The story of Dmitro Szemczuk (known locally as Jim, once he and his family had settled here) revealed that able-bodied men like him had been forced to work in German munition plants. Conditions were apparently appalling, with danger, disease, and death all too commonplace. Liberated by the Allies at the end of the War, those fearing or not wishing to return to their homeland, by then occupied by Stalin’s troops, were offered repatriation in Canada, the US, or here in the UK including Mylor Bridge. ‘Jim’ came here, worked on local farms, learnt the language and became one of the leaders in what was the ‘Displaced Persons’ camp.
Dialogue on local social media following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 told the story of Ukrainian Nicolas Muziack, or ‘Nick the Pole’ as he was affectionately, if inaccurately known. His family were captured by the Nazis, but as his hands showed he had done manual work he was sent to a slave factory, while the rest of his family went to extermination camps. Even when freed, he too realised that since he had ‘worked’ for the Nazis, he was likely to be shot if taken by the Russians. He also made his way across Europe and England to Mylor. He settled and married locally, worked in Falmouth docks, but apparently much preferred his fishing and boat building from the well-stocked old black shed that stood next to Mill Quay. Some attending the village school in the 1950s also remember Austin ‘Pasty’ Pastalnik whose Ukrainian parents lived at the end of New Row. When a refugee remembered as ‘Anton’, who had lived further along New Row, died he apparently left his property to the Duchy to thank the country that had saved him.
