IN February, 1940 families across Poland were awoken in the night with a knock at the door by Soviet soldiers.

Told to collect a few belongings, they were marched through the snow to railway stations and forced onto cattle trucks. Packed into wooden trucks with little food or water, they endured a terrifying journey in sub-zero temperatures lasting several weeks, ending in an annexed region known as Siberia. Once there, they were taken to camps and worked like slaves; felling trees, building roads and railways and working in coal mines.

The transportations, under Stalin's brutal regime, followed the Russian invasion of Poland in 1939, Stalin ordered the deportation of more than a million Polish people to Siberia.

This month, as part of Bradford Literature Festival, an evening of words, poetry and music commemorates the 75th anniversary of the transportations to forced labour camps.

Described as a "cultural evening of insight and reflection", the event features music from Katy Carr, a singer with Polish ancestry whose album Paszport was inspired by the wartime experiences of Poles under the Soviet regime. The album, which won Best Concept album in last year's Independent Music Awards, explores themes of love, resistance, hope and patriotism.

"Through songwriting I hope to reach younger people who don't know what happened to this generation because it isn't taught in schools here, said Katy. "It is so important that we keep the memories of these people alive, for future generations to learn from."

Two years ago Katy sang at a ceremony at Bradford's Polish Centre. Organised by Bradford Polish Veterans Association, the event commemorated the deportations and was attended by 110 people, most of whom were sent to Siberia with their families as children and teenagers.

One woman, who came to Bradford aged 12 in 1948, was four when she was awoken with banging on the door. She and her parents and younger brother endured a long rail journey in freezing temperatures.

"Sometimes the train suddenly stopped and people would get out to find berries and water. Once it started moving again, but many women were still outside and they had to run, " she recalled. "I remember screaming 'Mama!' Somehow she managed to get back on, but some people were just left in the wilderness."

The event also features Maria Jastrz?bska, a poet who was born in Warsaw and came to Britain as a child, and Anita Jean Pra?mowska, the daughter of a Polish bomber pilot who came to Britain during the war.

Maria's recent collection is At The Library of Memories and her drama, Dementia Diaries, toured nationally in 2011.

Anita is professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a media commentator on contemporary Polish history and politics. Her books include Eastern Europe and the Origins of the Second World War, History of Poland, and Poland: A Modern History.

* The commemoration event is at Delius Arts and Cultural Centre on Sunday, May 24 from 6.30pm.