Sitting on the steps outside her family’s kitchen, 11-year-old Romualda Smolicz spotted soldiers on the horizon in the Polish village of Lozowicze as the sun rose on Sept. 17, 1939.
“I said to my family, ‘Oh, they are Polish soldiers.’ They had eagles on their hats. Five minutes later they came to our orchard and, oh, they were something different and life was not the same,” she remembered.
They were Soviet troops who would soon perpetuate in the east, atrocities that had begun a little more than two weeks earlier on Sept. 1 when Nazi troops invaded Poland from the north, south and west. The country was divided between Russia and Germany and World War II was effectively under way.
“It was like a flood and we were under,” said Smolicz who is now a nun living in Chester.
A place for friends to meet... with reflections on politics, history, art, music, books, morals, manners, and matters of faith. A blog by Elena Maria Vidal.
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Poland's Dark Days
Memories of seventy years ago. (Via Serge)
3 comments:
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The heroism and superhuman endurance of "ordinary" people in the 20th century, was incredible. The bloodiest century in history...
ReplyDeletePoor Poland had the misfortune to be located between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia; that only spelled misfortune for these brave people. I have the feeling that the Catholicism of the Polish people was their guiding light as it was centuries earlier for the Irish People.
ReplyDeleteMaria Elena:
ReplyDeleteAnd the Ukranians. If you think about from 1914-1955, that part of the world has been pratically emptied from constant warfare and we now see that the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia are totally depopulating.
xavier