This is a text transcript of Anna Oprawska – interview.
Oral history recording transcript Duration: 1 hour 51 minutes ---- Chapters 01 Roots and Wartime Journeys of the Family 02 The Polish Community in London 03 Education, Scouting, and the Community 04 Home Life and Holidays 05 Journeys to Poland and Heritage 06 Echoes of the Past and Fading Connections
🕑 00:00:00
Agnieszka Tadaj: My name is Agnieszka Tadaj, today is 20th of March 2021. We’re both in London, on a Zoom call. I will be talking to Ania Oprawska. So let’s just start with a little bit of introduction. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
🕑 00:00:24
Anna Oprawska: Ok, my name is Ania Oprawska, with a “w” - Oprawska, I was born in London of parents who had come to England after the Second World War via Italy, actually, but they had been released from incarceration in a Russian labour camp during the Second World War and had joined the allied forces in Italy, having travelled through Iraq, Iran, Palestine and Egypt, I think, they’ve spent time in Cairo and all the way back, and then to eventually to Italy. So after the war, we all know Russia took to the… Poland became a satellite state, became communist, and so it was too dangerous for anybody who had served in the allied forces, having experienced what Russian rule meant, to go back to Poland. So they then dispersed and hence the Polish diaspora was created across the whole world and many thousands came to London, came to England and then started their lives in the U.K. and my parents then began their lives in London, eventually in London.
🕑 00:02:32
So I was born in two cultures. I was born and grew up speaking Polish and then speaking English when I started primary school, me and my brother - Irek. So we went to school locally and like most Polish… There was a hub, if you like, of a Polish community in the Clapham and Balham area. I think partly that was because there was a house on Nightingale Lane, it was kind of like an advice centre and a hostel for women who had come to England and hadn't settled yet, for single women. So there was an equivalent house for men as well. But the one in Nightingale Lane was a women's one. For the people that were coming to London for the first time, had nowhere to go, needed some direction, some support, some help, they would go there. So that was called the Bursa. And that building is known as Bursa to everybody of my generation. That building then became the Polish school, which was set up by pan Arciszewski and his wife.
🕑 00:04:44
And so I learnt my Polish not only at home, but also at the Bursa where there was a whole curriculum, Polish language, there was a nursery. And so the building evolved along to reflect the needs of the Polish community, as it settled. My parents were already married. They married in Italy before they came over, but obviously there were many Poles that came and met each other in this country. And so ksiądz Cynar who came over with the Poles from… I believe he was in Italy as well, I'm not sure. Yes, I think he was. They came over and the church in Clapham Common, St. Mary's Church, it’s got a big steeple - can't miss it, just behind the High Street was the church where all the masses, all the baptisms and all the weddings took place. And that church also has a hall, a church hall, a very large church hall with a stage. And so the first gatherings and dances and akademie, so that's linking back to the Polish school. The Polish school, which would organise these big sort of celebrations, Akademia 3-go Maja and various other events. Święcone would be there, the blessing of the Easter eggs and the Easter baskets would take place originally, it would be there, in Saint Mary's hall.
Password access wall