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A Polish Immigrant Story A number of years ago as a college project I began writing a book based on a series of discussions I had with my Grandfather, Bartlomiej Szuszkowski. My Grandfather was born in the town of Kozlow, Poland in 1911. This area is now part of the Ukraine, right on the Russian border. This is a story as seen through the eyes of my Grandfather who as a loyal Polish countryman, a potato and beet farmer, who was not once, not twice, but three times forced to leave his home with his family with just the clothes on their backs and a small briefcase containing their most cherished and most needed possession. The first time my grandfather moved was not by his doing. He, my grandmother and my father were torn from their homes in the middle of the night by Nazi soldiers and forced onto a train car that carried them to the Nazi prison camps. During the next two years he and his family were prisoners in three different Nazi labor camps during World War II. After surviving the labor camps he, my grandmother and father re-settled in the same area, rebuilt their home, church and community and re-started their lives. A year later he was forced to move from his home once again due to the Yalta Agreement which partitioned Poland and forced the relocation of thousands of Polish citizens to western Poland, an area that was once Germany, due to the moving of the actual political boundary. After re-settling in a home that was chosen for him by the now Polish, Soviet Puppet government, he once again moved his family, as they escaped Soviet style tyranny for new lives in a free democratic society. This time, once and for all, he packed one small handbag for a family of three, he gathered important family documents and boarded the S.S. America for a eight day Atlantic voyage so that he and his family could worship in freedom, without the constant fear of being oppressed by a political system that during the course of the following years would earn a reputation as a brutal dictatorship, and which would eventually crumble through peaceful protest, and the faith, will and perseverance of many eastern European nations including his beloved Polish homeland. After settling in Irvington, New Jersey, where he became a successful butcher and raised and supported his son (Mikolaj, my dad) and his daughter (Marysia, my aunt), he once again packed his bags, and along with his wife (Olga, my grandmother) this time on his own terms, re-settled in Parsippany, New Jersey for the final 23 years of his life. On January 10, 2007 my Grandfather at the age of 95, and six months and two days after the passing of my grandmother, in his final move, with no need to pack any bags for this journey, bid farewell to this life. His passing has saddened his children, his grandchildren (my brother Mark and I) and his four great-grandchildren, (Kersten, Nicholas, Kyle and Katie) whom he cherished more than anything on this earth. He will also be missed by many other friends and relatives, but will now start a new chapter as he re-joins the many friends that he has seen go before him, as well as his beloved wife Olga. Due to their undevoted sacifice, devotion to their faith and indomitable spirit, it is in both my Grandfather Bartlomiej's and Grandmother Olga's memory and honor that I post this presentation on line for the rest of the world to see. We learn so much from history and I am glad that I had the opportunity to sit down and ask my Grandfather many questions, whose answers resulted in this presentation. There are not many World War II survivors or veterans left. It is a generation that is dwindling and that has little time to get their story out. I urge you if you are reading this, and have a grandparent or great-grandparent who survived World War II, to sit down with them and talk to them and take notes. Don't let the history and the importance of their accomplishments go with them. Bob Szuszkowski January 13, 2007
Mr. Szuszkowski's 5th Grade
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