Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Marvin Kozlowski - August 28, 2002

Polish Government

Do you remember him at all?

Well, I was not alive when, when he was--but he was a hero. He was fighting for the, for the, how do you say, ??? ?

Wife: Independence.

For independence.

Independence, right.

Uh, you see uh, every country had their heroes. You, uh, some of them, ??? was fighting. On the, on the French side, they were fighting, they had a, but really what did he do? Until the war came to an end, World War II, Poland wa...didn't have their own country. They were under the Russians.

The east was under the Russians.

Yeah. And then later they create Poland. They took back the part of what they had ??? that belonged to them. And then they also gave certain parts from Germany like Posnan, Silesian. And then when German came in, they included Littsmannstadt part Łódź and those other parts back into German right away. In our part of Poland is also German, like Stettin.

Wife: Szczecin.

Uh, they call it different names. The given 'em a part of Poland. So who knows, thirty or thirty years from now we won't be here.

Wife: Don't worry about it.

We might be again.

What was, what was the um, government like after 1930?

The Polish government?

Yeah, yeah.

Just like much as hate, as uh, they didn't do killings, but just as much hate as uh, as the Polacks.

Wife: As the German.

Was, was, was raised in the church, okay. I went on a few occasion to church and I hate to tell you that. My father would have killed me, my mother. The Polacks I was very close with. In about two hours it was a mess. Out of the two hours, one hour was hate a...against Jews. So what do I have to tell you any further. I remember distinctly in my memory certain things. I remember what I ate, what I did yesterday. I said yesterday to my granddaughter, today I thought it's Friday. I thought...

Wife: Well, because you...

I said, I remember the prime minister, by the name is ???. Prime minister. Supposed to be a republic, but it, it, it really was run like a dictatorship. And uh, they were accusing certain Polacks of uh, hate and beatings of Jews. So he had a speech before a new election. He said, "We have to remember where we come from. We can't just blindfoldly accuse our brothers for something that didn't happen or little things that amount to nothing." So he had the answer.

Wife: ???

Yeah. He said ???.

Wife: They shouldn't shop at our Jews' stores.

They should shop at their own brother, help their own brother. So I don't have to go any further, okay.


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