IBorn in Krasna Słoboda
Antoni was born on 26 March 1898 in Krasna Słoboda, in the Novograd-Volyn area of Zhytomyr governorate, then part of the Russian Empire.
His birth date and place are confirmed by three separate records: the Arolsen Archives, his UK refugee certificate, and the Soviet special-settlement card. He is recorded as Polish by nationality, with “previous nationality Russian”, which fits the fact that Volhynia was Russian-ruled at his birth. He was the eldest of the seven children of Jan and Teofila.
IIDeportation to the Soviet north
When the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland in 1939, Polish nobles and landowners were marked as “class enemies”. Antoni was caught in the mass deportations. A Soviet special-settlement record places him in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Kotlas district, at a settlement called Nizhnyaya Striga, arriving 29 February 1940, the great deportation wave of that month. He was released on 4 September 1941, under the amnesty for Polish citizens that followed the Sikorski–Mayski agreement.
Soviet interrogation protocols from 1931 name a “Черняхович Антон” in connection with an alleged underground group around Katiukha. These are coercive political-investigation records: they show only that someone was accused and questioned, not that the alleged events happened. Whether that “Anton” is my grandfather is genuinely uncertain. There were several men of the name in the region. I include it because it is part of the family story, but it should be read with care, not as established fact.
IIIThe long way out: Persia, India, Africa
Released from the special settlement, Antoni joined the evacuation tied to General Anders’ Polish forces, which led south out of the Soviet Union through Persia to British-controlled territory.
Family memory adds detail the documents do not yet confirm: that he reached India, and that he married Helena there. She is said to be his second wife, his first wife and family reportedly killed. The India leg is unusual, since most evacuees went straight to Africa, and it is undocumented. What is documented is where the trail rejoins the records: a refugee settlement in East Africa.
IVKoja, Uganda
By 1950 Antoni was head of a Polish refugee household at the Koja resettlement camp in Uganda, one of the “little Polands” of schools and chapels that displaced Poles rebuilt in exile. He is confirmed there by two sources: the published Uganda exile lists, and an April 1950 nominal roll.
That roll lists Antoni (about 51), his wife Helena (about 37), and twins Maria and Józef, both about 2. The twins were born in Africa, almost certainly at Koja, on 12 October 1946. Their birth date confirmed by the Arolsen Archives. Józef was my father. The roll also names Antoni’s mother-in-law, Anna, aged about 69, living with the household.
Koja brought beginnings, but also loss.
One daughter’s death is documented: Bogumiła Czerniachowicz, born 28 May 1945 and died 24 August 1945, buried in the Koja cemetery. She is recorded in two independent sources, the cemetery list and the Baza Polonika memorial database. Family memory holds that a second daughter also died in childhood, of malaria or pneumonia, but I have not been able to confirm a second child, or any cause of death, in an accessible record. The graves, far from Volhynia, are a measure of how far the family had been driven. These memorials sit on the Polish cemeteries in Africa project.
VHelena
Antoni’s wife Helena was born on 23 January 1912 in Nowy Wiśnicz, south-east of Kraków, confirmed by her UK refugee certificate and the Arolsen records. It is a significant detail: Helena was not Volhynian at all, but from Małopolska, in southern Poland near the mountains.
Her maiden name was Smęda (the ę is a nasal “e”; in non-Polish records it may appear as Smeda, Smenda or Smęta), confirmed by my mother and the wider family. It corrects an earlier guess on this site: that her maiden name was Tchurzewska. That had been inferred only because her mother Anna was recorded under that name in the Koja household. There are known Smęda relatives in Toronto and Newfoundland, in Piła, and in southern Poland below Kraków, the same region Helena came from.
The Koja camp list records a “Waleria Czerniak, born 2 January 1914”, while the certificates give Helena, born 1912. This may be a recording error, another name, or a different person. The official certificate is the authoritative source, and the matter is simply unresolved.
VIEngland
Antoni and Helena were among those offered permanent resettlement in the United Kingdom. Their UK Alien / Refugee Registration certificates record the move precisely.
UK registration certificates
Processed together, the same day, the same place.
| Antoni | Helena | |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate No. | A.330121 | A.330122 |
| Issued | Hessle, E. Yorks, 4 Sep 1950 | Hessle, E. Yorks, 4 Sep 1950 |
| Born | 26 Mar 1898, Wołyń | 23 Jan 1912, Nowy Wiśnicz, Kraków |
| Arrived UK | 2 Sep 1950 | 2 Sep 1950 |
| Last residence | Koja, Uganda | Koja, Uganda |
| First UK address | Priory Road Hostel, Cottingham, E. Yorks | (same) |
| Papers issued | Kampala, Uganda, 5 Aug 1950 | Kampala, 3 Aug 1950 |
The family later linked with Keevil camp in Wiltshire, where the children “Józio and Marysia Czerniachowicz” appear among the schoolchildren, and with the community’s later move to Trowbridge.
After the war, going home was not an option. With Poland under Soviet control, Poles who had fought for the Allies or escaped Soviet captivity often found themselves stranded. Antoni’s family made their life in England instead. That is how the surname came to continue here, in a few lines, including my own.
Antoni’s life, 1898–1983Deportation, forced labour, evacuation, exile — and at last a home, thousands of miles from where he was born.