Henry Zguda hated Racism. Western officials were very skeptical of both Henry’s and his friend Leon Kraska’s, true intentions when they sought asylum in Belgium. As already written, Henry was highly placed in the Polish army, and closely connected to several key people in the Polish communist hierarchy.
What Henry never mentioned, and that I didn’t know, was that multiple people submitted sworn, notarized statements identifying Henry as a fellow prisoner in Auschwitz or Buchenwald, or with the underground in Krakow. Why didn’t I know? Because these documents are in Polish, and I don’t read Polish. I had a stack of papers Henry saved in German, Polish and French. I knew only that if Henry saved them all these years, they must have said something worth keeping.
In 2012 I contacted the Foreign Languages department at Arizona State University, and they put me in touch with two wonderful people whom I was able to hire. One translated German documents for me, including Henry’s camp letters. The other translated Polish documents I submitted to her. Besides the notarized statements, I now knew what I had in the photo album; and dates and facts became clearly documented. Because Henry applied for asylum, and later for war reparations, in both Polish and German, he carefully documented his life – date of birth, schools attended, dates in each camp, employer, physical injuries from camp, and so forth.
Here is one of those notarized statements (translated from Polish):
STATEMENT
I certify that, well-known to me colleague Henryk Zguda, born on July 12, 1917 in Cracow, was a member of the Youth Division in YMCA in Cracow in the years 1932-1939.
During the Hitler’s occupation in the years 1939-1942, the above mentioned colleague –Henryk Zguda-led an underground action by distributing bulletins and conspiracy-like correspondence/newspapers, such as “Poland still alive” and “White Eagle” as well as participated in the meetings that condemned racism and Nazi ideology.
Cracow, March 1, 1958.
(illegible signature)
Japoll Kazimierz
Cracow, Zamojski Street 3