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35
3rdMarch 1946
There was nothing for them in Poland.Warsaw was razed to the ground in the final months of the war.The rest of Poland lay in ruins.So many of the Polish people had been killed and displaced.So, Jan and the rest of his family became refugees and caught a train to Germany.
Once they arrived in Germany, they’d lived in a tent in a large refugee encampment.They were waiting to billet with a German family.But from what Jan had seen so far, the German people had suffered immensely from the Nazi preoccupation withLebensraum,a delusional geographical expansion of the territory held by the Third Reich.
Cities had been bombed and burned.Families torn apart.Food was scarce.So finding a place to stay for the many homeless who wandered the streets of the capital wouldn’t find a quick solution.
The Allies intended on extracting a penance for the destruction the Germans had wrought across the world and had shipped thousands of able-bodied men off for forced labour to help rebuild what they’d torn down.And the German people in Berlin appeared to have had their spirits crushed.
They shuffled around with bent backs and refused to make eye contact with the refugees who’d flooded into their country as soon as the war ended.The infrastructure had been decimated by the Allies.Bridges, factories, roads, rail lines and supply chains all lay in ruins.
Soldiers had returned from the front lines and now wandered the streets searching for loved ones, or food to eat, or shelter.Families who’d lost everything joined the melee, creating a surging mass of humanity that was homeless, without loved ones, paralysed by confusion and hopelessness.
Entire brick walls in the centre of the city were pasted with paper notices of people searching for the missing.In a population of seventy million people, around thirty million were looking for someone.It threw the country into gridlock, and chaos reigned in the city streets.
The Allies were divided over Germany’s fate, and so they split the country down the middle.The Soviets would control Germany’s eastern half, and the British and Americans would free the west.When Jan and his family arrived in Berlin, they found themselves constrained to the eastern portion of the city by a line of surly Soviet guards.
Their original plan had been to make it through to West Germany so they could apply for asylum in England, Canada or America.But they weren’t able to get through the divided city to the other side, and so they were stuck in the refugee tent city instead.It wasn’t the life they’d hoped to find.
After a while, they gave up on the idea of finding a way out of Europe through Berlin and returned to Warsaw.The city of Jan’s youth was no more.The destruction now even more confronting, having been away for several months.It pained him to see his homeland brought so low.
Stalin had promised the other Allies that Poland would be free to elect a government of its choosing, but in the time since Jan and his family travelled to Germany and back again, all the Soviets had done was to crack down on any dissent in the provisional government to their communist rule in Poland.
They’d heard that many of the Nazis had been arrested and sentenced to death, including SS-OberführerJosef Albert Meisinger, the Butcher of Warsaw.Jan received the news with a numb heart—justice was served, but it’d come too late.
Jan’s priority now was the future.He wanted to marry Nacha and start their lives together somewhere new.He would leave his home behind for the hope of a better future.
They were camped in another refugee tent on the outskirts of Warsaw when Mama came to him one evening.
“Antoni are getting married,” she said.
Jan smiled and kissed both her cheeks.“I’m happy for you, Mama.”
Tears glistened in her eyes.“Will you walk me down the aisle?”
“Of course I will.”
“We’re going to have a baby,” she said, gently patting her stomach.
Jan gaped.“Really?The family is growing.”
She laughed.“I can hardly believe it.I’m too old for this.”
He embraced her.“No, you’re not, Mama.And we’re all here to help you.There’s something I must tell you as well.Nacha and I are getting married too.”
Mama sobbed.“Oh, Janek, there is so much joy.I would never have imagined this might happen.I hoped it would, somewhere deep down in my heart.But it seemed so impossible.That we would survive the war at all, and now to be so happy.”
Mama and Antoni were married at the government registry.There were no priests to be found in the vicinity, and besides, Mama said it was for the best anyway since it wouldn’t be fair to have a priest marry them rather than a rabbi.And they were all sad for a few moments when she said that, since their rabbis and priests were all dead.But then they pushed those thoughts aside because there was a wedding to prepare for.
The rest of the family went with them to the registry, which was held in a tent on the edge of the refugee encampment.They cheered when Antoni kissed Mama and dipped her in his arms, then pulled her close and held her tight.
After that, Jan and Nacha stood before the registrant and said their own vows.Jan swallowed back tears as he promised to spend his life loving, serving and protecting Nacha.Hadn’t he done that for years already?He couldn’t imagine living any other way.
Mama sobbed in the background as Jan took Nacha in his arms and kissed her on the lips.Her kiss pushed every worry, every thought of the future, every fear from his mind.There was nothing but Nacha and their love for one another.
A man without legs sat on a cushioned chair on one side of the tent.A barrel organ was perched on a small wooden wagon in front of him.He spun the handle and played a melody Jan didn’t recognise as they walked back down the makeshift aisle as husband and wife.Jan tossed the man a coin, and he bobbed his head in thanks.
Then the newly joined family walked out of the tent together.Mama with her arm linked through Antoni’s.Nacha with her hand in Jan’s.Nathan, Jadzia and Danuta talking and laughing together behind them.Whatever the future held for them, no matter the hardships, pain, adventures or joy, they would face them together.And for the first time in a long time, Jan had hope that perhaps life could be good.
