I fled from the Nazis & now I’m being forced out of my home so village can be demolished…I thought it was a safe haven
A WOMAN who fled from the Nazis as a child has been left shocked after claiming she is being forced out of her home so the village can be demolished.
Maria Owsianka, 90, saw her home in Warsaw, Poland, go up in flames as a young girl during World War 2.
Maria, who was 11 at the time, thankfully found safe haven at the Penrhos Polish Village in Gwynedd, Wales.
But decades after fleeing the horrors of war, Maria now she fears she will be “forced out of her home” again.
She is worried about being moved into a new estate without the support and communal facilities she currently enjoys.
Maria told NorthWalesLive: “We all came to Penrhos at the end of our lives in the expectation of a safe haven.
“We did not expect to be forced out of our homes yet again.”
The 90-year-old is among the elderly residents at Penrhos Polish Village.
A planning application to be considered by Gwynedd’s planning committee on October 23 for permission to demolish all the existing dwellings, meeting rooms, hairdressing salon, launderette and staff offices.
New houses may be constructed, but there is no provision in the application for the replacement of the communal facilities or of the premises for support staff.
This innovative care village, which now provides homes for those from Polish, Welsh, or other backgrounds who need extra care, would be replaced with a housing scheme.
She said: “I moved here with my husband five years ago to live closer to my family. We have a lovely terraced bungalow which is perfect for our needs.
“I was thrown out of my home, aged 11, with what I could carry, while the Nazis burned Warsaw to the ground. We all came to Penrhos at the end of our lives in the expectation of a safe haven.
“We did not expect to be forced out of our homes yet again. We’ve been saying this for two years, but Clwyd Alyn haven’t listened.
“We hope that Gwynedd councillors will listen now. There’s plenty of room to build new homes on the site of the old barracks which haven’t been lived in for years, without demolishing the newer units where people still live.”
Maria is worried that the community spirit that has been built up for over 70 years could be broken by the move.
She continued: “We have meeting rooms for exercise classes and other social get-togethers and we rely on our support staff for everything from arranging medical appointments to carrying out minor repairs.
“If we lose these facilities and services, as we will if this development goes ahead, we will have lost all that is good about this place, which was lovingly built up over 70 years.”
Gwynedd Council has recently published a document setting out its Vision and Priorities for the redevelopment of the site.
The vision is to maintain and build on the existing ethos of the Polish Village and develop the site as a much needed community environment to meet the care needs of vulnerable people.
Campaigners say its proposed new care home and a range of communal facilities such meeting spaces, shop, therapy rooms are a “commendable vision”.
But Maria and others believe that this vision has yet to be translated into a “firm plan” and funding has yet to be secured to deliver the care home and associated facilities.
Penrhos Polish Village was founded in 1949 by the Polish Housing Society Ltd.
It housed exiled Polish airmen and soldiers who remained in the UK following World War Two.
Penrhos Polish Village is owned and managed by ClwydAlyn Housing Association (CHA) who took over from the Polish Housing Society (PHS) Ltd in 2020.
PHS had owned, operated and developed the site for 70 years.
CHA first presented their demolition and development plans to residents in early 2021.
ClwydAlyn Housing Association have been contacted for comment.