Ukraine War: Memories still vivid

Mr Falinski was just 15 years old when he fled Europe after World War Two with his mother Maria and younger brother George.

The 78-year-old has been watching on horrified at Russia's invasion and destruction of Ukraine, while threats mount against Poland. For him, it brings up decades-old memories of his own family fleeing from war and persecution.

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Stanley is the father of incumbent Mackellar MP Jason Falinski, and the Northern Beaches Review was granted a rare interview with the older Falinski so he could tell his family's story of surviving war.

Stanley's mother survived the siege of Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in January 1941 - thanks to a wintertime frozen lake, where the Red Army could build a railway across the ice, around the back of the German mines, to evacuate women and children from the city.

"Just as they're trying to do in Ukraine today," he said.

After Germany and Russia invaded Poland in 1939, Stanley's father Leon was moved to regions around Tokmak [in Kyrgyzstan] because of his engineering experience to help with building factories for the new russian armaments.

"They went to the Russian side because they weren't killing Jews," Jason said.

Stanley's parents met in Kyrgyzstan, but in 1949 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin sent people from Poland and Hungary back to their own homeland.

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Back in Poland, Leon and Maria and their two sons George and Stanley were being ostracised for their Jewish background

"We were receiving sketches of Jews with long beards, and being ostracised so it was time to leave," Stanley said. "I'd certainly become very aware of it. Being chased and bullied is not a pleasant thing when you're a young person. My parents had to escape from Poland because of anti-semitism.

"They had two sons and they really wanted the very best for them, and Australia seemed like a long way away in those days."

Leon was held back for months due to the government's fears that he held state secrets, while Maria, Stanley and George boarded a vessel called Toscana for the seven-month voyage to Australia, via Freemantle in Perth.

"We were in Australia for about nine months before he [Leon] finally arrived. For a long time Mum wasn't sure that she'd ever see him," Stanley said.

Stanley remembers the moment they arrived in Australia.

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"When I went on the top deck on April 21 [1958] and looked around from the deck into Sydney Harbour, I saw the most beautiful foreshore I've ever imagined in my life and just fell in love there and then," he said.

Back then, he only spoke a couple of words in English - hello and thank you.

School in Australia was initially tough for the brothers, with Stanley remembering students yelling out "go back to where you came from" and "what are you doing here, 'dago'".

"You were accepted in a sense, but you were certainly made aware of the fact you were a foreigner, but on the other hand there were people who certainly made you feel welcome," he said.

Stanley went on to marry Collaroy woman Jill Brittain-White. They've now been married for 53 years and call Terrey Hills home. Jason is the oldest of their four children.

In all the years since he's called Australia home, Stanley said he's never felt the urge to visit where he came from and where his parents fled from the war.

"I'm so Australian these days that I really have no interest in Poland or Europe or Russia," he said.

But as the war in Ukraine enters its seventh week, Stanley said he feels appalled by Russia's actions.

"I thought I would live my life out in peace and quiet," he said.

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"They really don't deserve it, nobody deserves to be invaded and killed on train stations. It really is repulsive."

Stanley, who became an Australian citizen in 1967, said he is proud of his country's support for Ukraine.

"It is really really sad, but I feel as an Australians we're doing the right thing by supporting the Ukrainians," he said.

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