Ofchild slavery in war- torn Poland in 1944

Terrified and homeless, the family had little option but to turn to their Polish relatives for shelter – despite knowing thier homeland was also occupied.

Basia said: “Grandad Boleslaw had a cousin in Gdansk and they travelled hundreds of miles to seek refuge with him.”

Basia’s brother Peter Jakubski, from Clydebank, has also been left shellshocked by the recent revelations about his mum.

The 45-year-old bus driver said: “We had no idea mum was older.

“She never once mentioned to us what it had taken to survive the war.

“Without the forged birth

Basia (left as a baby with her mum) had no idea her mother, Bronislawa, had kept a stunning wartime secret until her death. certificate mum would not have been here.”

War- time Poland was a hub of master forgers working on creating new identities for people desperate to escape the German.

After the war, with Communist Russia becoming Poland’s new overlords, Bronislawa left her family to make a fresh start in Scotland.

She married twice and worked as a cook going on to have two children, Basia and Peter.

As well as eight grandchildren, Bronislawa is survived by 10 great-grandchildren.

Antony Kozlowski, of the Polish Social and Educational Society in Glasgow said Poland in 1944 was a “brutal” place.

He said: “These were desperate times and parents would have done anything to save their children.

“They knew they were unlikely to see them ever again if they were herded off to slave labour in factories and other dreadful places.

“Birth certificates were forged, ages changes and sympathetic Polish officials would sometimes assist by conspiring to help.

“They never saw their parents again as so many were sent to concentration camps.

“It was a brutal time and people did anything to survive.

“My own aunt had her age lowered when she came to Britain in 1939.”

The Germans were so desperate for slave labour they kidnapped children aged 10 to 14 in an operation called the Heu-Aktion.

They were drafted into cruel exhausting work in aircraft and other factories.

Now as she looks back on her mother’s life Basia realises how lucky she was to survive.

“Mum lived to have her own family and see her grandchildren and great grandchildren born.

“I am very proud of what grandad did to help our family live on.”

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