Edward and Maria Dzikowscy together with their children: Wanda, Józef and Hubert, before the war they lived in Pinsk. On March 1940 Edward was arrested and taken to in Mariensk. On 13 April Mary and the children were taken to Lobanovo in Kazakhstan. In 1943 Edward was released and joined his family.

“One day, in a kolkhoz where carts were being repaired, I found a stake. I was surprised by the previously unseen tree from which it was made. I brought it home and asked my father who replied that it is an oak tree that grows in Poland. Here in northern Kazakhstan, oak does not grow. It cannot be wasted. From this stake he made an ax and a box – a case for his glasses, eyeglasses that he got from one of our Polish women. They just happened to match his eyesight. And a few knife handles.”

(from Edward Dzikowski’s memoirs)