprisings.
Why did he come to Canada? In Scotland, he worked a teacher but his salary was meagre. He had three specialties: history, political science and economics. When he talks about his experiences as a school teacher, the interviewer asked him to switch to English as it will have to translate the interview. He continues in English: He wanted to work in a secondary school. He received an offer from Alberta. In Ontario, he would have had to study for a year at a university, and BC was slow to answer.