Natasza Gapinski
| Town/City | Hervey Bay |
|---|---|
| First name | Natasza |
| Last name | Gapinski |
| Country of Origin | Ukraine |
| Date of Birth | 1923 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1950 |
| Submitted by | Barbara McLennan |
Story
This story is about my Mum, Natasza who is 85 yrs old (and currently suffering from vascular dementia). During the second world war in 1941, Mum aged 18 yrs old, was forceably taken from her Ukraine homeland by the German army to work in Germany factory making metal nuts and bolts and other metal objects. She worked there for a period of three years. Mum was the eldest child of eight and didn’t see her parents again. She did visit her brothers and sisters in Ukraine in 1988 but they were all very wary of her, fearing Mum was a plant and sent there to spy on them to see how they all lived.
My Dad Stefan was in the Polish cavalry for a period of approx 3 months and was later captured by the German army and held in a German prisoner camp. German farmers were looking for healther males to work on the farms to produce food for their German troops. My Dad was chosen and his job was to deliver vegetables to the factory where Mum worked. He spotted Mum and convinced the farmer that they required additional staff at the farm to prepare the vegetables, and so Mum then worked at the farm also. Mum and Dad said that the farmer treated them very well and they always had lots to eat compared with what they had to eat at the factory and in the war camp.
After the war finished in 1945 Mum was too afraid to return home to Ukraine as there were stories that all the Ukraine girls that didn’t resist working for the Germans – the Ukraine boys/men would shave their heads and rape them. So Dad and Mum decided to get married. Mum didn’t want to live in Poland with Dad (as she was unable to speak the language, and Dad unable to speak Ukraine) and too afraid to return to her homeland, after living in Germany after the war and giving birth to my sister Christine (who died in Canberra in 2003 from Breast Cancer) they decided to travel to Australia in 1950, after receiving a free passage to Australia, they arrived here on 1950.
Mum was pregnant with me before boarding the ship (I can’t remember the name of the ship) travelling for ? 3 months, and did not see much as she has told me that she had spent most of the time in bed with severe seasickness. I, Barbara, was born in Urinquinty (registered in Wagga Wagga) NSW in 1950. My brother Frank was born in Queanbeyan in 1956.
Mum and Day were ever so grateful to come to be given a chance of a new life in Australia; as she put it, it was a place of (milk and honey) compared to where she had come from, and what she had endured in Germany, during the Second World War. My parents came with nothing and made a happy and successful life here in Australia.
My Dad Stefan (passed away on 30.10.1976 on my 5th wedding anniversary) I just wanted to leave this short story, as I remember it, and as a tribute to My Wonderful Mum and Dad, I love you Mum. Your loving daughter Barbara.