Summary:
This essay goes into the lives of three different people to illustrate the struggle that the second world war created.
Keeping Families in a Crisis:
World War Two's Effect on Families
"The days of mad irresponsible fun are so far away and took place in a previous existence. Such happiness could not be gone for ever and only pain and suffering endure." - Nella Last
Many things occurred from the 1930s to the 1950s. The United States were getting over and growing through the Great Depression, Great Britain and all of Europe's economy was going to rot, Nazism and Communism spread like wild fire through Europe, and World War Two claimed many lives.
World War Two caused a lot of heartbreak all over the world. Yet, when most people think of the horrid war, all they think about is the Holocaust and the Jews.
In my study, I have chosen three different families and followed their pain and misery within the two decades. The people I have chosen are Janina Sulkowska from Poland, Nella Last from Britain, and Oscar Schindler a Nazi from Czechoslovakia.
First, there is Janina Sulkowska. Janina or "Janka" was a university student when Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland in 1939. Her hometown suffered German bombings and occupation by the USSR, even as she and her family aided refugees. "Janka" joined the underground with friends, but in 1940 the NKVD, tortured and shipped to the Gulag, arrested her. Her entire family would be deported to Siberia, and many relatives and friends suffered and died at the hands of the Soviets and Nazis.
Janina wrote a memorial journal of her survival through the tough time, starting with the invasion of Poland, as a prisoner in the outposts of the Gulag, her survival in the USSR and escape, and finally exile in India and England. Through all her trials, Janka was determined to find her scattered family and friends, and to tell the story of those whose voices had been silenced. Janina's son continued her quest to inform the world but continuing to publish her works.
Her father, Jan, was Secretary of the County. It was his obligation to make arrangements to house and feed all these refugees, which included providing medical care. In spite of his ill health, he was on the go 24-hours a day. Their home very quickly became a home to many people who had nowhere else to turn.
Some of Jan's responsibilities included accommodating the various ambassadors and foreign dignitaries as well as the Polish ministers, and even entire government departments. The Papal Nuncio was placed in the prefect's house of Krzemieniec Lyceum, and Janina even helped to house staff from several embassies in the school dormitories. Other foreign staffs were put up in the old monastery or in private homes.
Jan was arrested March 22, 1940, Good Friday. For two previous nights the Soviets had conducted raids in Krzemieniec, accompanied by beatings, theft and humiliation. Since he and his family were Poles, they were a vulnerable target for the collaborators and blackmailers who took advantage of Soviet tactics in which denunciation was institutionalized. Many of the family's friends and neighbors disappeared in this manner.
An alcoholic Jewish neighbor, Jozek Kagan, who the Sulkowska family often helped, became an NKVD (the Soviet Russian secret police) informer and did many wrongs to the family. Jan showed his kind heart by forgiving him later and picking up the man up from a street in the USSR, and paying for a hospital bed so he could at least die in peace.
The night of Good Friday the family was startled by the pounding of rifle butts on the door. An NKVD Captain by the name of Truchun and two policemen in civilian clothing came into their home. The Sulkowskas were moved into the corner of the main room while the three men conducted a search for weapons, but none were found. Truchun thrust the arrest papers in Janina's father's direction, who only nodded and put on his coat. And then he was bundled out the door--a frail man in the grasp of guards as if he were some notorious criminal.
Ten months later (after terrible interrogations) he was sentenced by a Soviet court to the labor camps for such crimes as "associating with kulaks" and "speaking of the low quality of products of the USSR." The case was conducted by the Soviets in Russian based on the laws of the USSR, with local Ukrainians and Jews serving as "witnesses."
Days later, Janina had her own run in with the Truchun. Easter Sunday, Truchun, wearing a civilian coat thrown over his uniform and was accompanied by a Red Army soldier and a local Jewish militiaman. Tkazcuk, a Ukranian classmate, had sent them. He assumingly found pleasure in getting rid of more Polish "bloodsuckers."
As with Jan's arrest, they pushed everybody into one corner of the kitchen under the guard of the soldier. The NKVD officer took Janka's little sister as a witness while they searched her possessions. She was sentenced to the life of encampment. So, Janka spent 2 years in Camp No. 2 suffering from malnutrition and abuse. She was set finally set free March 7, 1942.
After being released from the camp, Janina went to Russia in search of her roots. She reunited with her father in Bukhara at a hospital. After visiting him, she went to Szakhryziabs to join in the Army, where she was reunited with a fellow Pole that had also been in Camp No. 2.
They all crammed into a ship and headed to Persia. There were some ships with 50,000 people on them. The ships rolled and heaved with resulting seasickness and diarrhea, compounded by overcrowding, and poor health of the passed. Those that died were thrown overboard. She even tells of a nursing mother who lost her grip and her baby fell into the ocean!
On July 20, 1948, Jan finally died. He never even got to see his wife or youngest daughter again, but Janka was there with him on his death bed. After Jan's death, Janka went to live with her brother and ran into an old friend, Leon Gladun, a demobalized lieutenant and a hero of the Italian Campaign. They got married on February 19, 1949. They honeymooned on the Isle of Wight.
Her brother married an English girl, and encouraged the newlyweds to follow him to Canada. They moved to the Paddington District of London, and her first son Jacek, was born on April 17, 1951. In 1952, she had her second child, Wanda. Today Janka still lives in Canada with her husband and keeps in touch with her sister.
Next, is Nella Last, a remarkable woman of Britain. Nella Last was a housewife, who made clothes for her family to cut costs. She was married to a shop-fitter and joiner. Their younger son, Cliff, was in the Army and the older son, Arthur, was a tax inspector and therefore exempted from conscription. The Lasts lived in Barrow-in-Furness, which was a shipbuilding town and became a target for German bombing during the Blitz.
On September 3, 1939, Britain entered the War. German bombing raids began the next year in September, 1940. During the weekend of the 7th and 8th, nearly 1,000 people were killed in London.
Nella started to volunteer at the Red Cross, along with mothers who had sons on the front lines. She talks of the light that is gone in many mothers' eyes... for their sons are all in a very dangerous position and may not make it back in one piece. Her own son, Cliff, wanted to volunteer oversees.
His father wanted him to stay and be safe. Nella's response was, "Would you cling so tightly to Cliff that you would kill all that was fine in him as long as he stayed in England. What about honor and duty"" She believed that in order to be happy one must take risks.
As Cliff's friends and boys that she had watched grow up since they were babies died away, the war's intensity finally dawned on Nella. Of a funeral of Cliff's former playmate, Nella wrote 'Why should children be born at all if they are to be mown down in the early morning of their bright lives"'
In May, 1941, her family received a Morrison shelter which was supposed to be used inside.
The Blitz was taking place and many homes had been bombed and many were dead. Land mines, incendiaries, and explosives were dropped and families all over Barrow hid away in their shelters. No one could rest for bombs would just start falling and reek havoc. There were public shelters in Barrow for only 3,500 people - out of a population of 70,000. Due to the Blitz, 83 people were killed and 330 injured; 10,000 houses were damaged.
As the war ended, Nella came to realize that it was the elders, those around 50 and 60, for the war. She felt the youth should turn to the elders and thank them. They could do no worse in the future because the world was already ripped in two different parts. The elders needed to stay out of their affairs so war can be avoided. She also came to realize that man's romp on Earth may be coming to an end.
With the modern day technology in bombs, like the V1 and V2, and other weaponry, mans oblivion could be a lot closer than one would imagine. The V bombs, which are pilot less flying bombs, showed an immense amount of power and struck fear. It would only take a couple of people to destroy the world and end civilization.
Next up on my list is Oscar Schindler. Schindler was born on April 28th, 1908, in Zwittau in Czechoslovakia. His closest neighbors were a Jewish Rabbi family. The two sons became Oscar's best friends. The family was one of the richest and most prominent in Zwittau, but as a result of the deep economic depression of the 1930s, the family firm became bankrupt.
So, Schindler joined the Nazi party, as did many out of work people. He quickly got on good terms with the local Gestapo chiefs. He was known quite well as a womanisor and heavy drinker. Yet, he continually risked his life to save his Schindler Jews from the death camps. Schindler was recruited by the German Intelligence Agency to collect information about Poles. He was appreciated highly for his work and was, due to his good work, guaranteed a huge role later on in life.
He left his wife Emilie in Zwittau and moved to Crakow. There he took over a Jewish family's apartment. Schindler used numerous amounts of bribes in the shape of money and illegal black market goods to gain control of a Jewish-owned enameled-goods factory, Deutsch Emailwaren Fabrik, close to the Jewish ghetto, where he employed Jewish workers. They {Jewish workers} were the cheapest laborers.
As the Nazis' brutality increased, Schindler began looking past the fact that the Jews were laborers and started realizing that they were mothers, brother, sister, and fathers. They were real people! And they were getting brutally murdered everyday. So, instead of just sitting by and watching it all pass he decided to risk his life for his people, his Jews. He attempts to save 1200 Jews from death camps. Due to his gift of bribery he gets away with protecting his Jewish workers.
Schindler came with a grand plan. He asked Hauptsturmfuhrer Amon Goeth, an SS officer, to place his workers in a camp of their own. He outwitted Amon by sneaking food and supplies into the camp by bribing the guards. Amon was known the wiser, though Schindler was imprisoned twice by Gestapo. He spent every penny he had on bribing Amon and other Nazi officials to save and protect the Jewish people, which is ironic because he made all of his money by exploiting the Jews.
As the Jews were moved to Auswitch, a concentration camp 60 km from Plaszow, Schindler requested to move his factory from Plaszow to Brunnlitz in occupied Czechoslovakia. His request was granted and was able to take all of his worker with him, which was unheard of before. There 1,098 workers (men, women, and children) that were written on Schindler's list. They were all successfully removed and avoided extermination in gas chambers and such that the other Jews faced.
In May 1945, the war ended. Schindler brought all of his Schindler-Jews into the factory and granted them their freedom, then began his life as a fugitive. He left him with the words, "Auf Wiedersehen," meaning "goodbye."
His Life after the war kind of stunk. He was met with failure after failure. He wanted to be a film director and lost his nationality. He even had former Nazis threatening him. So, he applied to become a United States citizen but was denied because he had once been a part of the Nazi party.
He then took off for Buenos Aires with his wife Emilie, his mistress and a dozen Schindler Jews. He became a farmer and was supported financially by Joint, a Jewish organization and greatful Jews. Once again, he was met with no success and became bankrupt. So, he traveled back to Europe alone and never saw Emilie again.
Back in Europe, he started a Jewish cement factory. Sadly, the company went bankrupt also. In 1962, Schindler was honored by Israel as a Righteous Gentile, which resulted in him losing his business partner because he was a "Jew kisser."
October 9, 1974 Oscar Schindler died of liver failure in Frankfurt. He was 66 years old. From 1939 to the day he died he was such in love with his Jewish people that he wanted to be buried in Jerusalem. Poldek Pfefferberg asked him shortly before he died, why he wanted to be buried here. He answered :"My children are here ....."
World War Two was a war of many sides. It was a war that no one really one, for many lives were lost. Many families mourned the deaths of their loved ones. And everyone was changed.
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