Christmas Under German Occupation – Witold Pilecki: Part 3

Continuing our series of blog posts about Christmas under German occupation—

This is the third and final part of Pilecki’s descriptions of Christmas at Auschwitz. In September 1940, Polish Army officer Witold Pilecki walked into a German street round-up in Warsaw…and became Auschwitz Prisoner No. 4859.

Pilecki had volunteered for a potentially suicidal secret undercover mission for the Polish Underground—to get himself arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz as a prisoner. His mission: smuggle out intelligence about this new German concentration camp, and build a resistance organization among prisoners with the ultimate goal of liberating the camp.

Through his changing descriptions, we can see how Auschwitz was evolving. Click here for the first Christmas, 1940 and for the second Christmas, 1941. Christmas 1942 was the last Christmas that Pilecki experienced in Auschwitz, because he escaped in April 1943.

 

Christmas 1942

pp. 245–246
Christmas came—the third in Auschwitz.

I was living on Block 22, together with the whole bekleidungswerkstätte [clothing workshop] kommando [a camp work detail].

How very different this Christmas was from the previous ones.

The inmates, as usual, received parcels from home for Christmas with sweaters, but the authorities had finally permitted, in addition to clothes parcels, the first food parcels to reach Auschwitz.

 “Canada” was the name given by SS men and Auschwitz prisoners to the numerous barracks used to store goods taken from Jews who were brought to Auschwitz-Birkenau to be killed — including all sorts of food, clothes, gold and money. These were sorted by prisoners assigned to the Aufräumungskommando [salvage kommando]. Anyone caught stealing from Canada was severely punished, but the underground trade flourished. Photo from The Auschwitz Volunteer.
Jewish women who have been selected for death, watch as trucks loaded with their confiscated personal property drive past on the way to the “Canada” warehouses. Photo from The Auschwitz Volunteer.

Thanks to “Canada,” there was no longer hunger in the camp.

The parcels also improved this state of affairs.

The news of major reverses for the German Army raised inmates’ morale and improved everyone’s state of mind dramatically.

This atmosphere was improved by news of an escape (30 Dec. ’42) , organized by the arbeitsdiensts [work assignment leaders] Mietek and Otto, 161 [Bolesław Kuczbara] and a fourth partner [the audacious escape actually occurred on 29 December; with one partner disguised as an SS man, they left behind a letter falsely implicating the camp brute, Bruno, “inmate No. 1” who was subsequently punished by the Germans]….

The camp brute, Bruno Brodniewitsch, “inmate No. 1.” Photo from The Auschwitz Volunteer.

Meanwhile, the camp went wild with joy over Christmas, eating the parcels from our families and telling the latest Bruno joke…

In early 1941, the Germans created a camp orchestra from among the many prisoners who were good musicians. Photo from The Auschwitz Volunteer.

Boxing matches and cultural evenings were held in the blocks. Ad hoc groups from the orchestra went around from block to block.

Everyone was so happy owing to the general situation, that older inmates shook their heads saying: “Well, well . . . there once was a camp called ‘Auszwic’ (Auschwitz), but it’s gone. . . all that’s left is its last syllable . . . nothing but a ‘witz.’” [This is a pun on the Polish word wic (meaning a joke, and pronounced “vits”) which is the final syllable of the mock Polish word “Auszwic”—a Polish phonetic equivalent of Auschwitz. Translator’s note.]

 

pp. 248–249:
However, the “high spirits” in camp brought on by the Christmas atmosphere did lead to another painful episode….

Our fellows in Block 27 held a joint Christmas gathering at which 76 [Bernard Świerczyna] read aloud his own poem on a patriotic theme….

The poem was well written. The atmosphere was pleasant.

Result: the authorities decided that the Poles on Block 27 were having it too easy and the political department concluded that the Poles on Block 27 were organized.

On the 6th of January (of ’43), SS men from the political department arrived at Block 27 during work….

 

pp. 265–266:
Just in case, I had been preparing an escape through the sewers for quite some time.

This was by no means easy….

Some of the other lads were aware of this route too….

The issue was who would make up his mind to use them.

When, before the most recent Christmas a group from the arbeitsdienst [work assignment office] were to have got out, 61 [Konstanty Piekarski] was also burning to be away and I showed him this route, and possibly a couple of inmates might have used it on Christmas Eve, when predictably the guards’ vigilance would be relaxed.

But on Christmas Eve itself, a second Christmas tree was put up right by the spot where they were to climb out, and the tree and the surrounding area were brightly lit….

 

Christmas Under German Occupation – Witold Pilecki: Part 2

Continuing our series of blog posts about Christmas under German occupation—

This is the second part of Pilecki’s descriptions of Christmas at Auschwitz. In September 1940, Polish Army officer Witold Pilecki walked into a German street round-up in Warsaw…and became Auschwitz Prisoner No. 4859.

Pilecki had volunteered for a potentially suicidal secret undercover mission for the Polish Underground—to get himself arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz as a prisoner. His mission: smuggle out intelligence about this new German concentration camp, and build a resistance organization among prisoners with the ultimate goal of liberating the camp.

The infamous front gate of Auschwitz with its slogan “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work liberates you”).  On seeing this sign for the first time, Pilecki says “It was only later that we learned to understand it properly.” (p. 14) Photo from The Auschwitz Volunteer.

Through his changing descriptions, we can see how Auschwitz was evolving. Click here for the first Christmas, 1940.

Excerpts from The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery:

 

Christmas 1941

p. 83:
The winter was quite severe. To be sure, we had been issued coats even before Christmas, but they were “ersatz” without linings and gave little protection from the frost.

p. 150:
My second Christmas in Auschwitz came, together with another parcel from home—of clothes (there were no food parcels at that time).

On Block 25, where the block supervisor 80 [Alfred Włodarczyk] turned out to be sympathetic to our work, in room 7 where the supervisor was 59 [Henryk Bartosiewicz] we put up a Christmas tree with a Polish eagle hanging secretly on it.

The room was decorated really tastefully by 44 [Wincenty Gawron] and 45 [Stanisław Gutkiewicz], with a bit of help from me.

On Christmas Eve some of the representatives of our political cell said a few words.

Professor Roman Rybarski, prisoner no. 18599. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.
Stanislaw Dubois, prisoner no. 3904. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.

Could Dubois [Stanisław Dubois, a leader in the left-wing Polish Socialist Party] have listened with pleasure in the outside world to Rybarski [Professor Roman Rybarski, a leader in the right-wing National Party] and then have warmly shaken his hand and vice versa?

How moving such a picture of agreement would have been in Poland, and how impossible.

And yet here in our room in Auschwitz both of them willingly spoke.

What a metamorphosis!

 

 

Continued in Christmas Under German Occupation—Witold Pilecki: Part 3….

 

Christmas Under German Occupation – Witold Pilecki: Part 1

Continuing our series of blog posts about Christmas under German occupation—

Captain Witold Pilecki. Photo from The Auschwitz Volunteer.

In September 1940, Polish Army officer Witold Pilecki walked into a German street round-up in Warsaw…and became Auschwitz Prisoner No. 4859. Pilecki had volunteered for a potentially suicidal secret undercover mission for the Polish Underground—to get himself arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz as a prisoner. His mission: smuggle out intelligence about this new German concentration camp, and build a resistance organization among prisoners with the ultimate goal of liberating the camp.

Barely surviving nearly three years of starvation, disease and brutality, Pilecki accomplished his mission before escaping in April 1943. His clandestine intelligence reports from the camp, received by the Allies as early as 1941, were among the earliest, including the full horrors of daily life inside the camp, the killing of Soviet soldiers taking as prisoners of war, the building of the gas chambers and mass extermination of Jews brought to the camp.

One of several industrial plants built by slave labor at Auschwitz: the I.G. Farben Buna-Werke synthetic rubber factory. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.
Even women prisoners were required to work outdoors. Photo from The Auschwitz Volunteer.
Auschwitz prisoners were forced to work outdoors all year long, regardless of weather. Photo from The Auschwitz Volunteer.

Auschwitz was originally a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners, and only later evolved into a death camp for the Jews of Europe.

The Germans used prisoners as slave labor to expand the camp well beyond its initial use as prewar Polish military barracks, constructing more buildings to house prisoners and camp functions, numerous sub-camps such as Birkenau and Monowice, gas chambers, and heavy industry plants for the German war effort. Prisoners were also used to help run the camp. The key to survival was to get an indoor job — in the kitchens, the hospital, administrative offices, carpenter and other craft shops, etc. Pilecki’s resistance organization helped its members to do just that, giving them at least a better chance at surviving than those forced to work outdoors all year long in all weather.

We published Pilecki’s most comprehensive report on Auschwitz, written in 1945 and suppressed by the postwar Polish communist regime for nearly fifty years, in English for the first time, under the title The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery.

Although conditions were difficult for all Poles under the German occupation, those imprisoned at Auschwitz faced a truly hellish existence. Most did not survive. Yet even under such unspeakable conditions, the human spirit sought solace in some form of Christmas rituals.

Excerpts from The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery:

Christmas 1940

p. 49:
Kazik (in Block 17) once told us: “The worst is getting through the first year.” Some smiled politely. “A year? We’ll be home by Christmas. The Germans won’t last! England, etc., etc.!” (Sławek Szpakowski) … filled others with foreboding. “A year? Who could survive a year here?” When one played blind man’s bluff with death on a daily basis. . . not today. . . perhaps tomorrow!—and a day sometimes seemed as long as a year.

pp. 72–73:
Ah! . . . the crisis of hunger arrives in all its different degrees.

There were times when one felt oneself capable of cutting off a piece from a corpse lying outside the hospital.

It was then, just before Christmas, that they began to issue us barley gruel in the morning instead of “tea,” which was a great blessing, but I do not know who was responsible. (It continued until the spring.)

A couple of beautifully lit Christmas trees were put up in the camp for Christmas.

In the evening the kapos laid two häftlings [prisoners] on two benches under the trees and gave them 25 strokes on that part of the body which out in the free world has been called soft.

This was supposed to be a German joke….

 

pp. 79–80:
For Christmas of 1940 inmates were for the first time allowed to receive parcels from their families.

But not food parcels, oh no!

We were not allowed to receive food parcels for fear we might have it too easy.

The first parcel arrived at Auschwitz. It was a clothes parcel, containing a number of previously specified items: a sweater, a scarf, gloves, ear muffs, socks.

Nothing more could be sent. Someone’s parcel contained underwear—it went to the sack in the effektenkammer [storeroom for inmates’ personal belongings] with the inmate’s number and stayed there.

That is how it was then.

We later managed to get into everything, with the help of fellows in the know.

There was just one parcel, one a year, at Christmas, with no food, but still valuable because of the warm clothes, and precious because it came from home.

Over Christmas, Westrych and the carpenters’ shop kapo [a “trusted” prisoner chosen by the Germans to be a supervisor] managed to wangle for the carpenters some additional cooking pots of an excellent stew from the SS kitchen, and the arriving carpenters were in for a treat in the shop.

These pots came around a number of times and also later, brought in secretly by the SS who received money collected from us by Westrych.

 

Continued in Christmas Under German Occupation—Witold Pilecki: Part 2….

Christmas Under German Occupation – Julian Kulski: Part 3

Continuing our series of blog posts about Christmas under German occupation—

This is the third and final part of Julian Kulski’s descriptions of Christmas under the Germans. Kulski is the author of The Color of Courage—A Boy At War: The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski, with a Foreword by Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and Introduction by Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland. Kulski describes Christmas as he experienced the holiday over the war years. Through his changing descriptions, we can see the impact war was having. Click here for Part 1 (Christmas 1939 and 1940) and Part 2 (Christmas 1941).

Julian Kulski (top row, left corner), code name ‘Goliat,’ and the other members of his detachment of the Ninth Company Commandos with whom he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. Photo from The Color of Courage.

As a 15-year-old commando in the Polish Underground Army, Julian fought against the Germans in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising which lasted two months, from August 1 to October 2 when the Polish forces were forced to capitulate. They had endured some of the bitterest, most brutal street fighting ever seen in modern times.  With little support from the Allies (and even obstruction by their supposed Ally, the Soviet Union, which refused to allow supply planes land and refuel on nearby Soviet territory), the Poles were finally starved, outmanned and outgunned by the Germans.

Christmas 1944 saw Julian as a 15-year-old POW in Stalag XI-A, which housed tens of thousands prisoners of many nationalities, including women. As it turned out, Julian discovered that among the Polish women prisoners were twins Danka and Basia, whom he knew.

Excerpt from The Color of Courage—A Boy At War: The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski:

 

CHAPTER 5
AGE 14: 1943 — GHETTO UPRISING; CAUGHT BY THE GESTAPO

p. 167:
Thursday, January 7 — I have not seen my family since Christmas, which we spent simply and quietly, but happy at least to be alive and together.

 

 

CHAPTER 6
AGE 15: 1944 — THE WARSAW UPRISING

pp. 362–363:
Saturday, December 23 — Christmas is coming and we have been saving food for a Christmas Eve dinner we planned to share with the girls. But today, just two days before Christmas, the Germans have taken them away to another camp.

Danka in her Polish Army uniform, 1945.

Beaten and herded together by the Germans, the girls had to wait in the frost and snow for a train which took them to a special camp for women from the Home Army. Some of them were seriously wounded and were left lying on stretchers in the snow for several hours. In spite of all that we had seen and been through, this still struck us as unbelievably cruel.

Their departure is very painful to describe. Even some of the older, seasoned soldiers wept while saying good-bye to them. After they had gone away, there was silence and everyone realized just how much they had done for us, and how much they meant to us. At the same time I can’t help being glad that we still have such feelings left—that the Germans haven’t succeeded in demoralizing us to the extent that we are impervious to suffering.

Allied prisoners in a German POW camp.

Sunday, December 24 — So, I am spending Christmas Eve with my memories, thinking of the table around which my family will be sitting for the traditional dinner, and wondering which of us will live. I know there will already be empty chairs at the table for Uncle Norbert, for me, and for Aunt Wanda.

Monday, December 25, Christmas Day — The Dutch contingent staged an amateur play and talent show today, and invited us over in an effort to cheer us up. But it is hard not to be despondent—I was not even able to say good-bye to the twins, and it seems that I have lost my last link with home. I have had two more letters from my parents, but nothing has changed there and there’s only so much they can say in one page anyway.

 

 

Christmas Under German Occupation – Julian Kulski: Part 2

Continuing our series of blog posts about Christmas under German occupation—

This is the second part of Julian Kulski’s descriptions. Kulski is the author of The Color of Courage—A Boy At War: The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski, with a Foreword by Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and Introduction by Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland. Kulski describes Christmas as he experienced the holiday over the war years. Through his changing descriptions, we can see the impact war was having. Click here for the first two wartime Christmases.

In his entries for Christmas 1941, Kulski mentions his uncle Norbert, who was a long-time political activist. After Poland regained its independence in 1918, Norbert was eventually appointed as Minister of the Interior and later Mayor of Łódż. He naturally became a leader in the resistance against the German occupiers. 

The infamous front gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.

Norbert was arrested by the Germans in July 1940, incarcerated in the notorious Pawiak Prison, and in January 1941 transported to Auschwitz with many other leading political figures. In June, Kulski’s father received reports that Norbert was active in organizing a resistance movement among the prisoners at Auschwitz, despite being ill and weak. Norbert died in Auschwitz in September 1941. Kulski’s father describes Norbert as “a dreamer, an idealist, a poet, and a philosopher…driven with a single mission in life—to fight tyranny.”

Kulski’s Uncle Norbert, whose full name was Norbert Barlicki, is mentioned several times in Fighting Auschwitz: The Resistance Movement in the Concentration Camp by Józef Garliński, as one of the leaders of the resistance movement within the camp before his death.

Excerpt from The Color of Courage—A Boy At War: The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski:

 

CHAPTER 3
AGE 12: 1941 — RECRUITED INTO THE UNDERGROUND ARMY

pp. 125–127:
Saturday, December 20 — I have come to Feliński Street [home] for a few days, and Mother is back from Baniocha, making preparations for Christmas. There is not much food to be had, although the Germans are giving an extra two pounds of bread and three eggs per person for the holiday. Generous of them!

Uncle Norbert – 1918. Photo from The Color of Courage.

Thursday, December 25 — I am spending Christmas with the family. There are several empty chairs at the table, and everyone is very subdued. Aunt Stacha refused to eat any Christmas dinner, but she called me to her room and handed me an envelope. She said it was from Uncle Norbert and that she wanted me to keep it in remembrance of him.

After dinner I went to my room and opened the envelope. It was a poem, the last Uncle Norbert had written:

I could quicken death
And run away from the field
Where fear tears apart the last lights—
I wait, however.
Let fate run its course
The soul will not be dishonored
In the ashes of fear.
After my death, from the lonely grave
I wish a bitter flower would grow
And again look proudly
To the clouds of misfortune
To changeable heights
Proving there is not penance
In my coffin.

I am alone!
I cry in vain
Alone and helpless
Like a dried-up leaf
The winds of the desert
Are carrying me
I am dying!
Heart, have courage
In this final tribulation.

I felt a terrible tightening in my chest, as though I would burst. Then I wept.

 

 

Continued in Christmas Under German Occupation—Part 3: Julian Kulski….

 

 

 

Christmas Under German Occupation – Julian Kulski: Part 1

Continuing our series of blog posts about Christmas under German occupation—

Julian Kulski is the author of The Color of Courage—A Boy At War: The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski, with a Foreword by Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and Introduction by Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland. Kulski describes Christmas as he experienced the holiday over the war years. Through his changing descriptions, we can see the impact war was having.

One of the gates leading into the Warsaw Ghetto, guarded by a German soldier, a Jewish policeman, and a Polish Blue policeman.

A partial view of the wall built by the Germans in the middle of the city to create the Warsaw Ghetto.

When the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Kulski, the son of the Deputy Mayor of Warsaw, was a 10-year-old Boy Scout. He had a little girlfriend, Zula, who was Jewish; in November/December 1940, Zula and her family were forced by the Germans to move into the Warsaw Ghetto. Kulski soon began waging his own private war against the Germans with small acts of sabotage. At age 12, Kulski was recruited into the clandestine Underground Army by his Scoutmaster and began training in military tactics and weapons handling. At 13, he accompanied his commander on a secret mission into the Warsaw Ghetto to liaise with leaders of the Jewish Resistance.

Arrested by the Gestapo at age 14, Kulski was incarcerated in the notorious Pawiak Prison, beaten, interrogated at Gestapo headquarters, and sentenced to Auschwitz. After being rescued, he joined the Ninth Commando Company of the Underground Army, and at age 15 fought in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Taken prisoner by the Germans, 16-year-old Kulski ended the war in a POW camp, finally risking a dash for freedom onto an American truck instead of waiting for “liberation” by the Soviets.

Excerpts from The Color of Courage—A Boy At War: The World War II Diary of Julian Kulski:

 

Author Julian Kulski’s Family – 1939,  prewar.
L-R: sister Wanda, mother Eugenia, father Julian, and the author.

CHAPTER 1
AGE 10: 1939 — THE WAR BEGINS

pp. 37–39:
Monday, December 18 — We are getting ready for Christmas Eve. Mother wants it to be traditional, in spite of everything. At first, I felt this was rather silly, but when I thought about it I realized that we had to keep some semblance of normality in order to maintain our morale. My sister, Wanda, and I are making different paper decorations for the Christmas tree, while Mother has bought food on the black market, such as fruit, nuts, and flour. She and the maids, Mary and Olesia, have baked long white Christmas loaves (some plain and some with poppy seeds), gingerbread, and spice cakes, and also my favorite dish, small pierogi (dumplings) with mushrooms. They throw me out of the kitchen frequently, as I help myself to these goodies.

Sunday, December 24 — We usually have twelve people for the Christmas Eve dinner—this year there were ten, including the relatives living in our house, and two close friends of my parents, “Uncle” and “Aunt” Ancyporowicz, who live nearby. The table was covered with a white tablecloth, spread with symbolic hay. In the middle of the table Mother put the bread and a plate with small pieces of wafer. While the women were busy cooking the dinner, Wanda and I decorated the Christmas tree in the living room. The tree is so tall that it reaches the ceiling. When we had finished, the doors to this room were then closed.

On the table there were two candelabra with six candles in each—during Christmas Eve dinner there can be no light other than candles. Everyone was wearing their best clothes, and we waited for the moment when we could begin—not until the first star is showing in the sky. I saw it and ran to the dining room, all excited. Then Mother took the plate with the wafers and, starting with our guests, we broke the wafers with each other, wishing that by the next Christmas Eve dinner the war will be over, and the Germans will be gone. In previous years I had found this ceremony a bit sloppy and embarrassing, but this year I really didn’t mind, as it now made real sense to wish each other well, and it all seemed more sincere this time.

Now we could start the meal. First we had soup and pierogi, then fish, potatoes, sauerkraut salad, and stuffed cabbage with rice and mushrooms. This was followed by a compote made from different dried fruits, and a traditional Christmas Eve supper dish, kutia, made from boiled wheat and poppy seeds and honey.

After dinner we heard a bell ringing from the room where the Christmas tree is. We opened the doors, and there was the tree, lit with small candles of different colors. Under the tree were packages of various shapes and sizes. First we sang the carol “God Is Here,” and then I went over to the tree; I took the packages one by one and handed them out, according to the names on the gift cards. While we were singing carols, Olesia and Mary were having their Christmas Eve dinner and Mother served them. After they finished they came to sing with us, and we had more poppy seed cake, gingerbread, nuts, and wine or honey mead. At eleven the adults went to Saint Stanisław Kostka Church, which is close to our house, for Midnight Mass and a carol service. Even the Germans permitted it this special night, but I noticed that, as always, I had to stay behind with my little sister.

 

 

CHAPTER 2
AGE 11: 1940 — MY OWN PRIVATE WAR AGAINST THE GERMANS

pp. 92–93:
Tuesday, December 24 — Zula’s situation and my friend’s accident have put me in a dark mood for Christmas, and I am taking little part in the family activities. Mother wants to cheer us up and she has scrounged and saved for weeks to have the traditional Wigilia. I notice she is no longer wearing her beautiful diamond ring—she won’t admit it, but I’m sure she has sold it to get money for food.

Women sell food from baskets on the black market. “The street-corner trade is carried out from lightweight baskets, which the vendor grabs and carries off when given the signal that a German police patrol is approaching.” (The Color of Courage, p. 137)
Many types of goods are offered on the black market, including precious items being sold to raise money for survival.

The tree is more beautiful than ever; the candles reflect the glistening ornaments; gifts are exchanged, and so are greetings and embraces; the wafer is broken to share the spirit of Christ; and the table is decorated with fruits, nuts, and flowers. Mother has even made something special out of the beet marmalade we have been eating lately. But something is lacking.

The traditional empty chair this year is for Uncle Norbert, from whom we have not heard since last summer when the gates of Pawiak Prison closed behind him. I cannot shake my melancholy mood, so I have left them all—Father, Mother, my aunts, my sister, the “guests” who now make their home with us, the maids, and our little dachshund, Szkut—and have come to the quiet of my room to be alone.

 

 

Continued in Christmas Under German Occupation—Julian Kulski: Part 2

 

 

 

 

Christmas Under German Occupation – Rulka Langer

World War II broke out on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland from the west. Two weeks later, on September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. These two enemies divided Poland between them, with the Germans occupying most of the central and western part of the country, and the Soviets the eastern part.

Three of our authors describe how they celebrated Christmas under German occupation. As we approach Christmas this year, we thought we’d give you a look back in time. In this post, we share Rulka Langer’s Christmas 1939, with the other authors to follow in separate posts.

Author Rulka Langer (1906–1993) came from a family of distinguished Polish intellectuals, writers and statesmen. After graduating from Vassar College in the U.S. in 1928, she returned to Poland and worked at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in Warsaw. In 1930, she married Olgierd Langer, a graduate of the University of Lwów and the Harvard Business School, who is credited as the father of modern advertising in Poland.

Rulka Langer with her children Ania (age 3) and George (age 8), circa Feb. 1940

A modern “career woman” before that concept was fashionable, after her marriage Mrs. Langer, the mother of two young children, became a political and economic writer in Warsaw. When World War II broke out on September 1, 1939, she was working in the Economic Research Department of the Bank of Poland. Her husband was posted to a diplomatic mission in the U.S., while she and her children (Ania, age 3, and George, age 8) had moved in with her elderly mother and her older brother Franek.

 

Excerpt from The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt: War Through a Woman’s Eyes, 1939–1940, by Rulka Langer, Chapter 31, “Christmas 1939”:

 

pp. 406–410
Christmas came. Ania was very much worried about the fate of the angel. It is an angel, and not Santa Claus, that brings Christmas trees and toys to Polish children.

“Mommy, are you sure the Germans won’t shoot the angel if he comes after dark?”

Ania knew that Germans shot at anyone who was out in the streets after the curfew was sounded….

“Oh, I don’t think so, darling,” I reassured Ania. “The angel has wings. He will fly and not walk about the streets. Besides, Germans don’t see angels, I am sure.”

We were all determined to have a real, traditional Christmas Eve celebration. Franek had ransacked the big black trunk in which the toys of our own childhood were kept and had produced a miniature zoo, a doll’s tea set, a complete farm with animals and men, and some games. These would go under the Christmas tree. The tree itself bothered me a lot, for I couldn’t find any till the day before Christmas Eve. Vendors were evidently afraid to put them out sooner, lest the Germans requisition their stock. At last everything was ready, and when the first evening star appeared in the sky, as tradition demands, we all gathered around the dining room table covered with a shining table cloth bulging in spots, for there was hay underneath. Hay, like in the manger.

We first broke thin white wafers (Mother still had some of the last year’s supply left), wishing each other luck. We told each other many small personal wishes but we really had only one big wish, and there were tears in everybody’s eyes when Mother voiced it: “For Poland to be free.” Only the children were too excited over the approaching moment when they would see the tree to pay any heed. Then we broke some more wafers with wishes to the absent ones….

After that we proceeded with our Christmas Eve dinner. Every course of that meal had been established by century-long tradition. Some dishes varied in different parts of the country and from family to family, but on the whole they were pretty uniform. First, dried-mushroom broth; two fish courses served with sauerkraut cooked with dried mushrooms; noodles with poppyseeds; and for dessert, sweetmeats and nuts. We had painstakingly collected each item in the preceding weeks. Of course we did not have two fish courses—instead we had one can of sardines.

“It’s fish anyway,” Franek declared, “and if you eat each sardine in two bites you can call it two fish courses.”

“Pull out the hay,” I reminded him of the old fortunetelling trick, “I want to see how many wives you are going to have.”

Franek plunged his hand under the tablecloth and brought out a piece with five blades.

“Five wives, good heavens! You’ll have to start getting married pretty soon, or you’ll never get to the last one.”

“Mommy, what’s that?” Ania had followed her Uncle Franek’s example and was holding up just one single blade.

“Ania, you poor child, you’ll remain an old maid for the rest of your life.”

“I can give her mine,” George offered, “I have four blades, and I really don’t want to marry, ever!”

“That’s what you say now,” Franek assured him….

I lighted the candles [on the tree] and called the children. They rushed in with shouts of joy and then, for a second, stopped abruptly and stood still, gasping with admiration at the scintillating brilliance of the tree. Mother, Franek, Cook and Leosia had followed the children from the dining room and now stood around the tree. I had prepared small presents for everyone. I wanted it to be exactly like last year, and all the years before. And it was. Except for those ugly patches on the ceiling, and . . . last year there had been small presents from and for Aunt Madzia.

After the first excitement was over Mother read the Nativity chapters in the Gospel, while we listened, our heads bent in silence. “And peace on earth to men of good will. . . ” Then we all began to sing Christmas carols….

Franek and I still continued to sing Christmas carols far into the night. There were so many of them. . . Child Jesus lullaby, and the one that had the gay tune of a mazurka. And the sixteenth century one, to the tune of which our forefathers used to dance the Polonaise. And the oldest of them all, about the hay in the manger. . .Franek and I liked it best of all because of its naive refrain that came at the end of every stanza:

Oh hay, oh hay!
Hay like a lily
On which the baby
Is laid by Mary.

We sang them all. All except “Silent Night.” For “Silent Night” is a German carol.

Yes, we had a lovely Christmas and we were lucky. One of my friends had a German search party burst into the dining room just as the family was about to sit down to the Christmas Eve dinner….

 

 

 

The White Eagle

Aquila Polonica Eagle

Aquila Polonica means “Polish Eagle” in Latin. By the way, we pronounce it ‘a-KEE-la  po-LON-ika.’ (However, the ‘quil’ in Aquila can also be pronounced as in the word “quill.”)

We modeled our eye-catching red-and-white logo on the crowned Polish white eagle.

Official Polish Coat of Arms

A white crowned eagle against a red background, with wings and legs outstretched, head turned to its right, and golden crown, beak and talons, is the official coat of arms of Poland. The eagle was first used as the national coat of arms in the 13th century—it appeared in various designs over the following centuries before the current design was accepted in 1927.

Many nations incorporate an eagle in their coat of arms. But there’s a particularly charming story about how the white eagle came to symbolize Poland: while out hunting, Poland’s legendary founder Lech came across an eagle’s nest, where a white eagle protected its young. The setting sun gilded the eagle’s wings with gold. This sight so impressed Lech that he established a settlement on the spot, christening it Gniezno, from the Polish word ‘gniazdo’ (‘nest’).

Order of the White Eagle

The white eagle is such an important symbol of Poland that it is used in the nation’s highest order of merit: the Order of the White Eagle (Order Orła Białego).

Communist-era Polish eagle, with the crown removed

The postwar communist government in Poland removed the crown from the eagle—they viewed the crown as a symbol of monarchy in conflict with communist philosophy. The eagle remained without crown until the fall of communism.

During the communist years, the staunchly non-communist Polish government-in-exile, based in London, maintained the crowned eagle in its coat of arms, and even added a cross to the top of the crown to further distinguish it from the atheist communist government.

Restoring the crown to the eagle in Poland’s coat of arms was one of the first things done by the newly elected non-communist government in February 1990, as reported by UPI.

Several products in our store use the stylish image of the Aquila Polonica Eagle.

 

You can find more info at:
https://www.expatspoland.com/polish-eagle-means-poland/ 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Poland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_White_Eagle_(Poland)

 

 

Welcome to the Aquila Polonica Blog

As you undoubtedly know, Aquila Polonica specializes in publishing the Polish World War II experience in English, one of the most heroic and tragic of all the WWII Allies.

In our blog, we will be posting about Poland, its history, culture, lands and people, about WWII—and because we’re publishers, we’ll be posting about our books and authors, about general issues in publishing, bookselling, copyright, and related matters. We also look forward to having guest bloggers with us from time to time.

Thanks for joining us!

Best,
Terry Tegnazian
President & Publisher, Aquila Polonica Publishing