Regina's Polish Community Honors Wartime Survivors with New Memorial
The haunting sound of train wheels echoed in Donna Lukomski's mind for decades, a persistent reminder of her traumatic childhood deportation from Poland during the Second World War. Now 93 years old and living in Regina, Lukomski represents a generation of Polish Canadians whose wartime experiences remained largely unspoken for most of their lives.
A Community Coming Together
The Polish Canadian Cultural Club of Regina is currently fundraising for a permanent memorial to honor approximately 450 Polish people who settled in Saskatchewan after serving or being displaced during the world wars. The planned installation at Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery, scheduled for autumn of this year, will feature a cylinder steel memorial with the Polish flag and engraved names of those being commemorated.
"I am astonished that they are doing this. I hope I'm going to be still alive to see it," Lukomski expressed with emotion during an interview in her Regina home.
Childhood Trauma Remembered
Lukomski was just six years old on February 10, 1940, when Soviet soldiers arrived at her family's door at 4 a.m. Her family became part of the two million people forced onto cattle cars destined for work camps. For three years, she endured desperate hunger in a camp near Arkhangelsk, just south of the Arctic Circle, where she scavenged garbage for potato peels to make soup.
"Each time I lay down on a pillow, I could hear the wheels of the train in my brain. I could never get rid of this sound in my head," Lukomski lamented. "Nobody knows what I went through. No one will ever know."
A Journey Through Refugee Camps
After the Soviets released the laborers, Lukomski's family embarked on a harrowing journey through multiple countries. They found temporary refuge in camps in Iran, India, and Uganda, enduring harsh conditions with lice and disease spreading through the crowded facilities. Tragedy struck when Lukomski's younger sister died of food poisoning on a ship bound for India.
Despite the hardships, Lukomski found moments of happiness in India, where she attended school and learned English. At age 16, representatives from the Canadian government offered work contracts to young adults in the camp, and Lukomski eagerly accepted, beginning her new life on a family farm in Abernethy, Saskatchewan.
Building a New Life in Canada
Lukomski eventually settled in Regina, where she met her husband George and raised six children. Today, she takes pride in her 16 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren, with family photos filling her living room. Remarkably, she didn't begin speaking openly about her nine years as a war refugee until she was 77 years old.
"And I never talk about war, what I went through. Nothing at all. I just kept it all by myself," she explained about her decades of silence.
Honoring Military Service
The memorial will also honor Polish military veterans like Stefan Nurkowski, who served in the Polish army during WWII before settling in Regina with his family. His son Bron Nurkowski recalls that while his father rarely spoke about his wartime experiences, he would occasionally overhear conversations with fellow veterans about their shared history.
Like many in Saskatchewan's Polish community, these survivors found it difficult to express the gravity of what they endured as their homeland was devastated by war. The new memorial represents not just a tribute to individuals, but a collective acknowledgment of shared trauma and resilience.
The Polish Canadian Cultural Club's fundraising efforts continue as the community prepares to install this permanent tribute near the veterans' section of Riverside cemetery, ensuring that future generations remember the struggles and triumphs of Regina's Polish settlers.
