Wooden Suitcase
Datec. 1951
Dimensions67.2 × 39.4 × 20.3 cm (26 7/16 × 15 1/2 × 8 in.)
Credit LineGift of Anastazja Chwiecko, London, Ontario, 2019.
Object number2019.013.001
Label TextAnastasia Chwiecko (née Andronowicz) carried this suitcase when she left England to immigrate to Canada with her parents in April 1951
Her journey had begun well before that. During the Second World War, in 1940, her family was arrested by the Soviets and sent to work camps in Arkangelsk, Oblast, USSR.
When they were released in 1942, Anastasia, her mother, and her brother found themselves in a refugee camp in Lusaka, Africa, where they stayed for six years. From there, they went to England where they met up with her father who had been a soldier in the Polish Allied Army.
They lived in a temporary camp near the village of Duglinward, England. On April 20, 1951, Anastasia and her parents and brother departed Southampton, England, aboard the Empire Trooper and arrived in Halifax on April 28, 1951. From there, they made their way to London where they settled. In Canada, Anastasia met her future husband, Wladyslaw Chwiecko. They married in 1953 and had three children. Anastasia still lives in London.
NameSuitcase
