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I tried to persuade my father not to go back to Kielce. But he was being persuaded by my eldest sister’s husband, Obarzanski, who said that you could work things out with the Germans, you could get along, that it was not so bad, well, there were unpleasant things, sometimes you could get a fist in your face, but on the whole, he said, if you tuck him [a German] a goose – a roast one, of course – under his arm, then you can get along with a gendarme. It’s livable with, come back.
And Father, who was getting on in years – whichever way you look at it he was over 50, with Mother and the two girls, without a real foothold, preferred to go back. Because he knew the Germans, he knew the Austrians, spoke German. ‘It’s peaceful there, why should we carry on knocking around here, what for?’ And they went back, although I tried to persuade them, I remember as if it were yesterday, not to go back.
And Father, who was getting on in years – whichever way you look at it he was over 50, with Mother and the two girls, without a real foothold, preferred to go back. Because he knew the Germans, he knew the Austrians, spoke German. ‘It’s peaceful there, why should we carry on knocking around here, what for?’ And they went back, although I tried to persuade them, I remember as if it were yesterday, not to go back.
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Interview
Julian Gringras
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