For there is hope. Jan Stepek story

[Alastair]

Got sent in a link to this movie so thought I'd provide some info about it and a link to the movie.

The movie tells the story of a how a seventeen year old teenage boy from a small Polish farming village, endured his traumatic journey through the war, narrowly escaping death several times, and twice was miraculously reunited with lost members of the family. Despite all he endured the young Jan Stepek kept on moving forward – initially denied joining the Polish Navy on his escape from Soviet Union labour camps because of his size and health condition he managed to convince the recruiting officers to let him become a part of a battleship crew. That’s where he learned radar, and from this skill how to repair radios - which later became his source of income. Demobbed in pot-war Britain and unable to return to his country, Jan moved to Scotland met his wife-to-be. Living in a single room in Glasgow with a young family he worked hard to earn a living and his reputation as an honest, efficient businessman. His devotion to honest and hard work eventually led him to creating a chain of shops. J. Stepek Ltd went on to become one of Scotland’s best-known and most successful businesses.


Becoming a highly successful businessman didn’t change him as a man who had witnessed hunger, poverty and suffering. His deep-rooted sense of care for others led him to a parallel life of philanthropy. Homeless men ate with the family at home; one lived with the family for over a year. He came to the financial aid of many institutions saving the professional football club Hamilton Academical from non-existence, funding the continued teaching of Slavonic Studies at the University of Glasgow and an annual lectureship on Polish current affairs at the University of Strathclyde. In addition he guaranteed the financial stability of the Polish Sikorski Club in Glasgow as well as organising help for his homeland Poland in its darkest years of martial law in the 1980s.


Through the words of members of his family and people who knew Jan Stepek the movie will preserve the achievement and celebrate the impact of an extraordinary life journey of a farm boy turned soldier, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.

Watch the movie at

Alastair

[sandyc]

Re: For there is hope. Jan Stepek story

He had shops all over the place and I did wonder what had become of him. The video won't work for me because of "privacy" settings.

Sandy

[Alastair]

Re: For there is hope. Jan Stepek story

I had to click on the link to watch it on Vimeo.

I certainly remember the adverts for him on TV in Scotland.

Alastair

[Glesgalass]

Re: For there is hope. Jan Stepek story

I don't remember the name. What kind of shops did he have?

Elda

[sandyc]

Re: For there is hope. Jan Stepek story

Electrical goods.

Sandy

[1938 Observer]

Re: For there is hope. Jan Stepek story

I cannot get it either................however here is a short video of interest..................

Jan Stepek and Jimmy Logan 1960 .

Published on Sep 28, 2014

uploaded on the behalf of Martin Stepek
........ katiestepek

[1938 Observer]

Re: For there is hope. Jan Stepek story

Now a litle more for those who cannot access the film...........................

Danuta Stepek Bieńkowska - Polish Scottish Heritage . Published on Oct 27, 2014

The Stepek family originated in Haczów, Podkarpacie, the south-easternmost region of present-day Poland. However, in 1922 the young newly-married couple Władysław and Janina Stepek moved to a new settlement between Lwów and Łuck now in present day western Ukraine. Unknown to them this meant that seventeen years later, when war broke out they would be on the Soviet invaded part of Poland rather than the Nazi-occupied. Who knows if a better or worse fate would have enveloped them had they remained in Haczów?

What we do know is that Władysław avoided execution by the Red Army, who had him on a hit list of likely resistance leaders. He was therefore in hiding when his wife Janina and three children Jan (17), Zosia (14) and Danuta (12) were removed from their home in February 1940 and taken by cattle train to a labour camp in the Archangel region of Russia.

The now well–known path followed. Freed from the camp when the Germans invaded Russia in the summer of 1941 they made their way to liberty in Persia, enduring a five thousand mile journey in the process. This was too much for Janina who died of starvation in Teheran and lies buried there in a Polish cemetery.

Jan suffered typhus, dysentery and malaria before recovering to serve briefly in the Polish Army then transferred to the Polish Navy and trained as a radar operator. Zosia recovered and eventually became an interpreter of English for Polish generals during the war. Danuta weighed 25kg when she arrived in Persia in in the age of 15.

Each found their way to Britain after the war. Jan became one of Scotland's best-known entrepreneurs and then longest-serving chairman of a professional football club, Hamilton Academical. He also funded Polish language and cultural studies at the University of Glasgow. He died at the age of 90 in 2012. Zosia settled in London and had a long career as a teacher of English. Danuta too became an entrepreneur in Scotland, making dresses and jewellery before opening and running a hotel. The two sisters are still alive some seventy four years after they were taken to Siberia.

Visit: polishscottishheritage.co.uk