Kazimierz Jezewski was nine when armed Soviet Union soldiers gave his family minutes to abandon their home in Poland.

The family, clutching only a few possessions, were marched to the train station and herded with 30 others on to a cattle wagon.

Mr Jezewski, his parents and brother were among the million plus Poles deported from their homes in 1940 and sent in exile to Soviet Union labour camps.

The only time the wagon doors were opened was to throw out corpses usually those of the elderly or young children – anyone who tired to escape was just shot on the spot, said Mr Jezewski, of Great Horton, Bradford.

Next month, he and 21 others who are all members of the Bradford Polish Ex-Combatants Association will be receiving the Siberian Cross medals at a ceremony in the city marking the 71st anniversary of that mass deportation and “terrible times”.

The medal ceremony at the Polish Club on Monday, February 6, has been made possible by Romana Pizon, chairman of Bradford’s Polish Ex-Combatants Association, who has helped members with paperwork and forms to get recognition from the Polish Government to get the Siberian Cross.

She said: “There has been a lot of form-filling to make this possible for our 22 members but it’s been important that the terrible times these people went through are marked.”

See Wednesday's T&A for the full story