POLONIA
TODAY®
ONLINE
A Part of the Polonia Media Network®
|
|
SERIALS FROM PAST ISSUESRADZIA, AMERICAN PRISONER
|
| Born and educated in America, Radzia accompanied her parents upon their
return to Poland. There she marries a Polish Army officer and has two daughters,
Irene and Dana. Although her comfortable villa in Torun was not damaged by
bombing at the start of WW II, it has been taken over by a Volksdeutscher,
a Pole of German descent. Likewise, the Germans have confiscated her mother's
considerable real estate and bank accounts. She and the children are being
allowed to live in the basement of the villa, but are in poor health. Her mother
has successfully relocated in Warsaw. Radzia sought transport to America, but
refused to leave without her children. An attempt to visit her husband, a
prisoner in an officers' camp, was unsuccessful. Chapter 19 The regular routine of house arrests, round-ups and transports leaving for labor camps continued. Those of us who were still around wondered who would go next. In the meantime rumors of atrocities reached us. One day I went to see my dressmaker to try to repair my threadbare dress. While waiting for the seamstress to open the door, I heard frantic sobbing and doleful moaning from another flat. "What happened? Bad news from the camp?" I asked. Frances replied, "Yes, my neighbor received a little box today; a gift from the prison authorities of Stutthof, a concentration camp. It contained two small pieces of bone ... a part of her son's jaw." "Inhuman!" I exclaimed. "Yes, it's true. I saw the pieces and the letter from him. I can swear to it." I wanted to console the grieving mother, but I couldn't find words to ease her sorrow, so I went home, thinking of the hardships the troubled Polish nation had to endure. She heard no further word about her son. It wasn't long before we heard of friends and acquaintances who never returned. Times were getting to be very bad ... no one walked with a smile. Food was scarce, the winter was cold and life was a long string of miseries. |