“An armoured train was running and firing at our position. I was ordered to stop it. There was a swamp. The place was inaccessible for the horses. We had to carry the gun on our shoulders. We stopped the armoured train. Stopped…rather destroyed it.”

They were stationed away from where The Siege Of Leningrad was taking place. Instead, they were tasked with holding the land still under Soviet control:

“We took a defensive position. We didn’t do anything, just holding a defensive position. When attacked we fought off. Close to Leningrad, the Leningrad Front. When they attacked us, we fought back. That was the Leningrad Front.

Shlema also fought against Finland in The Continuation War, serving at Karelofinna and Vladivostok (contested territory with near Amur Bay) in 1944:

“We had hard time fighting against the Finns. The Finns used to come at night throwing knives. They used to put down the guards with their knives. They killed a lot of our soldiers. They gave us a hard time. They were skiers. The temperature was 40 below zero, freezing cold.”

After the war, Shlema tried to start a business but was arrested for profiteering:

I started a job and was “awarded” for good work with 27 years of imprisonment 17 years in prison and 10 years in exile ‘A Jew is a profiteer’. I was lucky I was a Polish citizen. In ’57 the government issued an order allowing the Jews who had lived in Poland before the war to return to Poland. I was transferred to and let go in Poland.

Shortly after his release, Shlema joined his brothers who were already living in Canada.