Sister Ionella, ha Greek Catholic nun, Bucharest (Romania) (…) After a few days Anca, our interpreter, told us that sister Ionella was willing to meet us, which was very strange given the climate of clandestinity in which she lived. As soon as she saw us, she came towards us: “Are you from the Armata Bianca?” and she added with a smile: “I have been longing to meet the people for whom I had to undergo 10 years of rigorous imprisonment…”

 

 

 

Cardinal Casimir Swiatek, Bishop of Minsk (Belarus) “I was arrested by the KGB on April 30, 1941 and segregated in the death cell: every night I waited for them to come and get me in order to kill me. On June 22, after the German invasion, I fell into the hands of the Gestapo, out of the frying pan into the fire, as they say. Having come out alive from the hands of the Gestapo, I was arrested by the KGB again and sentenced to 10 years of Siberia: the work was hard and rough, there were few meals and they weren’t good and the climate was very rough. When we used to cut down the forest, the temperature went as low as -40°: it was worse than northern Siberia because there were strong winds and a lot of snow with this wind and there was a lack of oxygen…”

 

Father Nicolaj Blaszko, Orthodox, parish priest of Kniagini (Belarus) “I consider this encounter with you as the great confession of my life; my confession before the whole world so that the world may know what we have suffered in order to bear witness to God. I couldn’t die in peace if I hadn’t made this great confession to the world”.