My father was Mordko Krzepicki, a Polish Jew from
Wielun, Poland.
He came to Melbourne, Australia after WW11. He
met my mother, a third generation Australian of Scottish heritage,
at work at the Commonwealth Clothing Factories where they both
worked as tailors. He married my mother in December 1951 and died 8
months later. I was born 4 months after his death in December 1952.
When I was a child, my mum talked about my
father's experience in Siberian labor camps, of eating meager
rations of black bread before it was stolen, of marching through
heavy snow, and of chewing on pine needles to strengthen his teeth
which began to loosen. She also talked about my father's desire to
put the past behind him and to start a new life in Australia.
My parents were married in the Church of England
in a ceremony conducted by a member of my mother's family.
I have thought about looking for more information
about my father at various times. When I was in my mid twenties, I
traveled on the Trans Siberian railway, day dreaming about the
passing scenery, and wondering if I was close to where my father had
been during the war.
But I was busy, so I shelved my research plans.
After all, I had not known my father. My mother had little
information to share. I was raised with little or no contact with
the Jewish or Polish communities. All I had were some small photos
and some yellowing papers. The research would have to wait.
Much later, two chance meetings whetted my
appetite for more information.
The first was at a meeting of the Friends of the
Victorian Tapestry Workshop where I met the Polish husband of a
weaver from Lodz. He gave me some leads about my father’s military
service. I followed these up researching in the State Library and
the Holocaust Museum library. (General Anders) But, as before my
efforts petered out before I had much information.
The second was a chance meeting at the Australian
Open Tennis in 2007. I got talking to the lady sitting next to me
who recommended the Yad Vashem website as a good place to start.
This is when I really started my family research.
Somehow it was the right time.
My objective was to find out what life was like
in Poland for my father in his first thirty years, from his birth in
August 1909 to his departure after 1 September 1939.
When I started, all I had was a bunch of
documents, including my parent's marriage certificate, my father's
naturalization papers, deed poll papers, his landing permit, and
some wartime photos as well as a few photos taken during my parent's
short marriage.
The Victorian Branch of the Jewish Genealogical
Society was helpful, pointing me in new directions, including many
databases and new sources of information.
I accessed the Australian National Archive files
and other on-line databases. But I was unable to put it all together
without some help with languages. A Warsaw-based researcher helped
me obtain my father's birth and marriage
certificates from the Wielun USC.
I found some relatives of my father in Melbourne!
Two of my father's first cousins, nephews of his mother, had
migrated to Australia in 1939. They changed their names from Mordke
and Dawid Fajwlowicz to Mark and David Lovett. My grandmother and
their father were brother and sister.
I am still trying to find out how many siblings
my father had and whether they were in
Wieluń in those days. I have
found a younger brother, Abram Dawid who, according to the
Wieluń
Yizkor Book, was arrested for communist activities prior to WW11.
I have managed to piece together some of what
happened to my father after the outbreak of WW11.
After the bombing
of
Wieluń, my father fled east towards the Soviet Union, believing
that the women in his family would be safe. He left behind his wife,
Fela Habelska (they married in 1935) and his parents, Szmul
Krzepicki and Chana Krzepicka (nee Fa
jwlowicz).
My father was arrested later in 1939 and imprisoned in Siberia. I am
still trying to find out the place/places where he was imprisoned
for the next two years. The records of the USSR are apparently not
as detailed as some other records.
My father was released in 1941 after the
Polish/Soviet agreement. He joined the Polish Army under General
Anders and undertook training in Palestine. He served in Italy,
including the Battle of Monte Cassino. He was in Northern Italy at
the end of the war, and was repatriated to the United Kingdom. He
spent the next couple of years in the UK, found some work as a
tailor. He refused to return to Poland, but he did return to Europe
to search for his wife and other family.
He found that his wife and her sister had
survived the war despite spending some time in Auschwitz and Gross
Rosen. He discovered that his wife had established a new
relationship. He returned to the United Kingdom and applied to
migrate to Australia to join his cousins.
He arrived in Melbourne in January 1949.
