Cold War Conversations Twenty-Six Years Apart: A Family Reunited Behind the Iron Curtain (470)
Aug 21, 2026
Linda and Sue, daughters of Aleksander Jablonski who survived Stalin’s camps and fought at Monte Cassino, share their family’s 26‑year separation and moving 1966 reunion behind the Iron Curtain. They recall wartime journeys, life rebuilding in Britain, tense border crossings, cramped postwar Poland, community ties in Leek, and how memory and identity passed to the next generation.
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Boots Lined With Cabbage To Survive The Cold
- Life in the Soviet labour camps meant extreme scarcity and creative survival tactics like stuffing boots with newspapers or cabbage leaves for insulation.
- Linda describes cattle trucks ridden with fleas and men stealing cabbages at night, remembering fireflies they thought were ghosts.
The Long March With Anders To Monte Cassino
- The Anders' army journey carried men across the Urals to Iran, then through Egypt and Palestine before fighting in Italy under the British Eighth Army.
- Sue recalls long marches, train rides and improved kit once integrated with the British forces, plus lighter wartime anecdotes rather than horror-focused retellings.
A Sergeant Holding His Insides At Monte Cassino
- Monte Cassino left a vivid traumatic image: Aleksander watched a sergeant holding his own insides after being blown apart.
- Despite horrors, family photographs often show him smiling in sunshine, reflecting his survivor attitude.