My people were all poor people, the ones who survived to look in my eyes and touch my fingers and those who didn’t, dying instead of fever, hunger, or even a bullet in the face, dying maybe thinking of how their deaths were balanced by my birth or one of the other stories the poor tell themselves to give themselves the strength to crawl out of their own graves.
Not all of them had this strength but enough of them did, so that I’m here and you’re here reading this blog about them.
What kept them going? . I think about that a lot.
Maybe there's something in the DNA of people who start with nothing and end with nothing, and in between live from one handful of nothing to the next handful of nothing.
They keep going.
Through the misery in the rain and the terror in the snow, they keep going--even when there aren’t any rungs on the ladder, even when there aren’t any ladders.
(The photos are of my uncle Jan Hanczarek. He was taken to Siberia by the Russians in 1941. The Russians enslaved millions of Poles. In the first photo, he is standing with his wife and two children. I don't know their names. In the second photo, he and his wife are standing at the grave of my grandmother and my aunt and my aunt's baby who were all killed by the Nazis.)
When I was a child growing up in Chicago, All Souls Day wasn't a big deal. My parents would tell me stories about what it was like in Poland when they were kids.
People, my mother would say, would walk to the cemeteries where their mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, were buried and leave fall flowers and lighted candles there. Some times at night, there would be so many candles burning on and near the graves that you could see the light shining above the cemeteries as you walked back home, even if your home was far away.
But we didn't do that in America. We were Displaced Persons, immigrants, and all our dead were buried far away in Poland. My mother didn't even know where her mother and her sister and her sister's baby were buried. The men who killed them put my mother on a boxcar and sent her to the slave labor camps in Germany before she could bury her family. It was a bad time.
A little while ago, the Polish-American poet Oriana Ivy sent me a poem about All Souls Day, and she said it would be okay to share it with people.
Here's the poem:
All Souls
Sometimes I think Warsaw fog is the dead, come back
to seek their old homes – wanting to touch even the walls.
But they cannot find those walls, so they embrace the trees instead,
lindens and enduring chestnuts. They embrace the whole city, lay
their arms around the bridges and the droplet-beaded street lamps;
they pray in the Square of Three Crosses, kneel among the candles and flowers
under bronze plaques that say On this spot, 100 people were shot –
they bow, they kiss even the railroad tracks –
they do not complain, only hold what they can, in unraveling white.
-- Oriana Ivy
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If you want to read more of Oriana's poems, they are available online at the journal qarttsiluni.
If you want to know more about Polish and Polish-American All Souls Day, Deacon Konicki's blog has a post about the way it is celebrated in Poland and Robert Strybel has a piece on the way the day is commemorated by Polish-Americans in the US.
By the way, the Polish-American community in Buffalo, NY, has organized an All Souls Day commemoration. There's an article about it in the Polish News.
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The photo is of an All Souls Day commemoration in Poland.
I've been looking forward to this memoir by Rulka Langer for a very long time. It's the first publication of Aquila Polonica, a new press started by Terry Tegnazian and Stefan Mucha dedicated to publishing works about the Polish World War II experience in English. The press hopes to publish firsthand accounts, memoirs, poetry, literature, photographs, artwork and historical studies. Terry Tegnazian has written that what inspires her is Poland's role in World War II. It is, she says, "possibly the most heroic and tragic of all the Allies, yet remains one of the least-known aspects of WWII to those living in the West. It is our mission to bring this amazing story to the wider English-speaking world."
Aquila Polonica's The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt: War Through a Woman’s Eyes, 1939-1940 is a rare eyewitness account of the first six months of WWII – the Nazi German invasion of Poland, the Siege of Warsaw, and the first months of the Nazi occupation – written by Rulka Langer, a civilian, a young Polish career woman and mother, who was a graduate of Vassar College in the U.S.
Her story is enhanced by the historic photographs, documents, and maps that the publishers have gathered together especially for this volume.
The book has been chosen as a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the History Book Club, and the Military Book Club, and is endorsed by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski. Publishers Weekly calls it “an unusual take on WWII.”
The recently retired head of the Los Angeles Public Library system read it and says: “I couldn’t put the book down. Her story is riveting … utterly contemporary and compelling.”
The Mermaid is available in hardcover at your local bookstore (if it’s not in stock, they can order it for you), or online at Amazon.com.
70 years ago today the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east and divided up the country with the Nazis. In some places in Poland, they light candles and put them in the windows to remember the dead and the suffering of the living during that time.
My mother was living west of Lvov in eastern Poland when the Russians invaded. I once asked her what that time was like. She said, "The men from the east were terrible--like buffaloes."
Tonight in Danville, Virginia, where I live, I will light a candle.
I first met Dr. Bogusia Wojciechowska over the internet about five years ago. Someone sent me a note about her and her work, and I got in touch with her as soon as I read it.
She was working on an extensive research project to document the lives of Poles who were forced to leave Poland during World War II. This was a project that touched me directly. For years, I've try to find books that would tell me more about what happened to people like my parents who had been rounded up by the Germans and taken to the slave labor and concentration camps in Germany. What I found surprised me. Beyond Richard C. Lukas's excellent Forgotten Holocaust there weren't many such books, and his book in fact didn't tell me what I wanted to know about the lives of the Poles who were taken to German and those -- like my Uncle Jan -- who were taken to Siberia.
It seemed that what my mom once said was true. They don't make books about people like us.
Dr. Wojciechowska's project has attempted to change that. Over the years, as a historian, she devoted herself to chronicling the experiences of those who were forced to leave Poland. Her website -- The Polish Diaspora -- has been an essential source of information about those experiences. Now, she has edited a book that brings together much of her research about the lives of those who were taken from Poland during the war.
If my mom were to see this book, she would probably say, "At last, here's a start."
Here's a press release from the publisher of Waiting to Be Heard:
Polish Christian survivors of WWII oppression
All wars disrupt; they leave behind the dead and the living, the victims and the survivors. The war that tore apart Poland in 1939 with Hitler’s avowed annihilation of an eastern neighbor "for German expansion", Stalin’s westward thrust with Soviet communism and the mass deportation to Siberia of whole societies, all ensured that while millions died, those who survived could not or would not speak of their ordeal. Theirs was the story of deprivation and of humiliation; it was the realization that not only was a homeland lost, but that an entire future was denied.
Waiting To Be Heard (The Polish Christian Experience Under Nazi and Stalinist Oppression 1939-1955) is an attempt to give voice to those who, in fear of their lives or in anticipation of an eventual and triumphant return, found themselves exiled across the world. Dr. Bogusia Wojciechowska, the daughter of a couple that found refuge in a camp outside Oxford, England, and now Dean at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston MA, had an incomplete picture of her family’s plight until she chanced upon some letters written by her grandfather. Her training as a historian gave her the confidence and the methodology to conduct over one hundred interviews with a rapidly decreasing population that had first-hand experience of both Nazi and Stalinist oppression. In the majority of cases these interviews were the first time this diaspora had spoken at length about their suffering and their determination to secure freedom for their homeland.
Presented as a series of vignettes, Waiting to Be Heard is a chronology punctuated by the poetry of a subsequent generation that includes Martin Stepek, John Guzlowski, and Hania Kaczanowska, each of whom pay respectful and heart-rending homage to the dignity of their parents. This 400-page book contains many photographs and artifacts, and has a foreword by Ryszard Kaczorowski, former president of the Polish Government-in-Exile in London who, in 1990, was finally able to hand over the safeguarded State Insignia to the newly and democratically-elected president, Lech Walesa, in Warszawa.
Published this September, by AuthorHouse, Waiting To Be Heard is printed to order, so wait times may vary. Please order through Amazon, and Barnes & Noble websites, or through your local bookstore. Meanwhile, one can get a feel for the content by visiting www.PolishDiaspora.com. The ISBN is 978-1-4490-1370-7
For additional information, write to: WaitingToBeHeard(at)comcast.net -- substitue @ for (at).
I recently received the following information regarding the upcoming conference (Oct. 3-4) sponsored by the Andy Golebiowski and the Polish Legacy Project of Buffalo, NY:
Untold Stories Come Alive
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union; the start of WWII. The war exacted an enormous physical and human toll. Apart from the millions of dead, millions others became displaced from their homes. Many of these displaced persons found a home outside of their homeland, in England, Australia and North America, in places like Toronto and Buffalo. Since settling here, these immigrants quietly built new lives, worked hard and generally kept silent about what they had experienced.
Conscious of the fact that many of the survivors have died, taking their stories to their graves forever, the Polish Legacy Project in Buffalo-WWII was formed with the aim of documenting the stories of those who are still among us. Feeling a sense of urgency, we have set out to capture these stories in order to share them with the community at large.
The conference is the beginning of a larger project aimed at documenting Polish stories of wartime survival.
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For more information, including registration forms, conference schedule, and list of speakers, please refer to the Polish Legacy Project website.
Further information -- including free registration information -- may be found by clicking here.
Here's the schedule:
It All Began in Poland World War II Commemoration
The Polish Mission of the Orchard Lake Schools SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary & Michigan Polonia, LLC
3535 Indian Trail Orchard Lake, Michigan 248-683-0412
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
6:00 PM Sunset Wypominki & Candle Service at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes Mass follows in the Shrine Chapel
September 5 - 6, 2009
We are honored to have Mr. Zygmunt Matynia, Consul General of the Republic of Poland (Chicago) with us for the events on Saturday and Sunday.
Throughout the weekend there will be ongoing activities including:
Batilion Burza a living history re-enactment group of Polish & American military men and women.
Assembling a Time Capsule - Collection of WWII and commemoration materials to be opened in 2039, the Time Capsule will be registered with the Smithsonian Institute.
Personalization of Pewabic Memorial Tiles with signatures of Polish Veterans and Displaced Persons, and Księga Pamiątkowa - Guest Book Signing
Saturday, September 5, 2009
10:00 - 11:30
Reunion with Sybiracy - Polish Refugees
Antoni Walawender MA, speaks of his personal experience as a “Chlopcy z Polski” Photo history of the Sybiracy experience including Siberia, Iran, India, South Africa, and Mexico and the launch of the oral history website
Selected Interviews with Survivors of German work camps
Poet John Guzlowski PhD, reads his poetry and explains the symbolism
11:30 - 12:15 Lunch
12:15 - 2:15
Opening of the Art Exhibition
Peggy Grant, BFA presents the History and Symbolism of Artist Adam Grochowski
Cecile Wendt Jensen, MA presents the History and Symbolism of Artist Jan Komski
Polish Photographer Marcin Chumiecki speaks about his Assignment Auschwitz Portfolio
2:15 - 2:30 Break
2:30 - 3:30
Guy Stern PhD, Director of the Holocaust Museum and Director of the International Institute of Righteous, pays tribute to the Polish Catholics who risked their lives to save Jews during World War II and Sue Krolikowski PhD pays tribute to the Polish Catholic nuns who sheltered Jewish children.
3:30 – 3:45 Break
3:45 – 4:45
Poet John Guzlowski PhD discusses his work Lightening and Ashes and Third Winter of War: Buchenwald
7:00
Polish Evening Concert in the Shrine Chapel with Curtis Posuniak, organist at St. Patrick Church in Carleton, Michigan.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
1:00 - 2:00
Mass at the Shrine Chapel to honor the Polish Army Veterans and Camp Survivors
Poet John Guzlowski addresses veterans
2:00 – 3:00
The Filarets Chorus, led by David Troiano, presents a repertory of patriotic and military songs for the Veterans
3:00 - 3:15
Group Photo of Veterans
3:15 - 4:15
William Krul, President, Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan, outlines the required governmental steps he took to obtain the proper military recognition for his father William Krul, Sr. who died in combat during WWII.
4:15 – 4:30 Break
4:30 – 5:30
Hands on training to retrieve U.S. military, refugee, and naturalization documents via the ancestry.com database and documents via the Kresy-Siberia website. Adam Cardinal Maida Library.
This project is funded in part by Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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To see posters and a youtube regarding the commemoration, please click here.
I have also posted a blog about Sept. 1 with some films of the invasion and memories of my father's stories about it. Click here.
I was born in a refugee camp in Germany after World War II, and came with my parents Jan and Tekla and my sister Donna to the United States as Displaced Persons in 1951. My parents had been slave laborers in Nazi Germany. Growing up in the immigrant and DP neighborhoods around Humboldt Park in Chicago, I met Jewish hardware store clerks with Auschwitz tattoos on their wrists, Polish cavalry officers who still mourned for their dead horses, and women who walked from Siberia to Iran to escape the Russians. My poems try to remember them and their voices.
These poems have appeared in my chapbook Language of Mules and in both editions of Charles Fishman’s anthology of American poets on the Holocaust, Blood to Remember.
Since retiring from teaching American Literature in 2005, I've written two new books about my parents. My new poems about them appear in my books Lightning and Ashes (Steel Toe Books, 2007) and Third Winter of War: Buchenwald (Finishing Line Press).
These pages are copyrighted as they appear by John Z. Guzlowski. All content on these pages is his sole property and cannot be used without his permission.
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