Irena Wygodzka with her husband Stanislaw Wygodzki

This is a picture of me with my husband Stanislaw Wygodzki. It was taken in 1947 in Szklarska Poreba.

I met my husband in Germany, still in 1945. I was at the camp in Oberaltstadt with his wife, Rena Domb. We were friends with Rena. She told me about him, about her family. And right after the war ended, Rena went to Poland and I stayed.

In Jordanbad I found out about Wygodzki, that he was in hospital. I went there to pass on Rena's greetings. He was in hospital in Gauting, sick with tuberculosis. That's how we met. Well, and we fell in love.

We got married on 11th March 1945, when he was dismissed from hospital. In Germany, in Feldafing near Munich. It was a civil marriage. My husband's acquaintances, who were with him at the camp, organized a party at their house, in Feldafing.

We stayed at Knajp Kur until 1947 when my husband was well enough to return to Poland. I wanted to go to Palestine, but my husband, because he was a Polish writer and a communist, believed his place was in Poland.

He had fought for this socialism all his conscious life and when it came in Poland, he wanted to keep on building it. When we were getting married my husband put forward this condition - that we would go back to Poland. And I agreed, because I loved him.

People were leaving for Palestine, for America, going to all kinds of places. Nobody was going back to Poland, because they knew there was anti-Semitism there. I found out about the Kielce pogrom in Jordanbad.

They talked about it, but not that much. And in spite of the Kielce pogrom, my husband decided to return to Poland.