79-year-old Polish fighter to see family for first time in 64 years

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2007

LONDON (AFP) — A 79-year-old Polish man who moved to Britain during the final days of World War II is preparing to fly to Krakow to see his family for the first time in 64 years, media reported.

Aleks Szustakiewicz was taken to a Nazi slave labour camp on his 15th birthday, but managed to survive. He then walked to France where he joined the Polish Free Forces, and was in Italy when the war ended.

Not wanting to go back to a Poland under Soviet influence, Szustakiewicz took up an offer to move to Britain, and now lives in Middlesborough, northern England.

Along with his 74-year-old sister Anna, he also has two surviving brothers -- Vojtek, who was still a baby when Szustakiewicz last saw him, and Jaroszek, who has not yet been born.

"My stepson,...