The Polish Diaspora, 1939-55

THE WESTERN FRONT
On September 1, 1939, President Starzyñski announced on the radio that what was taking place was not a practice drill but that, this time, the attack was for real and that German planes were bombing our country. People were digging trenches in the roads to prevent German tanks from crossing. I remember the Germans coming from the west; first the German planes were bombing us, then came the tanks and, then, machine-guns and the army. There was shooting everywhere. One time, after they had occupied our neighborhood, my little brother ran out into the courtyard making a noise; a German soldier shot at him because he was disturbing him listening to his radio. Thankfully, he missed. Celina Kabala Wojciechowska b. 1923, Warszawa 1944-45, Germany, Austria 1945-46, Italy 1946-present, England	The Sobkiewicz family and their housekeeper Czestochowa, Poland, 1940
Celina Kabala Wojciechowska, Warszawa, Poland, 1942	I will never forget the night we were thrown out of our home. We were all in bed upstairs asleep when, suddenly, one of our servants, Gosposia, came to wake us and said that the German Gestapo would be taking us away somewhere. We were given half an hour to collect a few personal belongings. I remember that I was so frightened that my knees were shaking so that I could hardly walk. We all cried quietly, thinking that we may get hit if we make too much noise. It was a very cold December night, some time before Christmas. They bundled us into a coach, together with some other people who were all sitting in silence. We were driven to some huge huts with big halls filled with makeshift bunk beds. We tried to wash ourselves outside but the pump was frozen. We stayed there for a few days. All these hundreds of people were moved to another part of Poland. Aleksandra Sobkiewicz £askiewicz b. 1929, Poznañ 1946-present, England