Mrs Krystyna Luzny

In the 1940s Krystyna Luzny led a double life. She was a nurse with the Polish Red Cross in Warsaw but also worked for the Polish Underground Army. Krystyna collected, hid and delivered ammunition and weapons used for secret operations. During the 1944 Warsaw uprising she was taken prisoner by the German forces and sent to various stalag camps. At the end of the war Krystyna and her fiancé Tomasz lived in Germany as refugees. They feared that the Russian occupation forces in Poland would arrest them if they returned home because of their involvement in the Resistance Army. In 1950 Krystyna and Tomasz were finally allowed to migrate to their country of first choice, Australia via Italy. They knew nothing about their future homeland and were given little information about their destination. Krystyna’s preparation for entry to Australia was being sprayed with DDT. How do we know this? She kept the document to prove it. Despite Krystyna and Tomasz’ qualifications, both were required to serve two-year work contracts doing manual labour.