Iran. With the first advance guards of what would become the Second Polish Army Corps, which was being formed, Polish civilians also arrived, also former Gulag prisoners, including the little girl Irene. At a train station, she saw a teddy bear in the arms of a young boy and asked for it. The soldiers bought it from her. It was Wojtek the bear cub, who would later grow to 250 kg and 3 m tall. He would be enlisted in the army corps and contribute to the war effort (carrying heavy crates of ammunition) in the Battle of Monte Cassino and throughout the Italian Campaign. Since many of the Polish soldiers did not want to return to Sovietized Poland, many went to England, and Wojtek, too, would end his days in a British zoo.
