They stayed in the sands of the beaches codenamed: Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah, and Sword, forever.
We all remember them, and their sacrifice, on such occasions like D-Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day…
I was born in Europe, so, no one of my family members fought in the heroic action, we commemorate today.
But a day like today and the other Remembrance Days, mentioned above, make me remember my Mother - Genowefa Liwacz, who was 20 when the War broke, and right after the Russian Army (collaborating with Nazis in the invasion of Poland) invaded the Polish part of the Ukraine, joined the Underground, and fought Nazis, hoping, that her sacrifice, and the sacrifice of her 'brothers in arms' wouldn’t go in vain. She joined the Underground sponsored by the West (at that time there was no other), the Underground which answered to the Polish Government in Exile, which was formed in London.
She had dreamed of the free and independent Poland.
And yet, in 1944, on newly freed from Nazis Eastern Polish territories, she was arrested and thrown into the Russian jail for fighting under the ‘wrong’ banner, even though she fought the common enemy. She spent there nearly 4 years and until the death of Stalin in 1953, she had to report daily to the police after she was conditionally released.
Her only sin was that she didn't salut to Moscow...
She dreamed of the free and independent Poland. She lived to see it coming from ashes in 1989.
She lived to see me, her son, visit her when I became an American Citizen.
She died in 1994 in the troubled, but Free Country.
On such a day, like today, I remember her - a young soldier, who didn’t think twice before she answered the country’s calling - a soldier, who’s innocence was abruptly cut short, by the WAR.
On such a day, I remember all those, who fought against the oppression, of any sorts.
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