“Waldy”’s story is all about making the best of life in two completely different realities - however difficult they might be. The economic troubles in socialist Poland forced Waldy and his wife to look for a better future. They ended up at distant relatives’ in the United States. Shortly after their arrival their marriage started falling apart. Mutual allegations of cheating. The whole family got involved and tried to reconcile the couple, but to no avail. “Waldy” shrugged it off and kept working on a better life, despite the recession and a minimal wage. After a couple of years he ended up in the sunny South of the States, where he lived with his new wife and two children. He started working for one of the most recognizable American brands, acquired American citizenship and didn’t go back to Poland.

I found “Waldy”’s letters, pictures and postcards in an abandoned flat in Warsaw, Poland. Sign up to read his letters, ranging from 1979, when he left Poland, until the late 2000s. They are a testimony of domestic hardship, Polish diaspora in the USA and the fascination with the American Dream.

I don’t know much about “Oleńka”. That’s probably because she lived in the shadow of her husband, serving her family. She was originally from Lviv (now Ukraine), but moved to Warsaw after the war, together with her husband, who started a career in architecture. Poland’s capital had been demolished almost completely, so they needed people like him. “Oleńka” however just needed peace of mind. A quiet home. And yet, she only found some peace and quiet when she was the last one to remain in her family home: her son had moved to the other side of the world, she had buried her daughter and had enough of her ill husband already long before he died. When she died herself, there were no friends and family left to look after her belongings and memories, and nobody had closed the door to her flat... I recovered “Oleńka”’s diary entries between 1993 and 2005 and postcards from many different decades. Sign up to read about her life.

Freydoun Farrokhzad was an Iranian (Persian) writer, singer, presenter of many radio and TV shows as well as a well-known political opposition figure. He was a staunch opponent first of the Shah regime, then of the Ayatollah reign in Iran.
In the beginning of the 1960s he emigrated to Munich (then West-Germany), where he wrote his PhD work on Polish politics and lived with his first wife - the actress Anja Buczkowski, whom he had met in London. He was curious about his wife’s Polish roots and decided to get in touch with her family members. This is how he contacted a certain family from Warsaw: Barbara and her son Marek. For 3 years he corresponded with them in German. In his letters he showed great interest in Polish culture, wrote about the political situation in Iran, complained about West-Germany, shared his impressions about opera, poetry and literature and offered help to the Polish family. He wrote very openly and surprisingly tenderly. He wrote as if Marek was his beloved cousin, although they never met each other.


Freydoun died in 1992. He is rumoured to be killed by Iranian secret service. Marek died in 2017. Among his belongings were the letters written to him by Freydoun. I donated the original letters to the Green Library of Islamic Studies at Stanford University, California, USA. Sign up to read the letters in the original German.

“Wiktor” was an example of the “successful” reconstruction of Polish society after the war. In 1943-1944 he fought the Nazi aggressors, got arrested and put to forced labour, but escaped and ended up in France, where he got drafted in an American army unit. Later he returned to his home country and finished a degree in architecture.

Ideologically he was “safe” for the new socialist regime, but most of all he was much needed in rebuilding a large city that was almost entirely destroyed. He quickly made a career for himself and became responsible for the design of factories, houses and the first metro line in Warsaw. He volunteered in civil organisations and received a few minor prizes for his work.

“Wiktor” died in 2004, leaving behind newspaper articles, degrees, photographs, postcards and thank you letters from his former colleagues. These documents might have served as a memory aid in the last couple of years of his life, when he suffered from Alzheimer’s. His wife thought he had become an insufferable burden. He had lost all control over his mind and his intestines. Sign up to read about his wartime struggles and professional achievements.

“Ewunia” was never the adventurous type. A boring, poorly paid job that stopped being necessary as soon as computers came along. A husband she didn’t get along with, but never divorced from. He ended up in Paris, she lived on the outskirts of Warsaw and that’s just how things came to be. Maybe she would have made more use of her life if she had known that she would die young, before her parents. A medical mistake, “the whole organism compromised”. She held on for another 10 years, in constant pain. Sign up to read about her diaries and medical history.

Other forgotten stories

Strzeszyn n° 1

"Ciocia Zosia"

"Tadeusz"

"Vodka Flat"

World War II hardships with a Canadian connection

family dramas in found diaries

a factory worker in socialist Poland

various discarded stories from the margins of society