My father was freed 70 years ago by courageous American (and British, and Canadian) boots on the ground… not by drones.

Yesterday… on Memorial Day 2015, as I try to do every year as often I can, I went down to the World War II Memorial to express my gratitude to those courageous American soldiers who, 70 years ago, April 1945, when freeing Birkenau, Sachsennhaussen, Buchenwald, freed my Polish father.

This year I was only able to speak to one single veteran of those days in Europe. Sadly most of them are gone by now… and I never got a chance to thank them all.

And while walking around the World War II Memorial, a question that has been haunting me lately came back over and over again... My father was freed by boots on the ground… not by drones… will America still have it in it to free other future fathers, if need be?

And next year, I will go there again, and God willing, I will find another one to thank!

Note: "My father Tadeusz Brodka a Pole, later Tadeusz Kurowski (his mothers surname), arrived to Auschwitz in June 1940, as one of 728, on the first train. He was registered with number 245 (tattooed on his arm). He survived taking photos. In October 1944, he was transferred to Birkenau, Heinkel Werken, Sachsennhaussen, Wausleben am see – Buchenwald. And from there he was liberated by the Americans, on April 14, 1945. They recently commemorated the 75th anniversary of that first train.

I went there again, on Memorial Day 2016. There might be millions of reason why oneself, as oneself, would not have come into being, but those reasons are usually always unknown and ignored. That is why it so special to walk the II World War Memorial when one knows why oneself, as oneself, in this case me, as the Per I am, would absolutely not have come into being, were it not for the American soldiers there honored.

PS. In Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Commencement Address given at Harvard University June 8, 1978 titled “A World Split Apart” we find: “Well-Being: Choice of pleasures: Who should renounce all, risk one’s precious life in defense of the common good… especially when the security of one’s nation must be defended in a distant land?"

PS. If someone has special information of soldiers who were present in Buchenwald that April 1945, and could be living, I appreciate the information at perkurowski@gmail.com

Memorial Day 2024: 

"E Pluribus Unum" "Out of many, one."

Red and blue, or, red or blue?

If a Hitler imprisoned my grandchild, could he hope to be liberated by the Americans, like my father was?

I ask this because:

Seeing the number of safety instruction posted on the pool where I live in Maryland.

Hearing rumors about sport-teams being sued for allowing players to take risks

Seeing, in the Home of the Brave, how they are using sissy bank regulations, which require banks to hold more equity when lending to “the risky” than when lending to “the safe”.

And seeing the development of the taste for drones... and distaste for boots on the ground.

I have enough reasons to get nervous about America, slowly but surely, getting to be too risk-adverse for its, and for ours, the rest of the world's, own good.

June 1940, my father was on that train which carried polish prisoners and which was the first train to arrive to Auschwitz. He had the number 245 stamped on his arm for the rest of his life. In April 1945, 70 years ago, he was liberated from Buchenwald, by American boots on the ground.