Zygmunt Krygier

This is a picture of my oldest brother, Zygmunt. This picture was taken in London, after the war. I do not know on what occasion it was taken. Zygmunt sent me this picture in a letter. Parents had seven of us. My five brothers, my sister Amalia and me. We were all born in Przybyszowka and that's where I went to school, but my parents later moved to another village, near Przybyszowka, called Staroniwa. It was some 3 kilometers from Rzeszow. Zygmunt was the oldest brother, he was a jeweler by trade, but he studied bookkeeping for some time. He was born in 1902. He served in the Polish army. There, in the army, he made a lot of fuss and quarreled, because he was that kind of guy. He was strong and he thought that, as a Jew, he was no worse than others and if someone offended him, he'd react. There was no way to stop him. That's what his character was like. After the war broke out, Zygmunt with my other two brothers left for Russia. Zygmunt, in Russia, joined Anders' Army and fought with that army in the Battle of Monte Cassino, but God must have been protecting him, because he wasn't wounded. By the end of the battle, he was only an undertaker. He told us how he had to pack the remains of his friends into bags and bury them in common graves. Those few who survived Monte Cassino were later sent to England. Each of those soldiers there received some benefits, so this brother of mine settled in England. He worked there as a jeweler. He didn't marry, but he was in touch with me, because he found me after the war. Zygmunt is not alive anymore.