| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Refugees in Calais | |
| Posted by: | Elizabeth Ross | |
| Date/Time: | 14/08/15 16:22:00 |
| At the end of the last war (WWII) there were thousands and thousands of eastern europeans fleeing from the advancing Russians to the West. The Americans barricaded all the bridges to the West and when the fighting ceased, these people were all herded back to the East to face an uncertain future under the Russians - many of whom found themselves interned in Siberia. Those fleeing included tinies, young and old. I know because my mother at 18 was one of them and persistence got her to the West. Since coming to live in Chiswick, I have met people who made it and others who found themselves in Siberia and all that Stalin had to offer. One particular Pole told me how his mother, he and his brother both under 10 managed to escape from the camp in Siberia and she walked them south over many months until they arrived in Pakistan and managed to get passage to Palestine where they finished their schooling and he got a scholarship to college in England. He is still alive but now very frail and weak. So you see, this is not new and it was always thus. Fortunately, Britain still has a spirit of open generosity but there are limits and life is not always fair. |