Jan Sokal’s friend Leszek Bilan

This is the photo of Leszek Bilan, my brother-in-law’s brother. I don’t know where and when the photo was taken. Thanks to Leszek Bilan I can show you all the prewar photos. He found me in Glucholazy, after World War II and brought these all family photos to me. I remember that didn’t know what to say and how to thank him.

We were four brothers and four sisters. A typical Jewish, large, numerous family. Exactly as God told: 'Procreate and give birth.' We kept very close together. These memories of those young family years are still alive in me. Maybe it's my weakness.
Eugenia was the eldest sister. A very nice, beautiful girl. She was always regarded as very attractive. Tadzio Bilan was her husband. His family used to live on Zasanie. They were non-Jews. But it was a healthy, beautiful family. Athletic, all boys were football players. And Brother-in-law, Leszek Bilan was a good football player too, he used to play for good clubs. And what is characteristic, they had very Aryan opinions. National ones.
My entire knowledge, wisdom, traces from the back-then world, all that came to me thanks to my brother-in-law's brother. One day after the war, when I was already working on the western territories, in Glucholazy, Leszek, brother of my brother-in-law Tadeusz Bilan probably brought this treasure of mine to me. Their family also tragically died. Genia spent the entire occupation in Poland. She went through both occupations. She probably wasn't in the ghetto. Genia (from Eugenia) died in Cracow in 1945. In June or July, something like that.