Irene Wieczorek was born on 15 May 1931 in Poland. Her mother, Jadwiga, and her father, Cheslaw, lived in a place called Bialowieza, a highly forested area in the north eastern side of Poland. Jadwiga Suma was born on 1 August 1914, and was sent to Siberia twice, once during the First World War, and once during the Second World War. Irene, only eight years old at the time, remembers when she and her mother, Jadwiga, father Cheslaw, her one year old brother Richard, and uncle Romek, were disturbed by a knocking on the door: when they opened the door, three Russian soldiers told them to pack a few things and dress in warm clothing as the weather was very cold. They were to go with the soldiers, but were told they would be back home in about two weeks.
That was 10 February 1940. They were put into a sledge and taken to a railway station and put in cattle wagons which were then sealed, it took them three months to get to their destination: Siberia. The reason they were taken from their home was that Irene’s father, Cheslaw, was a Civil Servant working as a Forester in the National Park of Bialowieza. The Soviet authorities wished to remove all traces of an independent Polish nation.
Irene reports, “My father was made to work in a gold mine and if there was no gold there was no bread so we had to go hungry. Thanks to General Sikorski [the leader of the Free Polish Army red.] my father and uncle joined The Polish Free Army under British Command: we were then able to get out of ‘Hell’.” After the Nazi invasion of the USSR, Stalin allowed Poles to join the armed struggle against the Germans.
Irene’s journey to Perth started from the moment she, her mother and brother left Siberia in 1941. They all travelled first to Teheran and were there for years. Richard, the young boy, caught typhoid and dysentery and died at the age of three. His small grave remains in Teheran and his mother, Jadwiga, was heartbroken at the loss of her beloved little son.
Irene ate the food that was available and her mum tried to obtain little jobs of sewing to provide for her daughter and herself. Irene remembers that many people became ill because when they were hungry they ate fatty foods which she did not like. This may have saved her life; however the lack of food affected her wellbeing for the rest of her life.
Irene remembers that she and her mother went to India to a place near Goa, where they spent five and a half years at Camp Valivade. She had some of the best years of her life with other young Polish girls who were in the same position as herself, growing up through their adolescence. Although the displaced Polish people were living in camp conditions, it was very well organised and they always practised their Catholic religion; it was never forgotten. Regular masses were said and celebrations were enjoyed with the meagre luxuries they may have had. Jadwiga, Irene’s mum trained as a seamstress and was able to earn a little money sewing clothes for those who were in the camp.
In October 1947, at the age of 16, Irene left India with her mum for Liverpool, from where she travelled onwards to Cirencester, to Lancashire, to Wrexham, and then on to Aberargie, where her father, who had been re-united with his wife and daughter in Wrexham, would be able to gain employment in the forests which he had been told about. Irene met her husband, Felix Jureczko, on a “Blind Date” when she and a friend travelled to North Berwick to meet up with two Polish ex-servicemen. Felix fell in love with Irene straight away.
Felix Jureczko was born on 26 May 1925, and had lived in a place in southern Poland called Czarkow, with two brothers, three sisters, and his parents. His father was a master builder. Felix was taken by the Germans at the age of 14 to work as a farm labourer. Felix heard about the Free Polish Army when he was liberated by the Americans. He joined the Free Polish Army in 1944. He came to the UK to be trained in Catterick, moving on to be stationed in North East Scotland, at Montrose. When he was deployed to Holland to the 24th Armoured Division he was wounded near Breda on 10 March 1945, and was sent to a military hospital in Ormskirk in Cheshire to be treated for shrapnel in his hand. He did not return to active service and never returned to his family in Poland. Those who had fought in the Free Polish Army were barred from entering the country by the Communist regime.
Irene Wieczorek was married to Felix Jureczko on 8 November 1952, in St John the Baptist’s church, Perth, by Fr. Lewandowski. The service took only 15 minutes and there were 38 guests present. Irene remembers that her bridesmaid was Christine McLeod who was a parishioner of St. John’s, and was a friend she had met through working as a nurse at Bridge of Earn Hospital. Irene remembers that, when she worked in Bridge of Earn Hospital, a Polish priest used to come to the hospital and say mass on a Sunday for staff who could not attend mass if they were working shifts. At that time Polish mass was also celebrated at St. John’s once a month.
On 8 December 1953, Irene had a son, Richard Jureczko, at Perth Royal Infirmary. Richard was baptised in St John’s on 26 December 1953 on a very cold and wintry Boxing Day. Irene could not be present at the baptism as she was very unwell at the time. Their family are parishioners at St John’s Church to this day.
Editor’s note: this moving story reveals just a little of the immense human tragedies that hide behind the arrival of so many Catholics in Scotland. Poles of this generation were mainly the victims of conflict. Others, like the Irish, Italians, and the current generation of Polish immigrants, have come to find work, often fleeing desperate poverty. For all of them, the parish of St John the Baptist in Perth has provided one element of comfort: a place to practise their faith, and a reminder that we are, after all, pilgrims on earth.
Richard Jackson, with notes by Harry Schnitker