Vigorous Wladyslawa’s remarkable life story

Wladyslawa Rademeyer, who’s turning 90 on 14 December, has overcome an array of hardships and she has a remarkable life story, according to her daughter Flora.

She was born in Poland on 14 December 1925 and World War II broke out during her childhood. The Russians invaded a farm she stayed on with her father, stepmother and brother in 1939 and they were taken to Siberia where they stayed in a concentration camp for a few months.

“My mother could not attend school and was tasked with scraping snow wherever it heaped up in the camp.

“Her father and stepmother also had to work and her brother was taken away from the family.

“They never saw him again,” Flora du Toit told the Record.

Given the harsh circumstances, Wladyslawa got very sick and was taken from her family for a long time. Her father was taken away with the majority of the men to work elsewhere. The Russians eventually opened the camp and refugees took off to find the nearest train station, Flora said.

“Those who weren’t too frail or sick had to walk to the nearest train station, which took them nearly a month.

“She saw a lot of people dying on the way.”

Upon reaching the station, the American army helped and rescued them and they boarded trains to Arabia where they were in a refugee camp for the next couple of months. During their stay, her stepmother found out her father was in hospital and went to visit him.

“He was very ill and told her to leave them and get back to the American army so they could be safe.”

This was the last time Wladyslawa saw her father and until today doesn’t know where he nor her brother was taken or what happened to them.

Time came for the duo to board the next train, which took them to board a warship, which transported them through the Persian Gulf to Beira, Mozambique in about 12 days. Poor conditions led to more people dying abroad. By that time, around 22 refugee camps spotted Africa, 18 000 people took refuge in African countries. The Poles entered yet another refugee camp.

“One morning on the warship, my mom woke up with a dead body on top of her — who can psychologically deal with that?”

In August 1945, 3 419 refugees were moved to refugee camps in former Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Wladyslawa was one of 1 227 to be placed in a camp in Lusaka, northern Rhodesia. She was a teenager by then and found work as a nanny looking after the two children of a doctor and his wife. Her stepmother also became a nanny, and moved with the family she was working for to England. She passed away at the age of 100 in a Polish retirement home there.

“My mother met my father, Charles Frederick Abraham Rademeyer in Rhodesia and they married on 5 April 1949,” Flora said.

Her brother Fred was born to the Rademeyers on 2 December 1947 and Flora was born on 11 June 1950. The family stayed in Rhodesia until Charles retired from Rhodesia Railways, upon which they moved to South Africa, in 1982. They settled on the West Rand. Charles passed away on 18 June 1992.

Wladyslawa stays with Flora in Horison, still drives her own vehicle and is fit and healthy. She has two grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

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