A new series starting on Radio 4 this Monday takes a look at experiences of Polish political refugees settling in Bradford in the late-1940s.

The first of three episodes of Journeys Down My Street, focuses on the Polish cultural institutions around the city’s Edmund Street area.

Listeners will hear historian and presenter Mike Berlin from Birkbeck, University of London, talk to residents about lives affected by the mass deportations to Siberia following the simultaneous German and Russian invasion of Poland in September 1939, and about fighting alongside the British in the Second World War.

The Polish Veterans’ Association, the Polish Club, the Church and Saturday School are just some of the places he visits for the programme to ask about lives forged in Bradford and discover the thoughts of the elderly towards the new generation of Polish immigrants.

Among those he speaks to are Eccleshill couple Ryszard and Danuta Wolny, who last year received Sybiraka Cross medals commemorating the 72nd anniversary of Stalin’s deportation of 1.7 million Poles to Siberia.

Mr Wolny, 81, was just eight when Soviet soldiers stormed into his home, forcing him, his two brothers and their parents on to cattletrucks for a terrifying three-week journey to north-west Russia.

Petrified, they were packed into the cattletrucks like animals with little food and only snow to drink – the bodies of those who died were thrown off.

Exhausted, the Wolny family arrived at a labour camp near Archangielsk, where the temperature was -40C – they managed to survive, but hundreds of thousands did not and perished in the brutal Siberian camps.

Agnes Andryszewski from the Polish Befriending Service which runs from 17 Edmund Street, was also interviewed. She helps with an outreach service from the Polish Community Centre on Wednesdays and social day care on Fridays. On the third Monday of each month there is a wellbeing cafe.

Series presenter Mr Berlin said now there is are Polish shops in the high streets of so many towns and cities in Britain, it is easy to forget that some Polish communities in Britain go back much further than the recent arrivals.

“The Polish community in Bradford dates back to the late-1940s, and has managed to preserve its culture. Whereas a ‘little Poland’ exists in this northern city, its elderly residents do not have the opportunity to return to Poland, unlike many of the new arrivals.”

The programme starts at 11am on Monday. Future episodes in the series will be on Somalis in Cardiff and Viennese Jews in north-west London.