IT’S hard to imagine what it would be like to be taken away from your country against your will and be forced into slave labour in another.

But this is what happened to Jennie Szutka when the Germans invaded Poland and she was taken away to Austria to work on a farm.

Sadly, Jennie was not alone. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of men and woman who found themselves in the same plight. So, one can imagine their joy when they were liberated by the Americans.

She was then taken to Northern Italy where she joined the Polish Army Corps. She was only 19 or 20-years-old and this is where she met her husband-to-be Bernard Gosz who was in the Polish Army.

Eventually, they found themselves bound for Liverpool where she was transferred to Wrexham and Bernard to barracks at Cannon Hall, Cawthorne. After they married Jennie and the other wives of the ex-servicemen were allowed to join their menfolk at Cawthorne.

The couple became parents to three children, Chez, Regina and Sabina as they made their home permanently in Barnsley. Many of the others who came to England in similar circumstances also settled here and as the men learned the language, they met and married Barnsley girls.

Some of them were housed in and around Barnsley, but most couples lived at Cawthorne, the single men at Carlton Hill and some in the Broadway area with a small number in lodgings. Others, however, moved to other parts of the country, including Leeds and London and some went to Australia and New Zealand.

Sadly, Jennie and Bernard are now deceased. Daughter Regina is full of admiration for not only her own parents but for the other refugees who lost their homes in their own country in very tragic circumstances. “Some of our parents are now gone, but we are all proud of the fact they came here as young people through the tragedy of war and upheaval and made a good life for themselves, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“They were very hard times but we also had some good times and we shall always be grateful to the people of Barnsley who accepted us so willingly.”