Narrative

 Fighting for Your Country

    "War is a terrible experience. No matter how in the movies people show it, it does not look like that. The citizens are never cheerful after the war, there are no concerts and smiling faces. It is not appropriate to lie to people like this. They should know what war is like," declared Mrs. Maria Milbrandt. On March 23rd, 2010 our group had the honor to interview a survivor of WWII on the Living History Day, Mrs. Milbrandt. She was very pleased to reveal her story to us, which also turned out to be very fascinating. When informing us about her experiences, she described participating in the Warsaw Uprising and had a lot of dreadful experiences. Mrs. Milbrandt is an incredibly valiant woman who would do anything to fight for her country. 

    Before the war started, Mrs. Maria lived quite a prevalent life. She went to school, had fun, and enjoyed a teenage social life. She also passed to middle school and looked forward to it. But on September 1st, the first day of school in Poland, Ms. Milbrandt couldn't go to school. Warsaw had been bombed. On August 31st, overnight, the Germans began bombarding Warsaw, Poland. "That was a huge surprise for everybody..." muttered Mrs. Milbrandt, her voice starting to shake, and she stopped for a second, looking down and continuing to speak. "People were talking that there will be war, but nobody believed it and suspected that the war will start so soon." There was no school, and life was a lot harder since then. People were always hungry, they didn’t have money, and there was little food and coal. In that time, citizens were using coal to heat their houses, but when the war started they didn’t have a lot of it.

    Through the whole September, Warsaw was being bombed all the time. Many homes were ruined, including Ms. Maria's house, which made her family move to the suburbs. As mentioned before, Ms. Milbrandt wanted to learn and get a better education, however middle schools and high schools were closed. The Germans decided that Poles should only learn until 6th grade, and no further education was needed. So, Ms. Maria started to attend underground schools, however she had to be very careful. These schools were taking place in private apartments, and there had to be a small group of children. The Germans would be very suspicious if they saw a big group of kids, and they would frisk them. Those students couldn't carry textbooks and notebooks with them, because they were afraid that they would get caught by the Nazis. Ms. Milbrandt was quite pleased that she could still continue her studies, and she had gone through four classes in the underground school. 

    During one of the secret lessons in a private apartment, the teacher offered Ms. Milbrandt a place in the Secret Scout Organization (SSO). The SSO helped the Polish Home Army and the Warsaw Uprising army, giving the soldiers bandages, medicine, food, and other necessities. Mrs. Maria recalled how proud she felt when she became a Secret Scout and was sworn to secrecy. Eventually, the distance between home and her duties became too far away and dangerous, which prevented Ms. Milbrandt from helping the soldiers.

    Later she joined the Armia Krajowa (AK) as a nurse. Joining the AK put her in even more danger, because German soldiers were lurking everywhere, and would shoot anybody who attempted to get the injured soldiers off the street. The AK doctors had to move from hospital to hospital, which were secret ones. If the Germans found out about them, they would destroy these hospitals, by bombing them. Working in these conditions, and helping to heal the wounded soldiers was very difficult. Lack of equipment made helping the fighters more difficult, and death surrounded the hospitals. When someone died, the doctors were content, because it meant that that person was no longer in pain. For two months, Ms. Milbrandt's parents had no idea if she was alive or dead (unfortunately, after the war, they learned her sister had died). And then the Warsaw Uprising began.

    When the Polish Home Army surrendered, they had to give up their weapons to the Nazis, which was a very emotional day. Every Pole had to leave Warsaw. Ms. Milbrandt, and a few 'lucky' others, had permission from the Nazis to stay behind so that they could help everybody else evacuate. To prevent an accidental transport, Ms. Milbrandt and the others were given special passes, so that the Nazi officers could differentiate them from the Poles being evacuated. But the Nazis deceived Ms. Milbrandt and the others, and once they were the last people in Warsaw, the Nazis sent the ill-fated Poles to various labor camps. Because she had helped the AK, Ms. Milbrandt was sent to a Prisoner of War camp (POW camp) in eastern Germany. 

    The Nazis were unsure of how Ms. Milbrandt should work, and so she didn't have to work for the first two months. They decided to send her to a mechanics factory, where she worked like a man. Maria, along with other prisoners, worked as little as possible. Whenever a Nazi officer came over and watched them, the prisoners had to work quickly. However Maria did not want the Nazis to have products that worked properly. While in the POW camp, Ms. Milbrandt received a small metal rectangle attached to a string, which she wore as a necklace. If she died, the Nazi officers would break it in half and send half of it to her family, so that her family would know she has died. 

    The Soviet Union, finally helping Poland, broke through the German border and liberated the POW camp Maria Milbrandt was sent to. But the Soviet Union just wanted to conquer Poland. After returning to Warsaw, Ms. Milbrandt visited a friend, who told Ms. Milbrandt her parents were still alive. They reunited, and the loss of Ms. Maria's sister was mourned. The Soviet Union took over Warsaw. When asked if the Soviets treated the Poles differently than the Germans after the war, Mrs. Milbrandt declared that there was no comparison. The Germans were much worse. 

    In the year 1939 the deadliest calamity of humanity took place. Between 1939 and 1945 almost 80 million people lost their lives because of the horrors of WWII. People who remember this tragedy bare scars that are not only physical. Maria Milbrandt is a WWII survivor. She has experienced more pain and terror than our generation can even imagine. The evidence listed in the paragraphs above prove that Maria Milbrandt is an exceptional human being. Ms. Maria faced death and risked her life on numerous occasions during the war. Even an excellent nurse like Maria Milbrandt, can not heal the wounds WWII created.