Ewa Synowiec

"I was a skinny child; I was 11 years old and wasn’t being hurt at all. Here, downstairs was an army canteen and every day I brought a lunch for everybody. My mom just couldn’t go out too much but me...There were also women in Russian army wearing upper parts of clothes the same as the men and lower parts were the navy blue skirts, not trousers. There was a beautiful Russian woman in this canteen. I don’t know if I was similar to someone from the family, I don’t know. I was very swarthy. She always embraced me, patted my head and invited to this kitchen. She told me to bring some kind of dish. So I was bringing it every day for my mom. For an army you cook one dish but you put more meat and everything else inside. So my mom was cooking a dinner for everybody and I got a nice small silver ring with a blue gem from my mother-in-law. I wanted to give it for her, I remember taking it off. She took my hand and put it on again saying that her palms are too fat for that. It was also the same as when a big car arrived, they put out a big white cloth and they started eating and we were standing around. So they gave us first".

"Environment means people. It doesn’t just come from children, but it means that they learned it at home. I realized it when my son came and asked “Mom, how many Hitlers were?” So I asked “What are you talking about?”. ”Because they call me like that”. I said to my husband “Listen. Do something with that. They are you compatriots. They can call me „Szwabka”, I don’t care about that.” My son was well-built so my husband told him „Listen. Never begin a fight. But if someone calls your name, just punch him”. It was enough to say it him once. Then I was afraid of other mothers when I was coming back from job. Then children started to call him like that at school so I decided to go there. I was talking to the teacher and said:” I was going to this school during the 40’s and no one miscalled me. And my son feels Polish.” She was very surprised and said „I have never heard that. Maybe they’re the neighbours who called his name?” And I said „Yes. My mom, who didn’t speak Polish called him always in German”. So the teacher called these parents to talk. Later, one of the mothers came and asked me: “Why didn’t you come to me but to the school?” “Because I am sure that your child learned it at home”. How a child could know it? So maybe that’s why my son didn’t want to speak German. Or the things that I received for him in the packages. When the teacher told him “What a nice cap you have”, he came back home and said “I will never wear it again, mom".

"My father many times felt sorry about them. Many times he said that no matter how much they earned he didn’t envy them. Because they work really hard. They are mistreated. Father’s friend was a foreman. Then the foreman had to have studies, he was someone. After the war many experienced miners came from Belgium, from France. They took some courses and became the foremen. It would be impossible under German rule. A foreman was a..My father said that many times a foreman said bad things about the miners and father many times reprimanded him. He said: “How can you say such things. You even don’t know them, you don’t know how people they are, you can’t talk to them like that”. That was the talk. Father said that many times miners had the smoked straps on a bread at work. There is one neighbor here, her father was a miner and she had 3 siblings. He says that many times they were so hungry that he was scrounging. That’s why they praised Hitler when he gave them the apartments, the houses then. This man had lots of kids but he wanted them and took care about them. Me, as a daughter of a scientist had smaller rations of food. There was a woman with 8 children downstairs, another woman with 6 children upstairs, a neighbor next door had 5 of them so in a half of the house were 21 children with me. Can you imagine noise there? It was lots of fun. I always felt better where other children were".