Narrative

A Long and Stormy Life

World War II. Poland was, yet again, caught between the struggles of two nations: Germany - the tyrannical empire, intent to rule the entire world, and Soviet Russia - a republic with similar aspirations. During those dreadful years, the patriotic citizens of Poland formed a resistance, the Armia Krajowa (AK) known in English as the Home Army. They were determined to regain the Polish independence, by passion and by blood. Stanisław Brzosko was one of the AK leaders and always staying devoted to his country. However, as the world changed him, and changed with him, he developed a saying, “You have to forgive and forget to live a normal life.”

Mr. Brzosko was born in 1922 in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie. When WWII broke out, he was 17 and about to graduate high school. As an education was difficult to get during the years of German occupation, Mr. Brzosko attended a secret Polish school. It was harder and harder until, the war’s progress made Mr. Brosko’s acquiring any education too dangerous. Anger at the injustice of the war on Poland and her people, his nationalism grew to the point where it overcame his darkest fears and he joined the Home Army (AK).He fought in the Kiliński battalion. At the start of war he fought alongside 200 men. Eventually, only 10 members of the battalion were alive; the others were either mortally injured or perished at the Nazis’ hands.

Mr. Brzosko started out low in the ranks, but because of his organization skills, youth and abilities he was able to climb to the top quickly. In three days he became the company commander and would remain commander for five years.

 Mr. Brzosko was 22 during the Warsaw Uprising; he and his group of 60 men defended Nowy Świat from street Świętokrzyska to Warecka, with only the Vistula River as an obstacle between the two fronts. The Polish soldiers fought with unimaginable courage. Patriotism was driving them and a free Poland was the goal. While AK forces were holding out in the buildings, along Nowy Swiat Nazi Stuka planes , the main fighter and dive bombers of the German empire, advanced from the rear so they could manoeuvre their opponents into open ground. Mr. Brosko explained that, “The Bombs weighed 200 kilograms; these bombs would penetrate 7 floors and explode in the basement.” When these bombshells detonated gigantic pieces of shrapnel would fly into the air and spin as if there was a tornado, not to mention the colossal amount of sound and energy also released. One of those bombs exploded near Mr. Brosko, damaging his hearing severely; to this day the ex-commander cannot hear properly.

However, the Nazis didn’t know that even in the midst of the bombings, these unprofessional cadets had so much faith in liberty that all of them would die willingly if it meant victory to Poland. Recalling this fight, the 91 year-old Stanislaw paused in mid-sentence with a faraway look in his eyes. “Nowy Świat. On one side – Germans. On one side - Polish. A hopeless situation.” He reflected that no other experience during the war was as hard and painful as this particular conflict.“We won. The Germans never passed Nowy Świat,” says Mr. Brzosko, “but it was a very costly success. It cost us many lives...”

Not only was Mr. Brzosko temporarily deaf after the attack, but also one of the pieces of shrapnel caused a serious injury. He was sent to a hospital, though laying there in the hospital his thoughts did not part from the fallen soldiers of his battalion. Nazis seized the infirmary which he was in. Mr. Brzosko never stopped thanking the doctors there. “Thanks to the effort of the doctors I survived.... somehow. They thought it was their duty to help the people, and they helped me.”

The officers took him to a prisoner of war camp in Germany but as the Russian front was approaching the camp was evacuated and the prisoners moved. Mr. Brzosko spent many months shifting from one camp to another until he was eventually liberated by the British army. After his release he was taken to England where he spent months in a proper hospital. Following his return to health

Mr. Brzosko helped liberate other internment camps and took care of the “Displaced People” there.

Mr. Brzosko says that he doesn’t know who was to be thanked most for him surviving and that it was perhaps only by luck. He returned to Poland to attend the Warsaw Technical University from which he graduated in 1950. From then on, he worked in the UN, traveling to countries in war and in need such as Syria, the Caribbean, Madagascar, India and many more. Mr. Brzosko says that he has changed through the war, but true understanding has come with time.

          He has understood that one cannot hold a grudge towards anyone for too long, one cannot remember the pain, and one cannot hate the whole world.

“Once, working in the UN, we had an assignment, and my partners were a Russian and a German. The German was an officer in control of the submarines in World War II, the Russian was a soldier of the USSR. And here we were, sitting at the conference table, as friends, as allies,” the ex-commander recalled with a smile.

“You have to forgive and forget to live a normal life,” he concluded with a philosophic expression, and when questioned directly if he hates the Nazis, his reply is simple:“All people are individuals.” However, after moment of thought, he added,“ In this sea of bad, of terrible things, you can always find points of light, decent people.”