Z. Anthony Kruszewski was born in June 1928 in Warsaw, Poland. His grandfather was a chemist working in Russia. The grandfather printed patterns which were later put into a textile museum. [Annotator’s Note: Kruszewski talks about his grandfather and an author.] Kruszewski unveiled the plaque dedicated to his grandfather. Anti-semitism was spreading. His grandfather died in 1921. When the Nazis came to Warsaw, they tore down the plaque stating it was Jewish propaganda. His older brother died as a baby.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski discusses the history of the Polish language. His mother was evacuated to Ukraine during the First World War [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918]. [Annotator’s Note: Kruszewski discusses the Bolshevik Revolution.] He was two years old when his father died. Upper class women were supposed to speak French and play piano. His mother trained herself as a teacher. His mother was low-paid. Kruszewski was helping pay bills by the age of 10. They were selling things to pay for their living. They started to rent rooms. They had seven rooms. They rented six rooms to refugees from Russia. They moved to a Jewish neighborhood. His mother wanted to send them to private schools for a good education.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski’s parents were patriotic. Poland was a newly independent country and they learned in school that they had to defend it. When Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] came to power in 1933, they knew the war was coming. At a young age, he learned about borders. They saw German tanks across the lake before the first attack. The trains were full of Polish soldiers mobilizing for war. In eight days the German tanks were attacking Warsaw's [Annotator’s Note: Warsaw, Poland] defenses. Kruszewski went to go get milk and bread and saw planes doing exercises. The Germans were bombing Warsaw. The chancellor came over the radio informing the people that they were under attack by their mortal enemy once again. The Polish resistance army started against Nazi Germany. Poland’s allies Great Britain and France did not come to help them within two weeks like they were supposed to. The western half of Poland was under Germany and the eastern half was under Russian control. Kruszewski was in a cellar during the bombings. Kruszewski was on a roof checking for fires and bombings at the age of 11. They were only eating rice once the city fell. The schools were all shut down. They were creating secret universities and high schools held in private homes. Kruszewski went to one of the secret high schools later in the war. When the Germans discovered the secret education program, they sent some of the Poles to Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp complex in German-occupied Oswiecim, Poland]. Kruszewski’s mother was able to continue teaching because the Germans allowed the Poles to be educated up to the fourth grade.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski was helping dig soil to plant tomatoes and potatoes. They were young boys. Kruszewski did not have meat until after the war. They were always hungry. They were beaten up and fed very small amounts of calories. There were half a million Jews dying inside the ghetto because they stopped feeding the Jews completely. The Germans started beating the Jews immediately. They executed the elite Poles immediately. Instead of breaking their spirits, they made the Poles want revenge more. Everyone had a common goal against the Germans. Women were braver than men in the Warsaw Uprising [Annotator’s Note: a movement by Polish resistance forces to liberate Warsaw from German occupation in summer 1944]. Kruszewski was saved by women twice during the uprising. The Jewish children were squeezing out of the walls of the ghetto to hunt for food. A German soldier was showing Kruszewski and his mother pictures of his family. The same German soldier turned around and smashed a child’s head into the wall killing him. For every German killed by the resistance, the Germans would kill 100 Poles. They would stop the streetcars and count to 100 and kill them outside the streetcar. They killed 10,000 people in Warsaw alone in October 1944. Kruszewski joined the Home Army at the age of 15 years and became a commander at age 16.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski was 15 years old in 1943. He was in high school in secret because the Germans outlawed schools. People were arrested and sent to Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp complex in German-occupied Oswiecim, Poland] if they provided secret housing for the schools. Literature and history were forbidden topics. Kruszewski was recruited for the resistance movement. Within a year, he was commanding 100 other boys. They were taught how to resist and respond in the woods. They were preparing for the Warsaw Uprising [Annotator’s Note: The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War 2 operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led by the Polish resistance Home Army]. They trained in a World War One [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918] cemetery. They painted on walls and changed German signs. German tanks and cars were going in the wrong direction. The little boys would put sand in the gas tanks of the Germans. Kruszewski had to spy on the Germans for the Home Army. They buried people wherever they could in the city. The Germans did not disconnect the telephones. Kruszewski watched the new Panzer division [Annotator's Note: panzer is the German term for armored and typically refers to tanks] come into the city as the uprising started.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski went to the west side of the bridge and joined the uprising [Annotator’s Note: The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led by the Polish resistance Home Army]. There was a German bunker in front of the hospital. Kruszewski had to wait until nightfall to cross the street. He was in platoon 112. The Germans used tanks against them. For three days they threw bottles full of gasoline at the Germans. They destroyed two tanks. His code name was Jupiter. The German tanks killed all but two people in the platoon. Kruszewski wanted to join the scouting battalion. He was sent to the post office to scout. All the children were disappearing because they were recruited by the Home Army to rise against the Germans. They had to send letters to the parents. The Germans were bombing the city every 15 minutes. They killed 150,000 civilians.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski remembers the houses were collapsing. After two weeks they no longer had food for the Warsaw Uprising [Annotator’s Note: The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and the Polish resistance Home Army led it]. Kruszewski had to go through the sewers to survive and to get messages. A 17-year-old girl was one of the commanders of the uprising. The people were thankful at first, but then after two weeks, they were cursing the members of the uprising. Kruszewski wanted to do something bigger for the resistance. He went through the sewers to go under the German lines. He went to one of the Germans and told them he was lost and looking for his mother. The German soldier did not believe him and arrested him. Kruszewski learned German from a German lady teaching him in the secret high school. Kruszewski was told he had to escape or he would be executed. He escaped while they were digging trenches to block the Russian advance. He went back to the headquarters of the Home Army. There was an exhibit about him in the Warsaw Uprising Museum. They fought for 63 days and many people died. The Russians took over Poland and wanted to change the government to communism. Kruszewski spent one year in a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp. He was liberated by the Canadians.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski was in a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp. The conditions were horrible. Many people died. They stopped feeding the Russians completely. The cemetery has 30,000 graves, of which 20,000 are Russians. There were hardly any men left in Germany. When he was in the camp they were used for irrigation construction. They did not want to do forced labor. There were 700 Jews that survived. The Germans were very corrupt. The Germans would do anything for coffee. Liberation was fantastic. They were liberated by the Canadians. Some of them were cheering on the roofs. They were liberated on 29 April 1945. They had to stay in the camp after liberation to prevent the spread of diseases. Kruszewski escaped from the camp. They were 100 miles from the Dutch border. They stole bicycles from the Germans and went in the direction of Holland. They wanted food and a place to sleep. Kruszewski slept on straw. A Polish tank showed up and took them back to the Polish Division. His mother died in a Nazi concentration camp. He had to join the Polish Army under the British government. His grandmother was burned alive by the Nazis.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski’s brother was supposed to capture a radio station. They were being killed by the Germans. His brother hid in the lowest part of the stadium seats. He walked 200 miles to Krakow [Annotator’s Note: Krakow, Poland] from Warsaw [Annotator’s Note: Warsaw, Poland], surviving the Warsaw Uprising [Annotator’s Note: The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and the Polish resistance Home Army led it]. Kruszewski was in England when he found out about his brother. A Russian woman came from the concentration camp and told him about his mother dying three weeks before the end of the war in the concentration camp [Annotator’s Note: She had been sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oswiecim, Poland]. His other grandmother was in an old people's home and the Germans boarded it up and burned them alive. Himmler [Annotator's Note: SS Riechsführer Heinrich Luitpold Himmler, senior member of the Nazi party] and Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] ordered the execution of all civilians after the start of the uprising. The Germans were never punished for this in the Nuremberg Trials [Annotator’s Note: a series of military tribunals held following World War II by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war prosecuting German Nazis for committing war crimes]. Kruszewski has made peace with the Germans.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski wanted to go to England to study. He went to southern France with the Army. The French recognized the Polish communist government. The Russians wanted the French to hand over the resistance members as criminals. They were evacuated. He was in the British 8th Army for two years. He discovered in England that college was for the rich. In 1952, he immigrated to America. He went to Chicago [Annotator’s Note: Chicago, Illinois] and became a professor of political science. Then he started to study borders. He studied in El Paso [Annotator’s Note: El Paso, Texas] for five years and then stayed for 50 years. He was the founder of the Holocaust [Annotator's Note: also called the Shoah; the genocide of European Jews during World War 2] Museum in El Paso. He started the museum to honor his mother and the Jews. His future wife had to be smuggled out of Poland to get back to America. [Annotator’s Note: Kruszewski discusses his wife’s family experience during the war.] The Russians took some of the Poles to Siberia and they died. He got married in 1955. The present Germans are not responsible for the horrors which their grandparents committed. They have to look forward and not backward, but they have to remember things. Russians falsify history.