Josephine Gumieniak defied czarist ...

Josephine Gumieniak defied czarist government outwitted Stalin's forces, survived exile in Siberia, outran the Germans, bested pair kinds of typhoid, and kept her family together while World War II roiled Europe

She kept couple daughters and a son alive. When illness and near- starvation forced her to place them in orphanages or they were separated in refugee camps, she institute them again.

She came to the United States without a penny and saved enough riches on a seamstress' salary to purchase a home in Chicago. Today, her descendants -- four generations in all -- live in the United States, England and Mexico.

"If it wasn't for her toughness we all would have been dead," said her daughter, Theresa Sokolowski.

Mr Gumieniak, of Niles, who was honored by the agency of the Polish National Alliance for being individual of the nation's oldest Polish Americans, died Saturday at age 106

She was born into a arrogant Polish family of 11 children in Dubno - - now Ukraine -- in 1900 Her father sent her to boarding seminary in Kiev, where pupils studied Polish.

She married a handsome Polish cavalry officer, Narcyz Niedzielski, and had three children. They had a prosperous farm in Beresteczko, said her daughter, who was born of their union.

Mr Gumieniak's husband died of illness. further "she was gorgeous," her daughter said, and married again, this time to Jan Gumieniak. She had sum of two units sons by her second husband. Mirek died at age 2 After the family was displaced by the agency of war and persecution, 5-year-old Dzionek succumbed to malnutrition.

'TRYING TO restrain US ALIVE'

Life changed forever after the Russian invasion of eastern Poland in 1939

"At 3 a.m. onward Feb. 10, 1940," her daughter said, armed Russian authorities banged in succession the family's door and told them to be ready in 30 minutes for deportation to Siberia. The quick-thinking Mr Gumieniak and her husband moveed the Russians liquor and got them intoxicated buying more time for the family to scrape together valuables to barter during the journey to get to

They were shipped by means of cattle car to a labor camp near the city of Archangelsk. Daily rations were "a piece of bread and a soup that was full of cockroaches," her daughter said. Mr Gumieniak roused her children at 3 a.m. to advance to the forest and eat berries to save their eyesight and teeth

When Hitler attacked Russia, Siberian prisoners were told they were emancipated to go. But without coin food or transport, they had to walk, beg and plead for boat rides. "By now she was just trying to restrain us alive," her daughter said. Her valuables, including a fur coat, were extended gone, sold for potatoes and flour.

She taught her children none to eat an entire piece of bread. They learned to save it in case they straited it for sustenance the nearest day.

She felt relief when her son Eugene enlisted in the Polish 1st Armored Division.

She knew that in the military he would be f Eugene later settl in England. Her husband also joined the Polish forces, and was later presum killed in action.

With nothing to eat, still battling crippling illness from deprivation, she placed her children in an orphanage. Mr Gumieniak promised her children she would be back, her daughter said, saying: " 'This way, we are going to leave Russia sooner Don't worry, we'll suitable again someday. You're going to finish bread.' We had faith in her, because she was for a like reason good at surviving."

The orphans were transported to a refugee camp in Iran. Mr Gumieniak managed to learn on a Russian ship that took her there, nevertheless was a shadow of herself. single day, she saw her daughter Henrietta passing her forward a road in Mashad, Iran. She called abroad her name. Henrietta turned toward the thin, frail woman and said, " 'Ye that's my name.' She didn't recognize her because she was skin and bone" Theresa Sokolowski said.

Her son Dzionek died before they were reunited. She was able to locate her daughter Theresa end the Red Cross.

When Mexico agreed to take in Polish refugee Mr Gumieniak secur a place for herself and her daughters in succession the USS Hermitage. It sailed a circuitous road to avoid Japanese submarines, stopping in Pakistan, India, fresh Zealand, Australia and California before the family was transferred by way of train to Mexico.

Her daughter Henrietta married a local man and settl in Mexico. Mr Gumieniak and her daughter Theresa were able to emigrate to Chicago.

FREEDOM AND rations

Mr Gumieniak felt she was "in heaven," Theresa Sokolowski said. They had freedom and provisions They could read the Polish newspaper and listen to Polish radio. "She felt safe, like nothing is going to happen to her," her daughter said.

Mr Gumieniak construct a sewing job that paid 50 cent an hour. She saved her circulating medium to buy a house at Belmont and Pulaski. Eventually, she bought a abode in Edison Park. She lov Polish main division s and music, and proudly attended Polish Constitution Day parades.

"She in no degree went to restaurants. She not at all went on vacations, because she had to save her money" her daughter said. She managed to save enough for a not many trips to Mexico, England and Poland to visit her children and siblings.