Two Lives Shaped by World War Two: A Video

john guzlowski

Location: Danville, Virginia, USA
Birthday: June 22

Bio: I was born in a refugee camp in Germany after World War II, and came with my Polish Catholic parents Jan and Tekla and my sister Donna to the United States as Displaced Persons in 1951. My parents had been slave laborers in Nazi Germany. Growing up in the immigrant and DP neighborhoods around Humboldt Park in Chicago, I met Jewish hardware store clerks with Auschwitz tattoos on their wrists, Polish cavalry officers who still mourned for their dead horses, and women who walked from Siberia to Iran to escape the Russians. I write about these people.

MY RECENT POSTS

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May 23, 2012 11:19AM
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May 20, 2012 01:00PM
Call for Translators
May 08, 2012 08:43AM
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April 19, 2012 03:31PM
Holocaust Remembrance Day 2012
April 18, 2012 11:07AM

MY RECENT COMMENTS

“Nobody wants to take responsibility for the war but finally it's my war and yours…”
May 20, 2012 03:32PM
“Thanks for telling me about visiting buchenwald. My dad was there, a prisoner. Ye…”
April 18, 2012 04:38PM
“good daughter, martha's book blue positive it terrific--lots of poems about pregn…”
March 17, 2012 01:45AM
“Thanks, John. You sound like you have a good soul.”
March 10, 2012 05:18PM
“Daisy, yes, it's Walden Pond on a hot early September Saturday.”
February 12, 2012 10:33PM

John guzlowski's Links

New list: Writing the Holocaust; Lightning and Ashes: My Parents and their Lives in the Camps; Everything's Jake; Writing the Polish Diaspora

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OCTOBER 25, 2011 6:57AM

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Recently, I was invited to do a poetry reading at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, New York. The reading, titled "Two Lives Shaped by World War Two," focused on my parents and their experiences as Polish slave laborers in Nazi Germany.

Here's a video of the poetry reading. It's about an hour long, 40 minutes of poems and then some time for questions.

The reading, organized by Gregory Tague of Editions Bibliotekos and sponsored by St. Francis College, was written up for the college site. The piece contains some background information about my mom and dad and a couple of photos of me. Please stop by and take a look.