24/07/2026
Our sympathies to the family of Jadwiga Teresa Lynch (nee Lutomska)
10 November 1928 – 1 July 2026
Jadwiga was born in Poland in 1928 in Tarnopol in South-East Poland near the Russian border to Stanislaw and Anastazja Lutomski, she had one older brother Edek.
This is mostly an excerpt from a story Jadwiga had written in the 1980's for her grandchildren (posted with the permission of family)
Jadwiga's story:
"On 1st September 1939 the Russian soldiers walked into our country and our town. I was only 10 years old. It was the last time I saw my father.
I remember vividly in the early hours of 13th April 1940, there was a knock on the door and two Russian soldiers appeared with guns. They told my mother to quickly pack a few things as they were going to take us to our father. Mum was very upset and crying all the time, but was happy we would be with our dad, but sadly this was not the case. It later transpired that my father was amongst over 4000 service personnel who were executed in the Katyn Forest by the Russians in what is often referred to as the" Katyn Forest Massacre".
We were loaded into goods wagons, packed with hundreds of other mothers and children, just squatting on our few bits of luggage. The journey took about 6 weeks. It was very difficult for mums with wee babies as they could not feed them and many perished along the way. No funerals, they were just thrown on the side of the train tracks.
Eventually we arrived in Siberia and just dumped into clay huts and left there. Some lucky ones had a bit of straw to sleep on. Fortunately, it was summer when we arrived as we had very little bedding or clothes. There were 50 to 100 people sharing two coal ranges trying to make some soup with a few sprats caught in a nearby river and 200 grams of bread per person, if we managed to get it.
We were there for 2 years with no schooling for the children, but I used to mind a little Mongolian child so we could get some bread. My mother used to milk about 100 cows twice a day by hand. Edek also went out to work, although he was only about 13 at the time. It was my job to go off, not having any idea where I was going and queue for hours to maybe get a little bread. Often when I got to the end of the queue there was no bread left. We were starving most of the time. We had to be dug out of the huts many times after snowstorms which were very severe.
After about 18 months we were allowed to go into town and managed to rent a room. In September 1942 my mother developed pneumonia. I went to a well to get some buckets of water for a neighbour in exchange for some milk for my mother. When I returned, I found my mother outside looking for me but she had died. That was 7th September 1942.
Edek and I who were still children, a kind neighbour made a wooden box and my mother was buried in the steppes of Siberia with no Priest or church service.
A Polish lady took us in for a short time until we were sent to an orphanage formed by the Polish authorities. General Anders knew there were many orphans all over Russia and he managed to get many of us to Persia (now Iran). I was on the last transportation from Siberia. We spent about a year in Persia where we were well looked after by the Polish people.
Edek Joined the Polish Army and was a cadet in Palestine and then In Italy as a soldier driving tanks. He was also in the battle at Monte Cassino. Thankfully he survived the War.
In 1944 the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Peter Fraser, invited 725 Polish children to come to New Zealand, luckily, I was one of them. Coming from Isfahan in Persia to New Zealand during the war was a very frightening time. We went to Basra and it was there that we left on a British merchant ship for Bombay.
We reached Bombay about a week later and boarded an American troopship, the General Randall. It was almost a luxury ship compared to the Merchant ship. It was carrying three thousand Australian and New Zealand soldiers back home from the battlefront. The soldiers were absolutely marvellous to us, often playing games with us to pass the time and help us forget what we had been through. We were unaware of the danger this journey presented, Japanese mines and submarines, the ship was escorted for a long time by two small warships and the ship navigated a zig-zag course. We later found out the ship was actually hit by a torpedo which luckily bounced off the hull and we eventually made it to New Zealand.
We arrived in NZ on 1st November 1944, we were so excited to see the lovely hills and countryside. We were taken to the Pahiatua Camp. Every station we stopped at there were lots of people to greet us and giving us small treats and gifts. We couldn't believe we were safe and happy in this country.
Pahiatua was our home for 12-18 months. English teachers were trying to teach us English but in the end they could all speak perfect Polish and we couldn't speak English!
Many of us were then sent to various Catholic Schools to get some education. I was sent to Sacred Heart College in Hamilton and have lived in Hamilton ever since.
In about 1947 or 1948 I was able to bring my brother from England to New Zealand where he married Regina Mackiewicz, a Polish girl also from the Pahiatua Camp. They lived in Wellington and had one daughter, Krystyna.
I met my husband Gerard Lynch and we were married in 1951. We had three children, Raymond, Krystyna and Mark. They are all grown up and are happily married with children of their own. I am very proud of them all and love my grandchildren very much. I thank God for a good husband, a hard worker and good provider for our children. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to make New Zealand my home."
Since Jadwiga wrote her story, she sadly lost her husband, Gerard, in 2000 and Raymond in 2015. She accumulated a staggering 18 Great Grandchildren and could tell you each of their birthdays, putting a lot of us to shame!
Krystyna Priest (nee Lynch)
