| W dniu ANZACowskiego święta, w piątek 25 kwietnia 2014 r. otwarta została w Klubie Polskim w Ashfield wielka wystawa fotograficzna – to w ramach obchodzonego w Australii ANZAC Centenary. Część wystawy można obejrzeć w foyer; dużo eksponatów znajduje się w Sali Lustrzanej, gdzie odbył się uroczysty ANZAC Lunch. Najwięcej eksponatów umieszczono jednak w wielkiej sali (Audytorium). Wystawa jest owocem twórczej, wspólnej i ciężkiej pracy małej grupy osób; praca rozpoczęła się na dobre we wrześniu ub.roku. Po świątecznym anzakowskim obiedzie poprosiłam twórców wystawy, aby podzielili się wrażeniami z wielomiesięcznej pracy. Nowy dyrektor Zarządu Klubu, bodaj najmłodszy wiekiem, Maciej Jarysz z przejęciem opowiadał o włączeniu się w realizację wielkiego projektu.
Maciej Jarysz - jak się zapaliłem do tego projektu. Posłuchaj.
Jednym z ważniejszych działów wielkiej wystawy są zdjęcia z Borneo, z obozu dla jeńców wojennych w Sandakan, gdzie po upadku Singapuru zgromadzono australijskich oficerów i żołnierzy. Do fotograficznej dokumentacji, rycin, archiwalnych zdjęć i wycinków prasowych dołączono opis okrucienstw, jakich dopuszczali się japońscy strażnicy w stosunku do Australijczyków i Brytyjczyków. Piekło straszne – ale czy straszniejsze od sowieckich zbrodni popełnianych na polskich patriotach w Katyniu? Współtwórca wystawy Felix Molski opowiada o Sandakanie, porównując okrucieństwa dokonywane w tym rejonie świata z tymi na nieludzkiej ziemi. Zbrodnie sandakańskie trzymane były w tajemnicy przez pół wieku! - Czy tylko z winy Japonczyków? Posłuchajcie Felixa Molskiego.
Listen to Felix Molski talking about WW2 cruelties in Sandakan
W pracach nad przygotowaniem wystawy brali również udział ojciec i syn: Dariusz i Mateusz Konopka. Jak mówi pan Dariusz "zaczynamy doceniać to, co straciliśmy" i opowiada o pierwszym etapie katalogowania zbiorów ze "spalonego" Muzeum Wojska Polskiego – mówi też, czego się dowiedział i nauczył w trakcie przygotowań do wystawy.
Dariusz Konopka - czego się nauczyłem w czasie prac nad wystawą. Posłuchaj.
Z okazji tej wspaniałej wystawy organizatorzy opracowali i opublikowali "Souvenir Booklet" (ponad 30 stron) w języku angielskim. Marzy im sie oczywiście, aby prócz Polaków oglądali ją Australijczycy i ktokolwiek inny, kogo Dobry Bóg przywiedzie w progi Klubu Polskiego.
We wstępie do książeczki koordynatorka grupy roboczej Julie Ankiewicz napisała:
On behalf of the team I have led I am proud to say we achieved this through linking both
nations in each display in different ways. In the expose of WWI there is a Birth-Rebirth
parallel. ‘Brotherhood –in –Arms’ showcases the courage and comradeship of both the
Aussie Diggers and the Poles in Tobruk. ‘Australian Wartime Snapshots’ chronicles
theatres of war over 100 yrs. ‘For your Freedom and Ours’ chronicles the Polish struggle
in European theatres of battle ‘POW War Atrocities’ links Katyn with Sandakan. The
major theme is the playing out of Earthly Powers V Spiritual Power; the analogy in the
beautiful Monuments and the profound stories behind Images of Our Lady-Matka Boska.
Our Lady of Kozielsk and Our lady of Katyn are powerfully interwoven inspirational
stories. ‘Enigma’ challenges the guests own powers of problem solving. Our human
wartime story of the ‘Australian Airmen’ conquests in Poland is not to be missed.
Of course staging the exhibition at the Polish Club allowed us to showcase ‘Defending
Common Values’ which was kindly loaned by the Home Army Veterans Association of
NSW. It poignantly outlines the Polish nation’s 100 year struggle to defend both its
homeland and World Values.
My inspiration for the exhibition came when I started looking back at my
Australian/Prussian and Australian/Polish ancestral heritage, beginning with my Australian
Great Uncle in WW I, continuing with my Polish Father’s Post WW II Resettlement in
Australia.
Warto też może zwrócić Państwa uwagę na ten fragment wystawy, który dokonuje porównania okrucieństw dokonanych w Katyniu i Sandakanie. Pozwolę sobie zacytować rozdział pt. World War 2 Prisoner of War Atrocities Compared".
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After Singapore fell, Allied POW’s were held at Changi, but later many were moved and
forced to build military infrastructure in other parts of the Pacific. In July 1942 about 1800
Australians and 640 Brits were transported to Sandakan to build airfields. By 1944, over
1000 had died from starvation, disease, denial of medical attention and sadistic treatment
meted out by the guards. Conditions worsened when the Japanese caught Australians smuggling in radio
equipment and organising a local underground resistance. About 170 officers were moved
to a camp in Kuching; almost all survived; death awaited the enlisted men remaining in
Sandakan. Early in 1945 Allied Forces were closing in; Japanese authorities began to Force March
the sick, starving and injured POW’s 265 km inland to the isolated highland town of
Ranau, carrying camp supplies through jungle and swamp in equatorial heat. Stragglers
were shot, bayoneted or clubbed to death. On the 29th January, 470 left Sandakan, four
months later another 532 and on the 9th of June 75 POW’s set off. Overall, about half
were killed on the journey and the rest were murdered at different times at Ranau and
Sandakan. Australians: Owen Campbell, Richard Braithwaite, Nelson Short, William
Sticpewich, Keith Botterill and William Moxham escaped. Helped by locals, they were the
only survivors.
Background: Poles Targeted for Liquidation
After signing a Friendship Agreement on 28th September, 1939, Soviet Russians and
Nazi Germans agreed to destroy Poland forever. The NKVD & the Gestapo met several
times at Krakow, Lwow and Zakopane, deciding that if every Pole who had leadership
potential was killed, Polish culture would not survive.
About 1.5 million people in Soviet controlled Poland were freighted to Siberia and
Kazakhstan in cattle cars on journeys that lasted around six weeks in freezing conditions;
of 250,000 Polish POW’s, about 227,000 enlisted men were moved elsewhere, the 22,000
plus reservist officers remaining were kept in tolerable conditions at Kozielsk, Starobielsk
and Ostaszkow. Doctors were classed as officers, even if they weren’t.
For six months in the early hours of the morning, without using torture, the Soviet Political
Police repeatedly interrogated the prisoners about their backgrounds and political
opinions. The teachers, priests, professors, engineers, journalists, doctors, pharmacists,
lawyers, managers, accountants and community leaders were pressured to become
communist activists.
All but about a dozen refused to betray their faith, family, culture and values. About 448
were moved out and the rest were executed daily in groups of 200-300 starting in April,
1940. The killings took place in several locations but generically they are referred to as
the ‘Katyn’ massacres. Of the 448 initial survivors, about 50 were killed later.
Why They Died
Victims of Cruelty, Inconvenience and Fear of Humiliation and Justice
1. Japanese military authorities aimed to maximise POW deaths so they didn’t have to
use soldiers as guards
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2. To eliminate potential witnesses of Japanese crimes against humanity and the
humiliation of their defeat
3. Guards, conditioned to act cruelly, constantly brutalised and ill-treated POW’s
Can’t Fix the Way the Polish POW’s Think? Shoot them.
1. Killed for scorning ‘Political Police’ pressure to become Soviet tools as:
informers
torturers
assassins
enslavers
enablers of tyranny
And
2. Because they were viewed as leaders who could defy Soviet Socialist plans to
annihilate Polish culture and impose communism
Manner of Death
Deprivation and Cruel and Despicable Treatment
Mal-nourished disease ridden and denied medical attention, many Diggers died from
starvation, dehydration dysentery, malaria, beriberi and other illnesses. Some died of
sheer exhaustion or untreated wounds and injuries. Others were beheaded, crucified,
shot, bayoneted, clubbed to death or didn’t survive torture. In some cases Japanese
guards dismembered and cannibalised the bodies.
Bullet in the Back of the Head Conveyer Belt
From April to mid-May, 1940, 200-300 POW’s were daily told they were being moved
closer to home with better conditions. After a ‘final’ meal, they left the camp. They were
then brutally loaded onto cattle wagons or trucks called ‘Black Ravens’, and transported to
several forest locations.
At the killing fields, the Officer’s coats were pulled over their heads, hands wired behind
their back and tied to their necks with a ‘strangler knot’; struggling tightened the noose
causing suffocation. Resisters were bayoneted and sawdust was pushed down their
throats. The Officers were then shot in the nape and the bullets generally exited through
the forehead. Some were killed at NKVD headquarters and buried later in the communal
forest graves.
Prosecutions?
Closure - of a Sort
Japan was a WW2 loser and therefore not part of the War Prosecution panel. Justice was
neither delayed nor denied. The perpetrators of the Sandakan POW war crimes were
shocked to discover they hadn’t killed all the witnesses; four Australian survivors testified
to the atrocities.
The main perpetrators were found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and executed on 6th
April, 1946. Captains Hoshima Susumu, Takakuwa Takuo were hanged and Captain
Watanabe Genzo was shot. Others found guilty were given sentences from 3 years to life.
No Japanese leader has yet directly apologised to family descendants for the heinous
crimes committed on their loved ones.
War Criminals Prosecuting War Crimes
The USSR began WW2 as a friend of and co-aggressor with the Germans. Soviet
Socialist war atrocities were on the same scale as those committed by the Japanese and
the National Socialists (Nazi’s). After Germany attacked the USSR the Soviets switched
sides and joined the Allies.
At the end of WW2 the USSR was a war crimes prosecutor and avoided accountability for
its own barbaric deeds. Not a single perpetrator of the Katyn POW atrocities has ever
been brought to justice; in fact many of them were promoted and rewarded with high level
honours for their services at ‘Katyn’.
Censoring the Truth
Paternalism or Guilt?
Paternalistic Australian governments decided that the truth about what the Sandakan
POW’s suffered – starvation, torture, dismemberment and cannibalism - was too
despicable for their next of kin to be told. Consequently, the fate of these Diggers was
kept secret from the families and the public.
Perhaps the government also didn’t want details of the botched rescue attempt to become
widely known either. Australians have only recently become aware of the heroism of the
Sandakan POW’s; Diggers who never gave up and who helped each other to the bitter
end.
Do bogactwa materiałów anzakowskiej wystawy będziemy powracać niejednokrotnie - jest tyle ważnych, bolesnych tematów! Wystawa będzie czynna do 30 czerwca br. Niezależnie od wystawy będziemy publikowali w Pulsie Polonii mnóstwo materiałów, które wielkim nakładem pracy - i patriotycznie bijących serc - zostały przez twórców wystawy zgromadzone.
A póki postawię następny krok, to przyznam, że moim marzeniem jest nagranie wypowiedzi małych i większych dzieci, które wraz z nauczycielami obejrzały wystawę. Marzy mi się też, aby na każdej klubowej imprezie padło kilka słów zachęty do oglądania wystawy - warto pokazać, że w tym klubie wszystko jest ze sobą wzajemnie powiązane.
Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek
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