Childhood at War – The Story of Anna Drabik
When war broke out in Poland, life for young Anna and her family went askew. Their well-off, luxurious life turned into a life at the ghetto, only to be thrown apart at various times. Even through all this devastation, though, not all hope was lost. Anna was helped along by many individuals whom she cannot thank enough to this day for their bravery. It is hard to think, for many, of how some people risk so much for other people’s lives during war when their own is at risk. Thankfully, though, people did help Anna and in the end she was reunited with her family. Though war raged, and Anna’s family was strewn across Europe, Anna, her mother, and father all came together again as a family in the end of it all.
In 1938, before war broke out, a baby named Anna was born into a wealthy family. She was raised that small part of her life by happy parents and was a joyful baby. At the outbreak of war, Anna was still quite young. At the result of this, Anna’s holocaust memory is limited to the most extravagant and frightening moments. For example, when her house was bombed, and when playing as a child, a soldier with a gun searched the room, but did not kill her. The soldier later told Anna’s mother it was because he himself had a daughter at home. Another vivid memory, though, is the liquidation of the ghetto, and the way which she was saved by an unknown man. Anna recalls a man with blonde hair and blue eyes, spoke perfect German, who carried her to a village where she would be safe, safer than being slaughtered at the ghetto or sent off the be gassed in a chamber at Auschwitz. To this day, Anna is thankful for this man who carried her away from the ghetto and from her death.
After being taken to the village, Anna was essentially passed from family to family, until she was taken in by, taken care of, and lived in a household with a Ukrainian woman and eleven other children. The children helped with chores, and Anna collected dried cow manure from the field to burn. The household would be dirty, though, and so Anna would get sick. She explained, “I liked to be sick; because then I was able to sleep over the oven. A big white oven that covered the wall”, so she was warm on those nights. She also had trouble walking, Anna said, because she was paralyzed on her right side of her body. Also, after the war she was found to have tuberculosis. During the time with the Ukrainian woman, however, Anna learned to speak Ukrainian fluently. So, when her father came to find her, knowing her general location, he asked around for a Polish girl named Anna with blonde hair, who walks awkwardly, because he had found out about this medical problem. Nobody knew somebody exactly like this, but they said they knew a girl named Anna who spoke Ukrainian fluently, was a brunette, and a limp. Anna’s father decided to go find this girl anyway. When he got to her, he recognized her and tried to bribe her with sweets. Anna was scared, though, and she sat in the corner, frightened. Eventually, she came around to believing their relation when he pulled a picture of her as a baby out of his pocket. She said she remembered someone reading her a book similar to her situation in being parent-less and a parent coming to find her, and decided that if her picture has been close to his heart all this time, he must actually love her. Though families can reunite, they will not be as perfect as they were before.
War, which tore Anna’s family apart only to piece it back together, still had negative impacts on Anna’s life. It changed her memories, her ways of life, who she grew up with, and all else. Anna remembers nothing of springtime and summer growing up those earlier years of life. She recalls only the cold winter, trudging along, carrying heavy clothes. In addition to deciding what her childhood memories would be, war provided many illnesses. She said that she and her mother were not very close after war, “I understood my father more than I did my mother. She could not show affection; she had distance to everything. The war created havoc in her. I did not have the motherly warmth as any other child. And because of my childhood I could show affection towards my daughter. That's what war does to a person.” Anna was closer to her dad, the man who kept her close to his heart during war and came to find her. Although they were not the happiest family, they were reunited, and joyful, under the circumstances.
War can have a terrible impact on the human race, for example Anna’s family, but miracles like Anna being found by her father, are only possible when you fight for survival, fight for each other. Anna’s father, being sucked into war, only knew Anna for a small section of her life as a baby. Her mother did not get to spend much time raising her either. Families still have a chance, though, at being one if they try their hardest to reach one another. Though war raged, and Anna’s family was torn apart, Anna, her mother, and father were reunited in the end of it all.