Helen Dziura was born in Palmer in 1911. She lived in Poland up to World War II by which time she had forgotten how to speak English. After World War II, she decided to return to the United States. However, this wasn’t easy because the Russians, who controlled Poland, required that she show evidence that she was born in the U.S. In the case are a number of documents she submitted to the Russians, including her baptismal certificate, which showed that she was baptized at St. Adalbert Church in Bondsville, which is part of Palmer. She also had to demonstrate to U.S. Embassy officials in Warsaw that even though she had moved to a foreign country as a minor, she had not effectively expatriated herself by serving for a foreign state (see the reference to the Nationality Act of 1940 in the document in the bottom left corner). Eventually, when she was allowed to leave, she booked passage on the MS Batory, the flagship of Gdynia-America Line. The date on the menu of her farewell dinner, along with the receipt for her passage, show that she made her transatlantic journey in March 1949. Thus, even though World War II ended in 1945 and she was an American citizen, it took her four years to get permission to return to the U.S. Furthermore, having lived in Poland since childhood, she no longer spoke English. The certificate in the bottom right-hand corner documents that she completed a course on “English for American Citizenship” in 1951.

Author: Caitlynn Tippett, History major, Elms College.