A WOMAN who survived life in one of Stalin’s Siberian labour camps has received compensation from the Polish government.

Ionina Pickles, of Westminster Park, Chester, is donating a chunk of the money to a charity that protects disabled youngsters in Tanzania, where she and her mother lived as refugees.

She chose to support Feathers Tale Children’s Village as it is a cause close to the heart of her youngest son David, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan.

David now runs a travel business that takes groups on tours of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and he was shocked to learn that children with disabilities are targeted by witch doctors for human sacrifice.

His company, EDGE Travel Worldwide, now supports the charity and donates a percentage of its proceeds.

Ionina, who received the Siberian Cross this year in recognition of her suffering, said: “When David told me about the charity it struck my heart deeply.

“As a result, I am giving part of my compensation money to him to take to the charity early next year when he goes back to lead groups up Kilimanjaro.

“I know first hand what it feels like to be without food, like the poor children the charity looks after. I’m urging people to donate because it’s appalling what is happening.”

She did not want to disclose the amount she was given in compensation in case there were discrepancies between her total and those awarded to other ‘gulag’ survivors.

“It’s not an enormous amount but I always say every little bit helps,” she said. “It’s the recognition that’s important.”

Besides asking people to support the children’s village charity, she also wants to raise further awareness of the atrocities inflicted on the Polish people by the Soviet dictator.

“Everyone knows about the Jews but because of Communism people didn’t speak about anything because you would get shot.

“You couldn’t speak in the house, you had to whisper because you didn’t know who was listening. It was a long time later that people started to talk but by then a lot of people were dead.

“The recognition for what my family suffered means something because they recognise the agonies. The suffering doesn’t end, it carries on. I’m reminded every day.

“A lot more people will now know what happened in Siberia. I thank the Polish government for that.”

Ionina was a toddler in 1939 when she and her family were sent on a hellish three-week journey from the village of Pazbortzy to a gulag (forced labour camp) in Siberia. Forced at gunpoint to part ways with her father, Zygmunt, she and her mother Iozefa and baby sister Honarata were packed into cattle trucks for the trip.

She believes the only reason they survived was because her father had made her mother a long sheepskin coat with a large upturned collar that she could wrap around them all.

“It was so cold my hair froze to the side of the truck,” she said. “People were allowed out once a day and that was mainly to take the dead bodies out.

“I don’t know how people survived. I don’t know how I survived.”

Her father was forced to work in horrendous conditions in a gold mine where anyone who stopped working was shot.

Not knowing whether he was dead or alive, her mother and the two girls endured life in the gulag until the Soviet Union began releasing some prisoners in 1941.

The Red Cross took them to Tehran in Iran as refugees where tragically Honarata died. Ionina, then aged around four, was also on the verge of dying but pulled through.

They were eventually sent to a refugee camp in Tanzania which became home for around six years.

When they arrived they slept in the centre of a ring of fire to ward off wild animals such as hyenas, but by the end the refugees had built a village complete with an orchard and vegetable patches.

Meanwhile, Ionina’s father had fought in the Polish ‘Anders’ army, most notably at the bloody Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy.

At the end of the war he had earned the right to settle in the UK.

By this time the Red Cross had managed to put him in touch with his family in Africa and he eventually managed to secure accommodation in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and sent for them.

Ionina recalled arriving in the UK on a ship from Mombassa in Kenya at the age of 10.

“My mother had told me not to look out of the window because it would spoil the surprise; she said it would be wonderful. Coming from lush Africa to Liverpool docks was certainly a shock!”

The family then settled into UK life, with her father working as a tailor.

l To find out more about how to support Feathers Tale Children’s Village visit David’s website at www.edgetravelworldwide.com.