Michael Drewniak is a long time Airdrie resident who began researching his father’s Polish military background and his own heritage when he retired in 2022.
In honour of Remembrance Day, we are pleased to share his story with our readers. “All of this is centered around WW2 and my father and mother immigrating to Canada in 1948. I wrote about my father’s story to let those who weren’t familiar what war does to people and how it affects our generations to follow.
“The storey of my father “Jan Drewniak, L. Cpl”, an exiled Polish citizen and as a Polish soldier who fought and was wounded at the Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy, is one that is close and dear to me, and I am certain for my siblings as well. WAR BROKE OUT with the invasion of Poland from the west by the Nazis, the east by the Soviets, from 1939 – 1945, he was one man among millions that went through a tragic experience of being displaced from his home by the Soviets, and from his family, and his country. Losing your dignity, your value as a human being tossed aside, his was a storey of courage, struggle, privation, and betrayal as seen through the eyes of one Polish lad who eventually became a Polish soldier to fight with the allies against tyranny, to fight for his freedom and the freedom of others.
This is what my father along with millions of other civilians of Poland, as well as many other countries, had to endure during this tragic event in history. This event I am most certain, people of this generation, in this country 80 years later, do not know what happened, what really happened. I must as a descendant of a Polish soldier and of Polish heritage, share to our younger generation what my father and many of our ancestors went through so the atrocities of the past will not be repeated. We are seeing signs of that today in Ukraine and Russia and in the Middle East.
My father wrote in his Personal Memoirs 50 years later, what he could remember of those horrible times, so we his children knew. He never once talked about his experiences while we were growing up. I am certain it was so he knew we would have a good life of peace, a home, a family, a life of dignity and respect. Something my father did not have at a young age of 20; it was taken away from him, and he had to fight for his freedom and for the freedom of others. Something our young generation take for granted and they must remember the past, so the sins of the past do not become the sins of today.
Please remember a Veteran on Remembrance Day, no, every day. He may have been your father, your grandfather or even your great grandfather who fought in the wars of the past so we would not have to fight them today.
THEY SHALL GROW NOT OLD,
AS WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD.
AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM,
NOR THE YEARS CONDEM.
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN
AND IN THE MORNING.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
LEST WE FORGET.
REMEMBRANCE DAY
11TH NOVEMBER
