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"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Richard Efurt and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."
Both my parents were from Poland. They met over here in a camp. They are in their 80’s now.

My mum and her brother were just taken away from their family and village, by the Germans at gunpoint. My mum was 15 and was set to work as a farm labourer. My mum and brother were separated. Her brother died and she still doesn’t know where he was buried.

My mum spent the whole war in forced labour working for the Germans. She says she was well looked after.

She was liberated by the Americans and was given a choice whether to go home, or go to England or Australia. Her dad had been taken to Auschwitz for helping the Jews and killed in the camp, so she didn’t want to go home. She decided to come to England. First to York, then to Sandhutton (Scarborough) and then to Harley.

Dad was in the military, he fought with the Americans in Italy. After the war, he and a few friends made the choice to come to England. They thought it would be a better life.

My mum and dad met each in Bedford. They travelled to different camps together and stayed in this area. Dad went into the mines and mum worked in a steel works in Sheffield. Neither of them could speak English. They lived on the old Platts Common estate and they had to report to the police everyday. They felt like outcasts and still feel a little that way.

Mum kept in touch with her family in Poland and she went back in 1969. It made the front page of the Barnsley Chronicle.

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