Sisters Klemensa of the Assumption (Janina Wójcik) memories of exile (1940–1946)

Sister Klemensa of the Assumption, Janina Wójcik (1893–1982), was born in Nowy Sącz, to the family of Ignacy – a railwayman and Jadwiga née Zwierzyńska. She graduated from the Private Teachers’ Seminary in Tarnów, gaining qualifi cations to teach manual labor in elementary schools. She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in 1917. She made her perpetual profession in 1925. Before the outbreak of World War II, she worked in the monasteries in Wirów, Szymanów, Jarosław, Słonim, Niżniów and Maciejów as an economist, refectory and vestress. After the outbreak of World War II, she was forced to leave the monastery in Maciejów. She stayed briefl y in Lviv. In 1940, she was deported to the Mariinsky Autonomous Socialist Republic of the USSR. She worked in the canteen in Nowa Strojka, then in the hospital in Joszkar-Oła. In the 1970s, Sister Klemensa wrote down retrospective memoirs entitled “Memoirs from Russia of Sister Klemensa of the Assumption (Janina Wójcik). My memories of the last war (1939–1946)”. They count 25 single-sided pages. They include the time of deportation, with particular emphasis on information about the work performed. Sister Klemensa returned to Poland, to Nowy Sącz in 1946.

Sister Klemensa of the Assumption, Janina Wójcik (1893–1982), was born in Nowy Sącz, to the family of Ignacy – a railwayman and Jadwiga née Zwierzyńska. She graduated from the Private Teachers’ Seminary in Tarnów, gaining qualifi cations to teach manual labor in elementary schools. She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in 1917. She made her perpetual profession in 1925. Before the outbreak of World War II, she worked in the monasteries in Wirów, Szymanów, Jarosław, Słonim, Niżniów and Maciejów as an economist, refectory and vestress. After the outbreak of World War II, she was forced to leave the monastery in Maciejów. She stayed briefl y in Lviv. In 1940, she was deported to the Mariinsky Autonomous Socialist Republic of the USSR. She worked in the canteen in Nowa Strojka, then in the hospital in Joszkar-Oła. In the 1970s, Sister Klemensa wrote down retrospective memoirs entitled “Memoirs from Russia of Sister Klemensa of the Assumption (Janina Wójcik). My memories of the last war (1939–1946)”. They count 25 single-sided pages. They include the time of deportation, with particular emphasis on information about the work performed. Sister Klemensa returned to Poland, to Nowy Sącz in 1946.