Polish Child Refugee Camp Story

As we sail into the harbour I cry. I miss my big sister Aurelia who disappeared one day. I miss Matka who died giving birth to my little brother Robert, who died soon after. But most of all I miss Beatcyrze, my little sister who died of pneumonia. If only one of us made it, I thought it would be her. She was brave and loving. I was the joker, the oldest, I was supposed to look after the others. It should have been me. 

The sound of laughter is everywhere. I hate it. They are all orphans, yet they can be happy, but I can’t. It’s not fair. I want to laugh and sing and be joyful. But ever since Beatrycze, my last family member died, I have been stripped of all happiness. No eleven year old girl should go through this. No one should go through this. 

Finally we dock in the harbour and Prime Minister Peter Fraser came aboard and gave an incredibly long speech. How he managed to write something that boring, I don’t know. Eventually I fell asleep. 

“Minnie, Minnie wake up!” an irritated voice yelled in my ear. “Matka?” I ask. She was the only person I knew that could be that grumpy. “No stupid, its time to go.” I recognised that voice instantly; it was that grumpy man in charge of me and the ten others in my group. I grudgingly push my brown hair out of my face and glare at him. He’s bald and has a big saggy nose, like a sack that was sewn onto his face. I poke my tongue out at him. “Minnie’s in trouble. Ohhhh '' the rest of my group chanted. I swore at them in German. Luckily Mr Nowak, or Kazimierz, destroyer of peace, as I like to call him, didn't understand me. So I did it again. I am half German but Matka was born in Poland as were Aurelia, Beatrycze and I. 

 I got up and started towards the exit, the others all pushed ahead of me shrieking with excitement and scrambling off the boat. Dragging my feet behind me I looked a sorry sight. A purple splotch around a foggy blue eye, hands and legs covered in scratches, walking with a limp. I was the original sob story. As bad as I felt, I was still amazed by this little country. There are fluffy white clouds in a clear blue sky. There are bushy green trees everywhere. The sea smells salty but in a nice way. I haven’t seen anywhere this beautiful in, well, I never have. A lady walks up to me. “Hello?” she said in an uncertain voice. Luckily Kazimierz made us learn basic English on the way. The only good thing he has ever done I reckon. 

“Hello, how are you?” I said as this was the politest thing I could think of. “Oh, hello dearie, how are you, weathers nice isn’t it, what's your name, I thought you couldn’t speak English…” she garbled on. I can’t understand that much English! “I can not understand you. I only know the basic basics.” I answered robotically. “Oh I’m so sorry.” she said practically bursting into tears. Why is she crying? The question I needed to ask her was not in my small list of vocabulary. This is a small list of what I understand. 

Hello 

Goodbye 

Thank you

How are you? 

I am good 

Right 

Left- In case we get lost 

I am lost. I am Polish refugee- so the locals know where to send us if we have to ask for directions

My name is Minnie 

I am very grateful to be in your wonderful country- I will NEVER say that. 

I can not understand you. I only know the basic basics- Kazimierz prepared us for this sort of situation.

 “How are you?” I repeat hoping she will stop her bawling. “I am fine, thank you sweetheart” she sniffs “Take these” she says as she thrust brightly wrapped sweets at me. I may not understand her but I know gifts when I see them. Besides, I haven’t had a lolly in years now. Beatrycze loved the pink ones, Aurelia loved the blue, but my favourite was always the yellow ones. “Thank you.” I say, then I grab them and run to catch up with my group. “Good luck” she calls after me. Hmm, I hope she wasn’t insulting me. 

 “What were you doing, Minnie?” Kazimierz growls at me. 

“Nothing” I mutter, glad to be able to speak in Polish again. 

“Open your hands.” 

“Why?” I reply hoping my cockiness will throw him off. No such luck. 

“NOW!!” he yells at me. I can’t lose these lollies. So I change tactic. 

“P-please, I haven’t had one in years, oh please Mr Nowak” I cry (I’m very good at acting). 

“NOW!!!” and he slaps me. Hard. 

“Oi, leave that little girl alone!” a lady in a black dress says fiercely. 

“Yeah, she hasn’t done nothing bad to you”!” says another, this time one in blue. The women swarm around him, yelling abuse and clouting him with their handbags. I haven’t been in New Zealand long but I’m enjoying it a lot so far. 

 Then the lady who gave me the lollies came over and said 

“I gave those to her. The rest of your group got lollies but you didn’t take the lollies of them, did you, hmm” she said sarcastically. 

“Who are you?” he asks, I’m scared he will hurt her. 

“My name is Janet, Janet Fraser. And who the dickens are you?” she replies. Kazimierz goes pale. 

“I’m s-so sorry, Mrs Fraser.” I’m very happy about this unexpected turn of events. You see Janet Fraser is… the prime minister's wife. “Scoot.” Janet Fraser says and Kazimierz fast walks off and the rest of my group follow him, like dogs going to bait. Pathetic. 

 “Thank you, my name is Minnie,” I say. Wait a minute. “German” I say pointing to my mouth. 

 “Ohh good!” she says suddenly speaking in German. On the boat one of our lessons was about her. Apparently she could speak German. And I guess that was true. 

“My name is Minnie, I speak German and Polish. Thank you for the sweets Mrs Fraser, I’m very grateful, I haven’t had one since my Matka died.” 

“Oh, that's sad.” 

“She died giving birth to Robert. Robert died soon after. My big sister Aurelia disappeared, she was probably murdered. And my little sister Beatrycze died of pneumonia.” I say sadly, opening my eyes as wide as possible. 

“Ohh.” I’ve shocked her. I always have that effect on people. 

 “And Papa ran away with a woman half his age.” I say to seal the deal. 

“Oh you poor thing, well, good luck.” she says briskly, shoves something in my pocket and hurries off. Finally, I was beginning to worry my plan wouldn’t work...

 You may be wondering why Kazimierz hates me. Is it because I am super awesome. Nope, Kazimierz does hate me for a reason though. You want to know why? His daughter was my best friend in the camp. Agata died of an unknown disease. Ever since then he has hated me as I remind him of her. 

I run to catch up with them and they board the train. Just before I hop on I check my pockets. Great, it's her purse! I check and it's stuffed with money! Yes. Phase 1 of my plan has succeeded. What’s that sound? “Meww?” It’s soft and sweet and pitiful. I look around, it's an adorable little kitten. She's a tabby with mossy green eyes. I was going to wait before I ran away but now I have a companion. I will call her Willow as she's unhealthily skinny and her eyes seem so forest-like. Rain starts to come down. At first a delicate mist that turns into raindrops pounding on the shelter above where I stand. Yet the birds are still singing their sweet song, if they can keep going even when times are tough, I know I can. So I scoop Willow up and jump on a different train. I’m not being a refugee.

In class we've been reading the book Refugee. For this weeks activity we wrote a story describing the experience the Polish children coming to New Zealand as refugees, in 1994. I based my story on my triple great grandmother. But she was not a refugee and she came over in the 1800s. But the Minnie in my story and real Minnie share the same determination, courage, sad beginning and survival instinct that is shown in my story.