POLISH REFUGEES REACH N.Z. AFTER LONG ORDEALS

Grey River Argus, 3 April 1948, Page 2

POLISH REFUGEES REACH N.Z. AFTER LONG ORDEALS

AUCKLAND, April 2

Mr E. Niewidze with his wife and 18-months-old son landed in a Skymaster from Sydney 10-day. They had everybody bewildered because o. their inability to speak English. Officials tried stumbling French and extravagant gestures without avail. Finally the day was saved by Squadron Leader Levy, a medical officer m .Whenuapai, who speaks German. A Tourist Department official made contact with Hastings on the long-dis-tance telephone and Mrs Neidwidze spoke rapidly in Polish to an unseen relative, who had paid tneir passages to New Zealand and guaranteed their train fare. An airways car took the family to the railway station, with a letter to the train guard. Mr and Airs Niewidze told the doctor they had been in concentration camps. The husband, who is a bootmaker, once had to dig his own grave, but scrambled away before the shooting party arrived. His wife missed a gas-chamber by a hair’s breadth They are Poles from a displaced person’s camp in Austria. They made their way to France an dtraveiled in shocking conditions in an Egyptian ship to Australia. Smilingly, the wife spoke to the doctor, who said: “She wishes to thank everybody for their kindness It is such a change.”