Jaroslaw Kmoszek was born on the 10th July 1923 in the rural village of Peredilnytsa, Staro Sambirsk region. One of five children, Kmoszek was raised by parents Dmitri Kmoszek, the slaughterman for the village who had arrived as a translator and never left, and Anna Kmoszek, a native to the village who had nursed Dmitri back to health following an attack. 

They raised their children on a small holding, surrounded by several others and vast stretches of farmland, a landscape comprised of dirt roads and modest dwellings, farm animals and a single village church. It was here that Jaroslaw Kmoszek spent his early years, attending the village school and eating homemade sausages and bread, kitchens preparing homemade vodka and draped in lace tablecloths. 

By the time that Jaroslaw was a teenager he had passed from the village school to Novomista Academy, an excellent fee paying school in the surrounding area that he had gained admission to on an academic scholarship. He was very bright, and made a crystal radio as a boy in his village.

Jaroslaw was taken as a forced labourer by the Germans, probably in 1941. His mother was given 30 minutes to pack him a suitcase and say her goodbyes. Jaroslaw was loaded into a truck with fellow villagers and transported to Austria. Jaroslaw's parents would never hear from their son again.

Records show that the rest of Jaroslaw's family- both his parents and his siblings- were all taken as forced labour at a later date. Jaroslaw never made it apparent that he knew of this, but he was aware of his sister Stefania being used as forced labour in Austria, as he visited her in hospital where she was being treated for TB.

Once in Austria, Jaroslaw worked as forced labour on a German Farm, replacing the farmer's son who had been sent to fight. He was not treated well by the family, and lived on minimal rations of thin potato soup. often despite doing back breaking work.

Following Allied victory, Jaroslaw worked with the Americans as a translator, recieving his own American uniform and finding true comradery. 

Living in several Displaced Persons Camps in Germany, Jaroslaw would come to Britain as a DP in 1948, first staying in Scotland, and then in England. 

Whilst at a DP camp in the South of England, Jaroslaw befriended several RAF pilots stationed at a nearby airfield- it was here that he met former pilot and television presenter Raymond Baxter. Baxter would teach him how to speak English.

Following this period in the South of England, Jaroslaw was sent up north to Burnley, where through worker's resettlement schemes he found work as a coal miner. He enjoyed this work and the associated comradery enormously, but had to eventually give it up for health reasons.

Following this shift in employment, Jaroslaw relocated to Blackburn, Lancashire, where he found work at the Scapa Mill, a manufacturer for specialist fabrics that were sold worldwide. It was here that Jaroslaw would meet his future wife Renee. The two would go on to have one daughter.

Jaroslaw was an avid reader, and maintained that his wartime experiences had taught him that experiences changed people, and that no one group was all bad or good.

In 1969, Jaroslaw and his family emigrated to Australia, which Jaroslaw and his daughter loved, but with his wife experiencing accute homesickness, and Jaroslaw desperate for her not to experience what he had been through after the war, the family returned to Britain in 1972.

 In 1990, Jaroslaw travelled back to Ukraine. Through the help of the Red Cross, his surviving family were located and Jaroslaw was reunited with them, returning to his village. His daughter and wife accompanied him, and in the following years he would arrange for his Ukrainian family to visit them in Britain. 

Jaroslaw died in 1998 at the age of 74. He left behind his wife Renee, who died in 2022, his daughter, three grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. He is remembered as a hardworking, quiet man, who loved his family and his country.