My Own Understanding of What Happened

Why did we leave Poland?  My older daughter asked me this question a few times.  I still don't know what to tell her.  The facts are so many, so overwhelming, so double sided. 

In the end, all that has ever rung true for me is this:  Here I am, Polish born raised and living in Amerika, with two beautiful daughters who I love.  And, really, that's the most important fact.  My daughters. 

I hope one day they understand what I mean when I hug them and say "Life is a complicated, strange thing.  And it led me to where I needed to be so that I could be sitting here hugging you.  That's all that matters, really."

Other subtle facts float by on the edges.  I have an American accent, not a Polish one.  My kids are Polish-American, not just Polish, not just American.  We are the bridge between the two worlds, as there always is in every American family.  At some point in all of American family history, there is a bridge between the two worlds.

There is nothing wrong with preferring a snack of pickles over potato chips, or loving barbecue pulled pork, or not knowing what it means to stand in line for hours for food.  There is nothing wrong with continued contact with the family left behind.  There is nothing wrong with speaking English, the third language of a person's life, better than their mother language. 

So, how to answer my daughter's question?  I don't know.  And part of it comes from the fact that, in order for my parents to answer it, they will have to look back on that time and embrace homesickness as well as the feeling they had watching the news, seeing with their eyes what was happening, and then snuggling their little baby girl after standing in line for food.  They can't answer it all the way, nor can I.

So, I started looking for videos I could save to show my kids later in life to explain.  I found this one.  I'm not sure if I should share it.  I don't fully understand the facts, whether it was really like this, I'm no historian, no sociologist, no diplomat, no expert.  I'm just a Mama.  That's enough.

To those of you who remember this time, or understand it, what do you think of this video?  Does anyone else struggle with how to answer this question when your children ask?

Na razie...

30 Years Ago Today in Poland: Martial Law

30 years ago today, on December 13, 1981, Martial Law was imposed on Poland.  We had just fled Poland a couple of short weeks before.


I cannot imagine what my parents must have been going through.  I was born in June of 1980.  The following month, general strikes began to ripple their way across Poland.  Wroclaw was an important center of this movement.


I know in the textbooks in Amerika, Gdansk is the city mentioned in regards to Poland's Solidarity movement.  But the textbooks like to sum things up in a neat one to two sentence note about anything having to do with Poland and that summary really doesn't do the movement, that historical movement, or Poland for that manner, any justice.


Perhaps you have never heard of the Orange Alternative or Pomarańczowa Alternatywa.  Let me give you a brief tidbit about it.


The Orange Alternative was a new option that made it easier and safer for more people to peacefully protest the Communist regime. Basically, they drew graffiti art and slogans referring to dwarfs (krasnoludki) and wore orange hats like dwarfs in mass gatherings and other such activity.  None of it was illegal and if they were arrested, it made the arresting officers look like ridiculous because they would be arresting people for wearing dwarf hats.  It was a brilliant idea...




I cannot imagine how my parents must have felt, watching events unfolding around them with a brand new baby girl.


I plan to share some photos tomorrow that I found which were sent to us by family and which I believe have to do with that movement.


Na razie...


Links You Might Find Useful:

New York Times Article: "Dec. 13, 1981 | Poland Cracks Down on Solidarity Movement"

Poland Cultural Institute of New York article about film "The Orange Alternative"

Not An Alternative

Wikipedia's Orange Alternative

Wikimedia's Dwarves in Wroclaw (photos)

Wordless Wednesday: Solidarnosc Souvenir?

I found this with some other pictures and items in an envelope from items my parents probably don't realize they had when they moved.

I darkened the scan a bit so you could see.  It looks like old stamps on a piece of paper.

Today in Polish History

Today is December 13 and while I was too young to remember the events of this day, it is imprinted in the minds of many Poles as being a day to remember. Well, one of many, Poles like many people, like to remember their nations history.

December 13th is the anniversary of when the Communist government controlling Poland at the time declared "Martial Law", a term many Americans may not understand. I, myself, did not grow up hearing about Martial Law, but then, my parents and all other Poles called it Stan Wojenny (pronounced "Stahn Vo-Yen-ny" with the "a" sound in Stan sounding like in polska and in Wojenny, the double "n" sound sounding like in many Spanish words and the "Y" sounding like in the name Lynn), which means "State of War", even though there was no war. Well, unless you counted that the Communist regime in control at the time viewed the Solidarity movement as being an attack on the government.

What does Stan Wojenny mean to Polish memories? My father, if I could ever successfully get him to discuss the past, would tell me that there were Russian tanks poised along the Polish border, ready to strike. A curfew was imposed, the people woke up and found thousands of military vehicles and personnel patrolling the streets of every major city, the airports were closed, certain classes in schools and universities were suspended, the national borders were closed, road access to major cities was denied, the mail was censored, telephone lines were disconnected. People affiliated with the Solidary movement and strikes were arrested. People were killed. This was real fear.  This was no movie, no novel, this was real, happening in a real country, to real people, very recently in human history...

And that wasn't all that started. People were forced to work a 6 day working week again (this had previously been imposed and later lifted). Many industries, such as but not limited to the coal mines, mass media, power stations, the ports, health care services, were placed under "military management", and it's workers subjugated to "verification" where their attitudes toward the regime was questioned. Many teachers, journalists, etc. were banned from working, some even arrested. Instead of the typical court system, military courts were used, basically overriding the people's rights.

So, in summary, one can say that today in history was a day of oppression in Poland under the Communist regime, which the US and Britain allowed to have control over Poland after WWII. As such, it is a bitter subject for many.

If you have any memories or information regarding this date, please feel free to share...

Also, this is the first of many posts I plan on writing on historical dates in Polish history. If you have any you are interested in learning about or sharing, please feel free to comment as well...