An exhibition showing shocking pictures of Poles liberated from soviet Gulags during the second world war is due to open this week.

It has been organised by south London polish societies to commemorate the 70th anniversary of their imprisonment in the labour camps.

In February 1940 Russian soldiers invaded eastern Poland. There they rounded up hundreds of thousands of poles and incarcerated them because they were opposed to the communist ideology.

Zygmunt Sobolewski, 71, is a survivor of the gulags. His family, like thousands of others, settled in Britain after the war.

He was just two-years-old when soldiers invaded his town and captured his family. It was the middle of winter and they had no shoes or warm clothes.

The grandfather from Beckenham said: “They were slave labour camps. I had three sisters and one brother, my brother died in the camps, he was only eight.

“I am one of the youngest survivors. We did not understand what was going on. It was worse for the adults and the older children. It was misery, lots of people perished, we looked like skeletons. The Poles went through something very similar to the Jews.”

When Germany attacked Russia, a deal was made with Stalin to grant an amnesty to families imprisoned in the camps, they would be freed if the men fought in the army.

“We were taken to Persia (now Iran) by British troops and that is where we were freed. Most of the men fought in Polish regiments under the British in the middle East. That was where my father was based.

“We spent a lot of time in Persia in hospital recovering, we were all very ill. All the children had their heads shaved because they were covered in fleas from the camps, the conditions were appalling.”

Mr Sobolewski is hoping the exhibition will educate some of his younger compatriots who do not know about this aspect of their history.

Elizabeth Ugaro’s family also survived the camps. She runs a Polish school in South Norwood where she lives.

The 66-year-old teacher said: “New families coming over to work do not know any of this history. They were not taught about it although some may have been told about it at home.

“I was born en route to England, my family served two years hard labour in Siberian camps. My two sisters died of starvation, they were suffering from malnutrition.

“My brother also died. When the soviets invaded Poland, my brother was five weeks old. He was so small, he died in the camps.

“We were taken by the British to Palestine. I was born in Palestine. I came here with my mother when I was four.”

Mrs Ugaro’s mother lived to the age of 92 although her father died from leukaemia at the age of 60.

She has 13 grandchildren and is proud to pass along polish heritage to the next generation.

The exhibition is at 238-246 King Street, Hammersmith from February 6 to 19.