A Pole in London

BBC Learning 1 EnglishLondon LifeA Pole in LondonYvonne: You’re listening to “London Life” withbbclearningenglish.com and I’mYvonne Archer 2. Hello!
　　As we know, people from all over the world live right herein London. But have you ever wondered why they came hereand how? Today, we’ll hear the story of how a Polish ladybecame a Londoner – plus, a little bit of Polish historyalong the way. The lady’s story is told by Kaz Janowski,one of our friends from the BBC Learning English office!
　　But who is the lady and what happened just after she wasborn?
　　INSERTMy mother’s name is Aniela, she was born in 1913, so itwas just before the outbreak of the1st World War, and she came from a part of Poland which wasPoland then but is now a part of the Ukraine.
　　Yvonne: So the lady is Kaz’s mother who was born inPoland. And just after she was born, the first World Warbegan. As Kaz put it, she was born just before ‘theoutbreak of’ the 1st World War’. Now you might also hearthat term ‘the outbreak of something’ used to talk aboutthe start of other negative things or situations, forexample, a disease 3 – an ‘outbreak of TB’ – as well asabout wars and conflicts. So do listen out for it…INSERTJust before the outbreak of the 1st World War…Yvonne: Poland has had a difficult history but Anielareally loved the beautiful little village in the mountainswhere she grew up. As Kaz continues this amazing story, tryto find out what else Aniela loved about her village…INSERTOne of the things about it that she particularly rememberedand cherished 4 was that you had Russians, you hadUkrainians, you had Poles, you had lots of Jews, you hadGermans, you had mountain people, Hungarian type of people,Romanian – it was an amazing mixture, an ethnic 5 mixture.
　　Yvonne: Throughout her life, Aniela held fond memories ofthe village where she grew up and talked about them. As Kazsaid, she ‘cherished’ the memories of her village becauseit was such ‘an amazing ethnic mixture’. Today, we mightdescribe it as ‘cosmopolitan’, like London, because somany different types of people lived there.
　　INSERTOne of the things about it that she particularly rememberedand cherished was that it was an amazing mixture, an ethnicmixture.
　　Yvonne: Aniela learned 6 a new skill in her village whichturned out to be more useful than she could ever havethought possible. What was that skill and who did she learnit from?
　　INSERTShe learnt how to do needlepoint from a Ukrainian girl whoshowed her how to do these beautiful designs onheadscarves.
　　Yvonne: A Ukrainian girl taught Aniela how to sew beautifuldesigns onto scarves using different coloured threads – askill called ‘needlepoint’. Then women wore the scarveson their heads.
　　As with many young women, Aniela grew up, met someone, fellin love and got married. But…Czestaw was a soldier andjust weeks after their marriage, the Second World War brokeout. He was sent to Hungary and then to the Middle East andit was almost a decade - 10 years - before the couple saweach other again. Aniela and the rest of her family weredeported – they were forced to leave their country. Butwhere did they go and how did they get there?
　　INSERTThey were put on a train, they were allowed to take one ortwo items and several weeks later, they arrived at astation… In the middle of the steps in Kazakhstan, theywere told to get out and just get on with their lives. Theywere told that if they worked, they would earn a living. Ifthey didn’t work, they would die.
　　Yvonne: The family arrived in Kazakhstan after travellingfor several weeks on a train and had to work to survive.
　　There were farms that they could work on - but Aniela hadher needlepoint to help earn money for the family. She hadno choice but to ‘get on with life’ as instructed – todo the best she could under the circumstances, so she didjust that!
　　Eventually things changed again but Aniela and her husbandwere still separated. Czestaw joined the British army andthe Poles in Kazakhstan were allowed to leave. They went tocountries like India and Iran; Aniela and her mother wentto Uganda!
　　INSERTI mean this was a revelation 7 to somebody who’d grown up ina Polish village with snow in winter. And there she wassuddenly in the middle of tropical 8 Africa.
　　Yvonne: Well, after five years, Aniela and her motherfinally left Uganda in East Africa for the UK. Czestaw wasfinally allowed to join his wife, even though they had tolive in a displaced 9 people’s camp –which is where Kaz wasborn in 1952. Eight years later, the Janowski’s had a realhome in East London. Aniela never left London again.