This is a photo of my son Ludwik and his family. The photo was taken in the 1980’s but I don’t know where exactly.
I arrived in Poland in early November 1946. Or so I think. I didn't know where I was going. And nobody asked anyway. You didn't have to know where the repatriation train was heading.
I met my future wife, Stanislawa, in Cracow. We got married in the summer of 1952. It was in Cracow, in the registry office. Just us and the two witnesses. A boy and a girl my wife knew. There was no wedding party.
Two of my children were born in Labiszew. Ala in 1954, and Ludwik in 1956. My youngest, Andrzej, was born in 1960 in Malczkow. My children know I'm Jewish but they were not raised in the Jewish tradition. They were christened. They went to a normal school, just like everybody else. Ala went to the school in Jasionna at first, and later all three went to the school in Cieladz. Ala completed a merchant high school, just like me. Ludwik finished a mechanical high school. The third one Andrzej dropped out just before the final exams. The elder two, Ala and Ludwik live in our village, Cieladz. They have their own houses. Andrzej has lived in Germany for 19 years now. The city he lives in is called Regensburg. He left with his girlfriend, it was still People's Republic of Poland back then. They went as tourists but fled and didn't come back. They settled there. Ala has two children, a boy and a girl. His name is Daniel and hers - Dagmara. He's 30 and she's 27. Ludwik has a son, Konrad, he's now 26, and a daughter, Kinga, she's 23. There are no children in Germany. We were a good family. We kept our limbs intact, nobody ever hurt anybody. We're still closely bonded.
It's hard to tell if my children were interested in my past or the Jewish history. My grandson Konrad, Ludwik's son, is in Israel now. He left six months ago. Kinga has been to Israel, too. They flew there together thanks to a Polish-Israeli rapprochement program, right. And he decided to stay there. He has Israeli citizenship, a job. My children would have probably done the same, but there were no such opportunities back then. We were isolated as a state when they grew up. There was no way they would go anywhere. Israel was hostile towards the Socialist countries because it fought the Arabs, and we were friends with the Arabs. So it the emigration couldn't work out. Besides, it wasn't that bad for them here. My sons went to a synagogue once. But not during the service. They sat for a while, took a look, and left.
