A man who survived Nazi occupation and camps as a teenager has reflected on his harrowing start in life as he turns 100.
George Durkal, who was held captive in an internment camp in Germany during World War Two marked his milestone with a celebration at his care home. George was born as one of six siblings in Poland in 1925 but emigrated to the UK after the war. Speaking from the Argentum Lodge Care Home in Nailsea, in Somerset, he said the outbreak of the Second World War and Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 had shattered his happy childhood.
Aged 15 he returned from school one day to find his house burnt to the ground, surrounded by German soldiers. Living in occupied Poland was extremely tough and in 1945 the Gestapo demanded one member of his family was to go to work in Germany. George, who was only 21 at the time, volunteered and he was sent by cattle truck across the border to work as a carpenter fixing farmers' carts.
Later he was sent to an internment camp where he was forced to labour building underground bunkers. George, who said his birthday card from King Charles and The Queen Consort took pride of place during his party, said: "I've certainly led an eventful life, which is perhaps the secret to a long life."
"I was blessed with a wonderful marriage of over 68 years to my soulmate Joyce, which brought me great joy. "I had a really lovely birthday and the staff at Argentum Lodge have gone out of their way to help me celebrate my century." Following the war, George joined the Polish Army and was stationed in Italy for two years."
As Poland was now under Russian occupation, George emigrated to England where he swiftly learnt English and used his carpentry skills to find work making furniture. He later worked for British Cellophane in Bridgwater for many years. George married his wife Joyce in 1955 and they had a son, Neil. After Joyce's death in 2023, George moved to Argentum Lodge in Nailsea to be near his Great Nieces and Nephews.
Good News UK
Welcome to Good News UK! This community exists to try and offset some of the doom-and-gloom on Lemmy in a healthy way.
More information will be added soon.
What can be posted in Good News UK?
Currently we are still figuring out what classifies as "good news" in this community, so for now feel free to post whatever you think qualifies as good news so long as it doesn't break the instance/community rules.
Our only requirement at the moment is that posts are UK-specific.
What if I think a post isn't Good News?
Good News UK is intended to be a community of nuanced discussion and education moreso than a community for excessive unfounded optimism.
Most good news comes with some elements of bad news or things that can be done better. We request that you post mindful and detailed challenges on the post itself in these cases if it doesn't otherwise break the instance/community rules.
Low-effort, unproductive, and unhelpful comments which challenge whether or not something classifies as good news are discouraged and such comments may be removed.
Cross-Posting
Cross-posting is allowed. We encourage you to post content in communities such as !nature@feddit.uk and !energy@feddit.uk first and then cross-post here after a few days.
General Instance Rules:
- No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
- No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
- No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
- Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
- Do not spam or abuse network features.
Community Specific Rules:
- Keep posts UK-specific.
- Keep comments in English so that they can be appropriately moderated.
- Do not post low-effort, unproductive, and unhelpful pessimistic comments.
- Do not post doomer comments.
Here are some communities to post good news from elsewhere in the world: