WWII

World War II, which began with Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, was a catastrophic event that caused the deaths of more than 70 million people. Some Poles, such as a young boy named Micheal Alfred Peszke who brought his toy soldiers with him, were fortunate to escape to Britain and the United States. Others, like teenager Tadeusz Kurosz, were forced to work in Nazi labor camps. Tadeusz was one of many Poles who were able to immigrate to the United States after the war, instead of being forced to return to Poland, which now had a communist government. Other examples of postwar migrants included Helen Dziura and a young unknown boy who brought a plate and forks inscribed with a Nazi swastika with him. The war affected Poles across the world. In Manchuria, one Polish man wrote to his brother in Whately, Massachusetts, seeking help with procuring an American visa for his wife four months before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Local Polish immigrant businessman, Felix Furtek, wrote a letter to the U.S. State department requesting a visa on their behalf. After World War II, about 140,000 Poles were resettled in the United States, many of them as displaced persons and refugees.