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THE AMERICAS
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Personally, I did not experience animosity towards Poles in
the early 1950s. I got a job relatively easily because there was new technology (I was writing my dissertation on this subject)
but, within a year, I discovered that others who were, basically, doing the same work were earning 30-40% more than I was.
I decided I wasn’t going to put up with that and I started looking for another position which I found easily. It was when
I started working in a larger, more prominent American firm that I noticed a negative attitude towards Poles; the so-called
‘Polish jokes’ that depicted Poles as being stupid, uneducated, and dirty. I’ll be honest with you; I think it was a deliberate
attempt to stir up the Poles in order to obtain information about the Soviets, the Communists, and conditions in Soviet Russia.
Wojsław
Milan Kamski
b. 1923, Lwów
1939-45, Romania, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Italy
1945-51, England
1951-present, USA
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The ‘older’ Polonia in the United States did try to help the
new arrivals, but they were expecting us to be poor people like they were upon their arrival to the USA. Instead, we were
educated and landed on our feet quickly. They resented that we did not start with the worst of jobs as they had to.
There
was miscommunication between the two groups for which we must take some blame as we considered the older Polonia to be uneducated.
They were working-class people but the new arrivals failed to understand and recognize just what these earlier arrivals had
achieved. They had arrived in the USA, often not knowing how to read and write but had managed to maintain their religion
and establish Polish schools. They were very patriotic and faithful to Poland for several generations. I know that the ‘new’
Polonia presented itself as being more educated so there were many problems and miscommunications.
Zdzisława Bilewicz
Korniłowicz
b. 1926, Dolinów
February 1940, deported to the Soviet Union
1943-47, Iran, Palestine
1947-53, England
1953-present,
USA
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Stefania
Fudula's Record of Attendance
prior to emigration to the USA
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The older Polonia, the pre-World War II arrivals, was very resentful
of the new arrivals; there was an ongoing verbal battle between the two of them all the time, even to this day. Personally,
I think that when you have something and you lose it, not only did we lose our farms and our way of life, we also lost the
land to which we were attached, and that left a permanent scar. We do not belong anywhere, and if you do not belong anywhere,
you have no basis to make any plans. We were damaged goods. Going to Poland, to Warszawa or Kraków, is like going to Hawaii;
there is no connection other than the language.
Witold Mazur
b. 1936, Kołodno
February 1940, deported to the
Soviet Union
1942, Iran, Iraq, India
1942-48, Africa
1948-58, England
1958-present, Canada
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