My mom Iza - part IV

So we came to hot summer of 1939, last days before WWII. The international situation was getting hot and my grandpa Jozef was called-up to the army. He moved his family near their family town Lublin to a village Ostrow (or it was rather a very small town). He left his wife and daughter with her sister Lucyna (see the post from January 25th). 

The first picture shows both sisters with their daughters - left is Feliksa with my mom, right is Lucyna with Hanna, born 1938. As I wrote in the previously mentioned post Hanna, my aunt, resembles her mother very much.

From the left: grandma Feliksa, mom Iza, my aunt Hanna and her mother Lucyna

Left Hanna, right Iza

In front of the village house - first from the left is Lucyna's husband, sitting in the middle Lucyna with Hanna,
sitting at the bottom my mom and Feliksa. I do not know the other people.

And here my grandpa Jozef already in the army suit - suppose last moment before he left his wife and daughter.
My mom seems sad that dad is leaving. Grandpa is smiling. What was behind? Real soldier or just a smile for good memories in any bad case? Nobody can tell now.

My mom Iza - part III

As I still find some new pictures of my mom I decided to divide them into two posts. So this week we are still in spring of 1939 in Pleszew. The same garden which appeared last week. Nice, warm weather. Nobody suppose how the fall will look like.

I suppose the bag belongs to my grandma, and my mom loves to carry it. At least my sister behaved this way ;-)

My grandma and my mom - three years old in all the pictures

My mom with a girl - friend - holding her hand and looking into her eyes.
I suppose the same girl which was on a motor-bike in a previous post.

Next week we will see the last month before WWII.

My mom Iza - part II

Last week I presented first two years of my mom's life - till she lived in Sambor with my grandparents. May 1938 they moved to Pleszew - smaller town, then Polish and in Ukraine nowadays. But let's start with two photos I like but I do not exactly know when and where they were taken.
And this week the post is quite short. Next week I will add more pictures of my mom till September 1939.

My mama in pyjama - suppose 1938

My mom with her parents, Jozef and Feliksa

And above one more picture stlii from 1936 from Sambor - my grandma with her friend and my mom

And below three pictures from Pleszew (how to pronounce it? ;-))

My mom riding - spring 1938

Which one is faster? A horse or a motorbike? (Mom in a back)

For comparison - my grandma with the same motorcycle

My mom Iza

Though I have some photos from ealier years I still need to find more info about persons presented there. Thus I decided to show my mom early years.

My mom is a daughter of Jozef and Feliksa, presented here several times, together with their families. She was born in 1936, her godfather being Czeslaw from my post below. First I present some pictures taken in 1936 in Sambor, where Jozef i Feliksa stayed then. Jozef worked there in a prison service so he took his new wife with him. And Sambor is a small town, till 1939 in Poland, then taken by Soviet Union, now in Ukraine.

They stayed in Sambor till May, 1938 when Jozef was moved to nearby Pleszewo to take a position of a Chief of Pleszewo Prison.

All pictures below were taken in Sambor, or rather its neibourhood.

First picture taken in 1936

Also 1936 - my grandmom and my mom

1937 - I suppose happy time for a kid

1937 - Jozef, Iza and Feliksa

1937 - Feliksa nad Iza

1937 - Iza and maybe her lovely toy

1937 - Feliksa with Iza - fantastic baby - carriage

1937 - sweet lying on the grass

1937 - winter time - sledge of the type which is still sold in Poland, though not so popular nowadays - 80 years ago

They stayed in Sambor till May, 1938 when Jozef was moved to nearby Pleszewo to take a position of a Chief of Pleszewo Prison - I've got an original document. So next week I present second part of a short, happy time of my mom's childhood.

Czeslaw

As promised before I present a short history of my grandma's brother Czeslaw. In the meantime I received quite interesting letter from his order via facebook and found another letter, written in 1984 by his sister Krystyna to my mother, describing her memories of Czeslaw. The letter from his order gave me quite reach literature where I can find more info on him.

Below I present only facts which I am sure about, as there are some differences between both letters. I will try to find out more, mainly thanks to the literature given via FB.

Czeslaw was born in 1917 in Lublin. I have no info about his young years. Anyway in 1935 he graduated from Christian College of Saint Fidelin in Lomza. I have two new pictures from that years (the other one was presented in the post on sisters and bros of my grandma). First one might be probably the picture taken just after graduation as it is dated 1935. He is standing top left. Anyway he does not look 18 years old here, does he?

The other picture is from scouting - Czeslaw is standing in the right. He is so similar in face to some pictures of my grandma.

The same year, 1935, he moved to Warsaw and became an acolyte in the church belonging to Capuchin order, taking a habit in 1937 and the vows in 1938. His order name was Wieslaw. In the meantime, in 1936 he stood godfather to my mom. 

Being in the order he studied philosophy in Zakroczym. As it was situated near to fortress Modlin, during WWII Capuchins were moved to Lubartow, a small town near Lublin. Thus he was again near to the family.

In the spring of 1940, when nazis arrested Capuchins in Lublin, Capuchin seminarists in Lubartow were sent home by the order. He came home with two other seminarists then and spent with his family last few months together. In the autumn the same year he moved to Warsaw to continue studies. 

But in the night of 26/27 of June 1941 all brothers of his order were arrested by nazis and moved to  Pawiak (well known nazi jail in Warsaw). There is his, most probably, last taken photo in this jail. Czeslaw is standing first from the left.

On 3rd of September 1941 he was moved to Auschwitz nazi camp (the date I found in the internet, together with his camp number 20352 - 20421).

Czeslaw died in Auschwitz on 5th of February 1942.

My grandparents' walks

As nowadays, eighty years ago people spend their spare time walking with friends - to the parks or out of town. They didn't spend their time watching tv, blogging or just exploring web, so meeting with friends was much more popular. Also walking was.

In my archive I found some pictures taken during such walks.

Here my grandma is second from the left. I do not know other women.

And below is a picture taken most probably in the park. My grandpa is standing first from the left, and next to him is my grandma. I suppose the picture was taken before their wedding, so it means 1934 or 1935. Like above no info about other persons, but looking at my grandma and grandpa smiling, they had great time with them.

And here we have the same woman as above walking with a child and my grandparents. Again probably 1934 or 1935.

And again probably the same woman and my grandma in the middle. 

And again somewhere in the country, my grandma on the right and the same woman on the left. So it seems they were good friends, spending a lot of time together.

I will try to find out who she was.

Post scriptum to my post about grandma's sisters and brothers:

During search on net I found some details on arresting of my grandma's brother Czeslaw, who died in Auschwitz during WWII. The most interesting to me was an address of his monastery. Then I found the priests of this exact monastery are on facebook. So via FB they promised me to find out as many details on him as possible, especially I asked for details of his arresting. Just for family memory.   

My grandma's sisters and brothers

My great grandma Eleonora (the young lady from the first post) had six daughters and four sons. And it was the last generation with so many children in the family. And I have pictures of most of them, but unfortunately not all. So this time some portraits.

Emilia - she died when she was only 16, because of some complications caused by surgical operation, which are now nothing special to heal. Times change.

Lucyna - though I have never met her, I always felt like I know her - just because my aunt, her daughter looks exactly the same. And, as I have many pictures of her, she always looks, well, deeply sad? exhibiting careful thought?

Bronislawa, who died only three years ago as the last of all of them. For the family just aunt Bronka . Great woman.

Krystyna - one of only few pictures. I remember some visits to her when I was 4 - 7 years old. And I remember I liked her. When her husband died she moved with her daughter to a nearby town. She died in 1990.

Krystyna again (left), and the last sister - Irena. When Lucyna died, she left son and daughter (the aunt I mentioned above). The son was very young and Irena took care of him. She lived together with her mother, my great grandma Eleonora. She was a very warm person and when me and my sister were young we liked to spent time with her. Irena died in 1982.

My grandma had four bothers: Tomasz, Tadeusz, Józef and Czesław. I do not think I ever met any of them. So I knew all living sisters and no brother. Up till now I only found pictures  of Czeslaw, who was a monk and died in Auschwitz nazi camp during IIWW. One is his school picture and one is in a monk suit.