Adolf Hitler's Suicide Day, April 30: A Poem

66 years ago today, Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Some historians say he killed himself with a cyanide capsule, others say he shot himself first.


My mother didn't know how he killed himself, and she didn't much care. She was happy that he did it.

She had never met him, but she had felt his fist across her face, his whip across her back. She was taken to Germany as a slave laborer after watching her mother, her sister Genja, and Genja's baby daughter murdered. My mom's sister Sophie was raped too. My mom escaped by jumping through the window and escaping into a forest. The Nazis caught her pretty soon after that.

My mother didn't talk much about what happened to her and her family. When I was a kid, I thought her silence came from annoyance with my questions about the war. Later, I realized that she didn't talk about her experiences because she wanted to protect me from the terrible things that happened, even though I was a grown man and a teacher.

Here's a poem I wrote about what Hitler did to my mom and her family.

My Mother was 19

Soldiers from nowhere
came to my mom’s farm
killed her sister Genja’s baby
with their heels
shot her momma too

One time in the neck
then for kicks in the face
lots of times

They saw my my mother
they didn’t care
she was a virgin
dressed in a blue dress
with tiny white flowers

They raped her
so she couldn’t stand up
couldn’t lie down
couldn’t talk

They broke her teeth
when they shoved
the blue dress
in her mouth

If they had a camera
they would’ve taken her picture
and sent it to her

That’s the kind they were

Let me tell you:
God doesn’t give
you any favors

He doesn’t say
now you’ve seen
this bad thing
and tomorrow you’ll see
this good thing
and when you see it
you’ll be smiling

That’s bullshit

__________________

The poem first appeared in the Chattahoochee Review.

The photo was taken by my wife Linda in 1979 or so. From left to right in the back row, it's my dad, my mom, my sister Donnna, her daughter Denise, and me. In the front row are my sister's daughters Kathie and Cheryl.

To read other poems about my mom, check out The Guzlowski Sampler, a site set up at Eastern Illinois University, where I taught.

91 Essential Books about Poland and World War II

The following list was compiled by William Szych and his friends at the the Facebook group "The Way Back -- Stories of Poland's Rape, Murder, Enslavement 70 Years Ago."

The introduction was written by Mr. Szych:

This living bibliography is dedicated to all in Poland who suffered so much during WWII...those who died, those who lived through untold horrors, those who lost their country and found refuge through out the free world, and those who fought so bravely within Poland and with the Allied forces to free Poland.

The books below (now over 80 in number) are linked to amazon or other sites where you can read reviews of the book. Remember you can usually request your local library to get books for you through regional book-lending agreements.

If you know of other books you think should be added, let us know.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." John 8:32

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1. The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom [Paperback]

by Slavomir Rawicz

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Walk-True-Story-Freedom/dp/1558216847

(Note: It has been recommended that this book be removed from this list because of the controversy and allegations that this is not a true story. But that is exactly the whole point of this book list...to have people think about what happened in Poland...what is true, what is lie, what is omission.

What we know: Stalin's Gulags existed and Polish citizens were enslaved there and in the Siberian labor camps and collective farms. We know millions of Polish citizens perished both in Siberia and in occupied Poland (Jews and Christians) including the 1940 murder of 23,000 Polish officers on orders from Stalin, initially an ally of Hitler and fellow invader of Poland.


We also know that many Poles fought bravely in conventional land and air forces with the Allies in key battles of the war and in the underground resistance forces in Poland. We know that Polish children were stolen and sent to Germany never to see their familites again and we know that many women were raped by both Germans and Soviets. And we also know that at the end of the war, Poland was handed over to Stalin leaving many Polish people without a country.

The name of this Group includes "The Way Back" for reason. It is not just to acknowledge and commend the movie by that same name which depicts the brutality of the Soviet Gulag. It is, rather, to note that a long journey must begin to take the "way back" to the truth of what really happened to Poland just 70 years ago.

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2. When God Looked the Other Way: An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption by Wesley Adamczyk (May 15, 2006)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_29?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=when+god+looked+the+other+way&sprefix=when+god+looked+the+other+way

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3. Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation 1939-1944 [Paperback] Richard C. Lukas (Author), Norman Davies (Foreword)

http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Holocaust-German-Occupation-1939-1944/dp/0781809010/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294004995&sr=1-1-spell

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4. Katyn: Stalin's Massacre and the Triumph of Truth [Paperback] by Allen Paul

http://www.amazon.com/Katyn-Stalins-Massacre-Triumph-Truth/dp/0875806341/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

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5. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder (Oct 12, 2010)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_43?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bloodlands+europe+between+hitler+and+stalin&sprefix=bloodlands+europe+between+hitler+and+stalin

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6. Waiting to be Heard: The Polish Christian Experience Under Nazi and Stalinist Oppression 1939-1955 [Paperback]Bogusia J. Wojciechowska

http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Heard-Christian-Experience-Oppression/dp/1449013716/ref=pd_sim_b_3

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7. Stolen Childhood: A Saga of Polish War Children [Paperback]

Robert Twele (Author), Lucjan Krolikowski (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Childhood-Saga-Polish-Children/dp/0595168639/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294008458&sr=1-1

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8. The Ice Road: An Epic Journey from the Stalinist Labor Camps to Freedom [Hardcover] Stefan Waydenfeld

http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Road-Journey-Stalinist-Freedom/dp/1607720027/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294011337&sr=1-1



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-stefan-waydenfeld/the-ice-road-my-life-in-a_b_499248.html Article by the author.

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9. The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt: War Through a Woman's Eyes 1939-1940 [Paperback] Rulka Langer (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Mermaid-Messerschmitt-Through-Womans-1939-1940/dp/1607720019/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

_________________________________

10. Quiet Hero: Secrets from My Father's Past [Hardcover] Rita Cosby

http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Hero-Secrets-Fathers-Past/dp/1439165505/ref=pd_sim_b_4

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11. Code Name: Żegota: Rescuing Jews in Occupied Poland, 1942-1945: The Most Dangerous Conspiracy in Wartime Europe [Hardcover]

Irene Tomaszewski Tecia Werbowski (Authors)

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Name-1942-1945-Dangerous-Conspiracy/dp/031338391X#_

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13. The Officer's Daughter by Zina Rohan (FICTION--NOVEL)

http://www.amazon.com/Officers-Daughter-Zina-Rohan/dp/1846270677/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263848626&sr=1-1

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14. 303 Squadron: The Legendary Battle of Britain Fighter Squadron

http://tinyurl.com/303Squadron

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15. A Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brigidpasulka.com%2F&h=fa9af

_________________________________

16. The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story [Paperback]

by Diane Ackerman

http://www.amazon.com/Zookeepers-Wife-War-Story/dp/039333306X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244671881&sr=1-1

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17. Inside a Gestapo Prison: The Letters of Krystyna Wituska, 1942-1944 [Paperback] Krystyna Wituska

(Author), Irene Tomaszewski (Author)

(note: she was executed by the Gestapo in her early twenties)

http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Gestapo-Prison-Krystyna-1942-1944/dp/0814332943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274233415&sr=1-1

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18. A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II [Paperback] Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Question-Honor-Kosciuszko-Squadron-Forgotten/dp/037572625X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244672211&sr=1-1

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19. World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West [Hardcover] Laurence Rees

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/030737730X/ref=s9_simz_gw_s0_p14_t1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0WGDVSP0XWTNASQHYHER&pf_r

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20. My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin by Susan Butler (Jan 10, 2006)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=My+Dear+Mr+Stalin

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21. Hollywood's War with Poland, 1939-1945 [Hardcover]

M.B.B. Biskupski (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Hollywoods-Poland-1939-1945-M-B-B-Biskupski/dp/0813125596/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294091607&sr=1-1

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22. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Tadeusz Borowski (FICTION by a Camp survivor)

(Author), Barbara Vedder (Editor, Translator), Michael Kandel (Translator), Jan Kott (Introduction)

http://www.amazon.com/This-Ladies-Gentlemen-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140186247/ref=tag_stp_s2f_edpp_url

________________________________

23. I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American ambassador reports to the American people (The Americanist library) by Arthur Bliss Lane (1965)

http://www.amazon.com/Saw-Poland-Betrayed-ambassador-Americanist/dp/B0007E3J7A/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294094527&sr=1-1

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24. No Greater Ally: The Untold Story of Poland's Forces in World War II

Kenneth K. Koskodan (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/No-Greater-Ally-Polands-Military/dp/1849084793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298424405&sr=1-1

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25. DUPES: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century [Hardcover] Paul Kengor

http://www.amazon.com/DUPES-Americas-Adversaries-Manipulated-Progressives/dp/1935191756/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294116789&sr=1-1

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26. Books by Norman Davies

Europe at War 1939-1945
Europe: A History
Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw
White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War 1919-20
God’s Playground: A History of Poland (Volume I & Volume II)
Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland
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27. Suggested by John Bartoszynski

Stalin and the Poles; An Indictment of the Soviet leaders [Hardcover]

Bronislaw Kusnierz (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Poles-indictment-Soviet-leaders/dp/B000L9A5SC/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294255784&sr=1-2-fkmr0

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28. Suggested by John Bartoszynski

THE RAPE OF POLAND, Pattern of Soviet Aggression. Whittley House, 1948, 309 pages H/B

Stanislaw Mikolajczyk

http://www.amazon.com/Rape-Poland-Pattern-Soviet-Aggression/dp/143049638X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294258194&sr=1-1

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29. Suggested by John Bartoszynski

AN ARMY IN EXILE the Story of the Second Polish Corps [Hardcover]

LT. GENERAL W. ANDERS (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/EXILE-Story-Second-Polish-Corps/dp/B000H48LFU/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294281050&sr=1-2-fkmr1

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30. Poland Betrayed: The Nazi-Soviet Invasions of 1939 (Campaign Chronicles) by David Williamson

http://www.amazon.com/POLAND-BETRAYED-Nazi-Soviet-Invasions-Chronicles/dp/1844159264/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294378483&sr=1-1

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31. Warsaw 1920: Lenin's Failed Conquest of Europe by Adam Zomoyski

http://www.amazon.com/Warsaw-1920-Lenins-Failed-Conquest/dp/0007225520/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294378933&sr=1-1-spell

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32. Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn: Recollections of the Ukrainian Nationalist Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against the Poles During World War II by Tadeusz Piotrowski

http://www.amazon.com/Genocide-Rescue-Wolyn-Recollections-Nationalist/dp/078644245X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

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33. Other books by Tadeusz Piotrowski

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=tadeusz+piotrowski&x=11&y=21

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34. Story of a Secret State [Paperback] Jan Karski (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Secret-State-Jan-Karski/dp/1931541396/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294382166&sr=1-1

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35. Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust [Paperback]

E. Thomas Wood (Author), Stanislaw M. Jankowski (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Karski-How-Tried-Stop-Holocaust/dp/0471145734/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294382166&sr=1-3

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36. Irena Sendler: Mother of the Children of the Holocaust by Anna Mieszkowska (Hardcover - Nov 18, 2010)

http://www.amazon.com/Irena-Sendler-Mother-Children-Holocaust/dp/0313385939/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294382620&sr=8-2

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37. Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War [Paperback]

http://www.amazon.com/Rape-Europa-Europes-Treasures-Second/dp/0679756868/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294424862&sr=1-1

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38. The Polish Club in San Francisco Recommends Movies and Books...

http://www.polishclubsf.org/Recommended.htm

_________________________________

39. "Poland in the Rockies" recommends...

http://www.polandintherockies.com/recommended-reading

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40. Maps and Shadows by Krysia Jopek

http://www.amazon.com/Maps-Shadows-Novel-Krysia-Jopek/dp/1607720078/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294693451&sr=1-1

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41. Polish Greatness Book List (some repeats from above, but many new ones also)

http://polishgreatness.blogspot.com/p/polish-greatness-book-store.html

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42. Escaping Danger by Dorothy Dubel (HISTORICAL FICTION)

http://www.amazon.com/Escaping-Danger-Dorothy-Dubel/dp/1436383781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294789108&sr=1-1

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43. Via Krysia Styrna Facebook Page

Tell The West, Jerzy G Gliksman (Author), 1948

http://www.amazon.com/Tell-West-Jerzy-G-Gliksman/dp/B0007DJVBE/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294900406&sr=1-2

For Recent review see:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798432,00.html

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44. The Ghosts of Europe by Anna Porter

http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Europe-Central-Europes-Uncertain/dp/0312681224/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295057614&sr=1-1

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45. The Polish Officer by Alan Furst

http://www.amazon.com/Polish-Officer-Novel-Alan-Furst/dp/0375758275/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295057676&sr=1-1

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46. Escape from Warsaw by Ian Serraillier

http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Warsaw-Original-title-Silver/dp/0590437151/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295490573&sr=1-1

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47. The Black Devils' March - a Doomed Odyssey: The 1st Polish Armoured Division 1939-45 [Paperback] by Evan McGilvray

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Devils-March-Armoured-Division/dp/1906033536/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295889225&sr=1-9

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48. Lightning and Ashes by John Guzlowski

Poems about his Polish Catholic parents who were taken as slave laborers to Nazi Germany.

Recent review: http://venusfebriculosa.com/?p=505

http://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Ashes-John-Guzlowski/dp/0974326453

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49. As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me by Josef Bauer

http://www.amazon.com/Far-Feet-Will-Carry-Extraordinary/dp/1602392366/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295563109&sr=1-1

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50. Suggested by Danusha Goska

Bieganski: The Brute Polak Stereotype in Polish-Jewish Relations and American Popular Culture (Jews of Poland) by Danusha Goska

http://www.amazon.com/Bieganski-Stereotype-Polish-Jewish-Relations-American/dp/1936235153/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295821557&sr=1-1

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51. Suggested by Stephen Stelmaszuk

The Lion and the Eagle: Polish Second World War Veterans in Scotland (Voice of war series) by Diana M. Henderson

http://www.amazon.com/Lion-Eagle-Polish-Veterans-Scotland/dp/095350364X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295881664&sr=1-3

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52. A Blog by Group Member John Guzlowski

Writing the Polish Diaspora -- News and information for Polish Writers and Writers of the Polish Diaspora

http://writingpolishdiaspora.blogspot.com/

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53. Victims of Stalin and Hitler: The Exodus of Poles and Balts to Britain [Hardcover] by Thomas Lane

http://www.amazon.com/Victims-Stalin-Hitler-Exodus-Britain/dp/1403932204/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1295885578&sr=1-2-fkmr2

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54. A Blog by Group Member Martin Stepak

Polish Legacy Poems

http://polishlegacypoems.blogspot.com/

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55. Suggested by John Burke

Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag [Paperback]

Janusz Bardach (Author), Kathleen Gleeson (Author), Adam Hochschild (Foreword)

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Wolf-Surviving-Gulag/dp/0520221524/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

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56. Suggested by Denise Jachimowicz Coughlin

Dragon In My Pocket [Hardcover]

Denise Coughlin (Author), Bill Kastan (Illustrator)

http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-My-Pocket-Denise-Coughlin/dp/0976590506/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295915604&sr=1-1

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57. Suggested by Stephen Stelmaszuk

Lost Between Worlds: A World War II Journey of Survival

by Edward H. Herzbaum

http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=1347


Amazon books link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Between-Worlds-Journey-Survival/dp/1848766033/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Web Site: http://www.lostbetweenworlds-herzbaum.com/

58. By Parachute to Warsaw by Marek Celt

http://home.teleport.com/~flyheart/tadeusz.htm

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59. Memoir of Stanisław Jaskólski -- Victim and Witness to German Death Camp during WWII

http://wewillspeakout.blogspot.com/2011/01/memoir-of-stanislaw-jaskolski-victim.html

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60. Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum

http://www.amazon.com/Gulag-History-Anne-Applebaum/dp/1400034094/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296099461&sr=1-1

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61. Polish Civilians Killed in World War II: Janusz Korczak, Rutka Laskier, 108 Martyrs of World War Two, Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Meir Balaban [Paperback] Books LLC (Editor)

http://www.amazon.com/Polish-Civilians-Killed-World-War/dp/1155385810/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296257985&sr=1-1

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62. Soldiers Of Evil -- The Commandants of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Tom Segev

http://www.amazon.com/Soldiers-Evil-Tom-Segev/dp/0425121712/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296264647&sr=1-1#

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63. Andrzej Pityński Sculpture [Hardcover]

Anna Chudzik (Editor), Andrzej K. Olszewski, Irena Grzesiuk-Olszewska (Introduction)

http://www.amazon.com/Andrzej-Pity%1Aski-Sculpture-Anna-Chudzik/dp/8375760218/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296320686&sr=1-1

Can be directly ordered from the publisher: Wydawnictwo Bosz, email: biuro@bosz.com.pl

web site is www.bosz.com.pl Andrzej has been called the leading Polish American sculptor and has created many memorials directly related to Polish American and Polish interests

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64. The Samaritans: Heroes of the Holocaust

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski (Author), Zofia Lewin (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006CF8YK/ref=cm_rdp_product ( For Reviews )

Out of print but used copies are available at:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=The+Samaritans%3A+Heroes+of+the+Holocaust&x=70&y=12

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65. Witold's Report (Episodes from Auschwitz)

http://www.amazon.com/Witolds-Report-Episodes-Auschwitz-2/dp/8361618031/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296416122&sr=1-1

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66. Et Papa tacet: the genocide of Polish Catholics.: An article from: Commonweal [HTML] [Digital]

http://www.amazon.com/Papa-tacet-genocide-Catholics-Commonweal/dp/B000BQFM56/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296416332&sr=1-1

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67. War Through Children's Eyes

http://www.amazon.com/War-Through-Childrens-Eyes-Deportations/dp/0817974725/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296418474&sr=8-1

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68. The Polish Army, 1939-45 (Men-at-arms) [Paperback]

http://www.amazon.com/Polish-Army-1939-1945-Men-Arms/dp/0850454174/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296430377&sr=1-1

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69. First to Fight: Poland's Contribution to the Allied Victory in WWII

http://www.polishforcesmemorial.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=76

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70. The Forgotten Few: The Polish Airforce in WWII

http://www.amazon.com/FORGOTTEN-FEW-Polish-Force-World/dp/1848841965/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296693649&sr=1-1

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71. Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg

http://www.amazon.com/Poland-1939-Birth-Blitzkrieg-Campaign/dp/1841764086/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296693288&sr=1-2

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72. The Polish Campaign 1939

http://www.amazon.com/Polish-Campaign-1939-Steven-Zaloga/dp/087052013X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296693144&sr=1-1

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73. Polish Resistance in WWII Collection of essays, articles, links, and an excellent readking list of dozens of books too numerous to list here

http://www.polishresistance-ak.org/FurtherR.htm

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74. Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945 [Hardcover]

by Dr. Gunnar S. Paulsson

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300095465/ref=cm_rdp_product

________________________________

75. The Mass Deportation of Poles to Siberia: A Historical Narrative Based on the Written Testimony of the Polish Siberian Survivors by Michael Carolan

http://www.amazon.com/Mass-Deportation-Poles-Siberia-Historical/dp/1615848118

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76. Polish Poetry from the Soviet Gulags: Recovering a Lost Literature [Hardcover] Halina Ablamowicz (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0773449345?tag=everythisjake-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0773449345&adid=0JCE5CPZ6FMV4VZFK2Y0&

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77. Legacy of the White Eagle; Includes a CD at the Back of Book [Paperback] by Julian Kulski

http://www.amazon.com/LEGACY-WHITE-EAGLE-Back-Book/dp/142430525X

also available at: http://www.poloniatoday.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PTOS&Product_Code=JK-PT-4

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78. Exiled to Siberia [Hardcover] By Klaus Hergt

http://www.amazon.com/Exiled-Siberia-Klaus-Hergt/dp/0970043201/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

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79. Children of the Katyń Massacre: Accounts of Life After the 1940 Soviet Murder of Polish POWs [Abridged] [Paperback] Teresa Kaczorowska

http://www.amazon.com/Children-Katyn-Massacre-Accounts-Soviet/dp/0786427566/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

also at: http://www.jacketflap.com/bookdetail.asp?bookid=0786427566

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80. Out of the Cross by Rev. Charles Jan Di Mascola

http://www.polamjournal.com/News/Reviews/reviews.html (Scroll down to get to the review and name of publishers...book is not avalible through Amazon unfortunately) This book is about the 108 members of the Polish Catholic clergy designated as WWII martyrs.

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81. The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 [Paperback] by Joanna K. M. Hanson

http://www.amazon.com/Civilian-Population-Warsaw-Uprising-1944/dp/0521531195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298485962&sr=8-1

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82. Your Life Is Worth Mine: How Polish Nuns Saved Hundreds of Jewish Children in German-Occupied Poland, 1939-1945 [Hardcover] by Ewa Kurek

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Life-Worth-Mine-German-Occupied/dp/0781804094

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83. Wojtek the Bear: Polish War Hero by Aileen Orr

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/aileen%2Borr/wojtek%2Bthe%2Bbear/7756094/

Also http://www.amazon.com/WOJTEK-BEAR-Polish-War-Hero/dp/1841588458

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84. Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code (Polish Histories) [Hardcover]

Wladyslaw Kozaczuk (Author), Jerzy Straszak (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Enigma-Poles-Broke-Polish-Histories/dp/078180941X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

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85. The report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee: Intelligence co-operation between Poland and Great Britain during World War II

http://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Co-Operation-Between-Poland-Britain/dp/085303656X

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86. Fighting Warsaw: The Story of the Polish Underground State 1939-1945

by Stefan Korboński

http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Warsaw-Polish-Underground-1939-1945/dp/0781810353

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87. The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom

By Andrzej Paczkowski

http://www.amazon.com/Spring-Will-Be-Ours-Occupation/dp/0271023082

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88. Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II [Hardcover]Douglas W. Jacobson

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Flames-Novel-World-War/dp/1590131363/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

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89. A World Apart: Imprisonment in a Soviet Labor Camp During World War II [Paperback]

http://www.amazon.com/World-Apart-Imprisonment-Soviet-During/dp/0140251847

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90. In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer (9780553494112): Irene Opdyke

http://www.amazon.com/My-Hands-Memories-Holocaust-Rescuer/dp/0553494112/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298859479&sr=1-1

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91. DPs: Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951 and

Round-Trip to America, both by Mark Wyman

http://www.amazon.com/Dps-Europes-Displaced-Persons-1945-1951/dp/0801485428

and

http://www.amazon.com/Round-Trip-America-Immigrants-1880-1930-Paperbacks/dp/0801481120/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299035981&sr=1-.

The Day My Mother Died

My mother died six years ago, January 27, 2006. She died in a hospice in Sun City, Arizona. It was a beautiful place, out in the desert, cactus and sage and rocks and reddish sand all around. She would have liked it. Before she got too sick, she used to like sitting outside and enjoying the little bit of desert that she had in her own back yard.

She had come a long way to die.

She was born in a forest outside a small village west of Lvov, Poland in 1920. She loved that forest and probably would have stayed there her whole life except for the Germans. They came to her house and killed her mother and her sister and her sister's baby. My mother fled into the woods, but the soldiers caught her and put her on a train that took her to a slave labor camp in Germany. Once I asked my mother to tell me what happened on that train. She said that even though I was a grown man and a professor, she saw things she couldn't tell me about.

For a long time, she also wouldn't tell me much about the slave labor camps in Germany. She would wave her hand at me and just say, "If they give you bread, you eat it. If they beat you, you run away." When she did start telling me about the things that happened in the camp, some times I had to ask her not to tell me.

At the end of the war, my mother met my father, another Pole who had been in the slave labor camps. When my mom saw my dad, he was a scarecrow in rags. He weighed about 70 pounds and had only one eye. He had lost the other when a guard clubbed him for begging for food.

She was 23, he was 25. She had been a slave for 2 years, he had been one for 4.

They married and waited in the refugee camps in Germany until someone in America would agree to sponsor them so that they could come here. They waited for 6 years. During that time, they had two kids, my sister Danusha and me.

In June of 1951, we came to America. For a while my mom and dad worked on a farm to pay off their passage here. Then, we moved to Chicago, and my mom worked in a factory.

The way I remember it my Mom was always working, working in one factory or another and working around the houses she and my Dad bought. She would plaster walls, paint, sand floors, and varnish them too. There was no work that she wouldn't do.

When my parents retired, they finally moved out to Sun City, Arizona, a long way from the village in Poland my mom grew up in. After he died out there in 1997, she lived there alone, taking care of her house and the garden, making friends and thinking about her grandchildren.

I've written a lot of poems about her over the years, and since the day she died,I've been trying to write a poem about her dying. Let me tell you, it's not coming. I've got pages of notes and half starts for the poem, but for some reason none of the words and lines say what I want them to say about my mom and how I feel about her and how her death touched me. Maybe I'll be able to write the poem someday, but I can't do it right now.

So I want to end this with two of my favorite poems about my mom from my book Lightning and Ashes. The first one is called "What the War Taught Her," and the second is called "My Mother's Optimism."


What the War Taught Her


My mother learned that sex is bad,
Men are worthless, it is always cold
And there is never enough to eat.

She learned that if you are stupid
With your hands you will not survive
The winter even if you survive the fall.

She learned that only the young survive
The camps. The old are left in piles
Like worthless paper, and babies
Are scarce like chickens and bread.

She learned that the world is a broken place
Where no birds sing, and even angels
Cannot bear the sorrows God gives them.

She learned that you don't pray
Your enemies will not torment you.
You only pray that they will not kill you.



My Mother's Optimism


When she was seventy-eight years old
And the angel of death called to her
and told her the vaginal bleeding
that had been starting and stopping
like a crazy menopausal period
was ovarian cancer, she said to him,
“Listen Doctor, I don’t have to tell you
your job. If it’s cancer it’s cancer.
If you got to cut it out, you got to.”

After surgery, in the convalescent home
Among the old men crying for their mothers,
And the silent roommates waiting for death
she called me over to see her wound,
stapled and stitched, fourteen raw inches
from below her breasts to below her navel.
And when I said, “Mom, I don’t want to see it,”
She said, “Johnny, don't be such a baby.”

Six months later, at the end of her chemo,
my mother knows why the old men cry.
A few wiry strands of hair on head,
Her hands so weak she couldn’t hold a cup,
Her legs swollen and blotched with blue lesions,
She says, “I’ll get better. After his chemo,
Pauline’s second husband had ten more years.
He was playing golf and breaking down doors
When he died of a heart attack at ninety.”

Then my mom’s eyes lock on mine, and she says,
“You know, optimism is a crazy man’s mother.”

And she laughs.



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The first photo is my mom, my sister, and me in Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago, around 1957.

The second photo is of my mom and my daughter Lillian, around 1982.

Thanksgiving Day Poem

I wrote the following poem to thank my parents and all of my relatives who suffered in World War II. Some like my parents survived and others didn't.

Thanksgiving Day Poem

My people were all Polish people,
the ones who survived to look
in my eyes and touch my fingers
and those who didn’t, dying instead

of fever or hunger or a bullet
in the face, dying maybe thinking
of how their deaths were balanced
by my birth or one of the other

stories the Poles tell themselves
to give themselves the strength
to crawl out of their own graves.

Not all of them had this strength
but enough did, so that I’m here
and you’re here reading this poem
about them. What kept them going?

Maybe something in the souls
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 terror
in the snow and the misery
in the rain--till some guy pierces
their stomachs with a bayonet

or some sickness grips them, and still
they keep going, even when there
aren’t any rungs on the ladder
even when there aren’t any ladders.

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My book Lightning and Ashes contains much of my parents' story of the war years and their lives after they came to the US as Displaced Persons.

Sept. 1, 1939: The Day World War II Started

On September 1, 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. In those first days and the six years that followed, more than five million Poles died.

I've written a number of poems about the first days of the war and what happened to Poland, but none of those poems ever captured, I felt, the struggle of the Polish people to throw off the Nazi invasion.

A couple of years ago, I tried again to describe what my parents and the Poles of their generation felt. Here's the poem:


Landscape with Dead Horses

1.

War comes down like a hammer, heavy and hard
flattening the earth and killing the soft things:
horses and children, flowers and hope, love
and the smell of the farmers’earth, the coolness
of the creek, the look of trees as they uncurl
their leaves in late March and early April.
You smell the horses before you see them.

2.

Horses groan, their heads nailed to the ground
their bodies rocking crazily, groaning
like men trying to lift their heads for one
last breath, to breathe, to force cold air
into their shredded, burning lungs.
For these horses and the men who rode them,
this world will never again be the world
God made; and still they dare to raise their heads,
to force the air into their shredded lungs.

3.

Look at this horse. Its head torn from its body
by a shell. So much blood will teach you more
about the world than all the books in it.
This horse’s head will remake the world for you—
teach even God a lesson about the stones
that wait to rise in our hearts, cold and hard.

4.

In the end Hitler sat in his cold bunker
and asked his generals about his own horses,
“Where are they?” He asked, “Where are my horses?”
And no one dared to tell him, “They are dead
in the fields with the Poles and their horses,
bloated with death and burning with our corpses.”

________________________________________________

This poem originally appeared in War, Literature, and the Arts along with several other poems I wrote about Poland and the war. Here's a link to those poems. Click here.

By the way, in that same issue of WLA, there are also poems about war by Polish-American writers John Minczeski and Lisa Siedlarz.

Click here for my previous post on September 1, 1939.
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The photograph of re-enactors in 1939 uniforms was taken by Mr. Mazowieckie at a re-enactment of the Bzura River Battle.

Father's Day

 

My father didn't teach me to fish or play ball or paint a fence or drive a car. He couldn't do any of those things. He was an orphan who worked on his aunt's farm in Poland until the Nazis came and took him to a concentration camp. When he got to America after the war, he was too busy working to do much of anything else. You don't learn a lot beyond the basics when you lead that kind of life.

But he did teach me somethings: to care for my family, work hard, and love life.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

---

To read more about my dad, click on the following poems from my book Lightning and Ashes:

Why My Mother Stayed with My Father

What My Father Believed

Looking for Work in America

Code Name: Zegota: Rescuing Jews in Occupied Poland, 1942-1945: The Most Dangerous Conspiracy

Irene Tomaszewski and Tecia Werbowski have recently published the American edition of their book about Polish attempts to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Code Name: Zegota: Rescuing Jews in Occupied Poland, 1942-1945: The Most Dangerous Conspiracy in Wartime Europe tells the story of the only secret organization in occupied Europe set up for the sole purpose of saving Jews. The first book on the subject in English, it details the danger and complexity behind Zegota rescue attempts, clarifying the relationship of the Germans, who had total control; the Poles, who were relegated to sub-human status and treated as slave labor; and the Jews, designated nonhuman and collectively condemned to death. Illuminating the moral dilemmas that arose as one life was pitted against another under the lawless apartheid conditions created by the Nazis, Code Name: Zegota explores the critical situation in occupied Poland and the personalities that responded to desperate conditions with a mix of courage and creativity. It profiles the key players and the network behind them and describes the sophisticated organization and its mode of operation. The cast of characters ranges from members of prewar Poland's cultural and political elite to Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, who worked as couriers. As this inspiring book shows, all of these brave souls risked torture, concentration camps, and death—and many paid the price.

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The book is available from Greenwood Press and Amazon.

Irene Tomaszewski is one of the editors of Cosmopolitan Review.