Identity | A World for Children

My name is Adrian and I am 10.

I went to school in Poland. My teacher would hit me. I'd come home with bruises... The teacher would say, "You are black and we are white. And white people feel better in their own country and not having black niggers amongst them. We hate this."

I stayed for three years in the same first grade. I would go with my Dad to see the teacher to ask her when I would pass to the next grade and she would say I was not clever enough... and that I could not read or write!

But I read a book to my father and he said, "of course, you can read!" So I read it to the teacher; she said, "you must've learned it by heart."

I've gone to school here for almost a year now. I went to the seventh grade and passed straight to the eleventh, and my life here is right on track... I have a very good teacher...

In Poland my father would be beaten up. Police, or skinheads, would always come to our home... every day.

They burned my father's van packed with carpets and rugs... our whole livelihood.

There was no life for us in Poland... because of skinheads and also... I watched once as policemen entered our home... My brother and I hid under the table. My father was handcuffed - my mum also hid - they handcuffed father's hand... and then cuffed him to the radiator. Then they beat him with batons...

Sometimes they would arrest him and take him to prison - for nothing... for no reason. They would blame on him things he hadn't done. But they lied!

They would never pin anything on white people, only on black... They simply dislike the colour of black skin!

Here [in Britain], for example, a white man marries a black girl! It is a good thing.

Here, there are no skinheads. And no one raises a hand up to us and says, "Heil Hitler!" In Poland they'd say [to us]... raise the hand and say Heil Hitler! And they'd say: "we'll kill you, you stupid niggers" And they also swore at us... and they'd say, "we'll kill all the gypsies! All gypsies - to the gas chamber!"

What I would like to do is help people and help gypsies stay in this country, England. This is my greatest dream in life.... Because in Poland there is no life, while in England it is like... paradise...

I miss my cousins, my brothers and my sister... I miss them so much... But I wouldn't go back to Poland. I'd like them to come here...

I'd like to stay here. I... love this country... blacks, browns... so many different people... and the only thing that counts is harmony. I'd like to stay here and perhaps go to school.

I've made several friends here, my life is on the right track, better than in Poland.

I'd like to stay... in some country, to have a family. That would be my dream, so that I am safe, so that I feel calm and happy and everything is right...

I don't want to go back there [to Poland] and be killed... I was too frightened... Only lately I have relaxed...

I had many teachers but they didn't want us to be in their school. They didn't want us to learn and just wanted to send us to a different school, one for the mentally disabled, and they would always hit us. We'd come home crying...

Sometimes we complained to the headmistress and she would just wave her hand [to show] that she didn't care. Skinheads would also come and we'd want to run away... but there was nowhere to run, so... I wanted to kill myself... I wanted to kill myself, because I did not want them to kill me... I'd rather kill myself...