Remembering Edward Górecki on the 10th Anniversary of His Death

And if the path to heaven is open to anyone,
those who serve their country need not doubt it.

— Jan Kochanowski, Song XII

In December 2024, the people of Texas, remembering Edward Górecki on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his departure for eternal guard, will once again reflect on his figure as a man and a Polish soldier who was guided in his life by the motto "God, Honor and Fatherland".

Edward Górecki, due to his path as a soldier of the Polish Armed Forces in the West and his achievements in social work, is still alive in the memory of his loved ones, but also in the memory of Polish emigrants in America, already in the next generation. On the occasion of this anniversary, it is worth presenting his figure, to the older generation as a reminder, to the young, so that they may learn about the deeds of our ancestors and find in them models of conduct.

Edward Górecki (Source: collection of Elżbieta Górecka)

He was born in 1926 in the Vilnius region, a place that Poles loved especially. His early childhood was, in the words of the greatest Polish poet, the bard of Polish patriotism — Adam Mickiewicz — "idyllic, angelic." He attended school, grammar school, had a comfortable life, loving parents, a Polish family home, where he prepared for adult life. However, this was not the kind of life he had in mind, this was not the kind of adulthood he wanted to enter, which the year 1939 brought, and especially September 17 of that year, remembered as the invasion of Polish lands by the Soviet Union.

“O year, whoever saw you in our country…” For the thirteen-year-old boy, it was a year of disaster, a year in which the hottest, bitterest tears were shed over his childhood.

In 1939, as a thirteen-year-old boy, he was sentenced to death by the Soviet occupation authorities. This sentence, through a pardon, was commuted to fourteen years of exile. The times were special, his growing up was accelerated. Edward shared the fate of many Poles who were arrested, sentenced and finally exiled deep into Russia. A long journey into the unknown, a harsh climate, backbreaking work in quarries in the Urals and the loss of his parents awaited him. It is hard to believe that he survived all this.

When the Russian land was ravaged by war and new contingents of soldiers and workers were needed, the Soviet government issued an amnesty for Polish exiles, who immediately set off through the Siberian wilderness to join the Polish Army, formed by General Władysław Anders, a prisoner at Lubyanka. It is difficult to count how many remained on the way to the assembly point in Totskoye, but Edward reached it and, as a fifteen-year-old, miraculously saved from death, put on the uniform of a Polish soldier.

The road to Palestine was a stage of the "wandering trail", another stage of the journey through suffering. Its drama is evidenced by the densely scattered Polish graves of those who did not make it due to exhaustion and illness. Edward was again favored by fate. God probably had other plans for him.

In Palestine, he joined the Junacka Cadet School founded by General Władysław Anders. The Junacka schools were located in British military camps, from which cadets were sent to the appropriate units of the United Kingdom military. Edward Górecki was assigned to the Royal Air Force (RAF). In 1944, he was assigned to the Polish Air Force in Great Britain. It was about Polish pilots that they said: "so much was owed to so few..."

Edward Górecki as an RAF pilot (Source: Elżbieta Górecka's collection)

He always fought bravely. For his services he was honored with many decorations, including the Cross for Combat Action, the Polish Air Force Medal, the Silver Cross of Merit, the Star for Italy, and the medals for Defense and War. All these decorations intensified not the glory but the bitterness of undeserved defeat.

In 1945, like other soldiers of the II Corps, he was demobilized. Poles were no longer needed by Great Britain, they were a burden that had to be disposed of as quickly as possible. Like other Polish soldiers, he joined the Polish Resettlement and Resettlement Corps.

As a result of the Yalta topography, his home in the Vilnius region was outside the borders of the new Poland — the People's Republic of Poland. Having nowhere to return to, he chose emigration. For 10 years he did not apply for British citizenship, thinking that maybe the next day he would return to his homeland, but the Provisional Government of National Unity established in 1946, for remaining in exile, deprived him of citizenship, like many other soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

After 30 years in England, Edward Górecki decided to move to the United States, to Dallas, where he lived for another 30 years — until his death.

Edward Górecki loved Poland and had it in his heart. He walked towards it throughout his wandering life. If he could not do it by any other path, he walked in the stanzas of his poetry.

Wandering Miles

I've been beyond many mountains,
I've been beyond the seventh river,
But the road is so long,
And Poland is so far away.

But only in miles
And let everyone believe me
That for me it is close,
Because it lies in my soul.

And a lot of time will pass
And the moments will be long
Until they end,
my dear wanderings.

And even if
you do not want to allow me to come back, Lord,
She will remain where I lie
in my heart.

And on the birch cross
And at the crossroads There will be an inscription: Here lies the one
Who did not reach the homeland.

In both England and the United States he worked for Poles living outside their homeland for various reasons. He was a co-organizer and participant in many important patriotic and political celebrations. Under his leadership, the Polish Catholic Parish and the Polish Library in Dallas were established.

"For his outstanding contribution to the independence of the Republic of Poland and his activities for the Polish diaspora in the United States of America", in 2016 he was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

(Source: collection of Elżbieta Górecka)

He was active in Dallas for 30 years. In the memoirs of the representative of Polonia in Texas, Mrs. Halina Okolska-Grodd, Edward Górecki was an extremely modest man.

For Polish emigrants and Americans of Polish origin, he was a friend and mentor. He was a very modest man with a great philosophical passion and deep, yet simple thoughts, because the deepest wisdom is manifested in such simplicity of thought. He always cared about the dignity of the name of our native country, and with his attitude he conveyed the greatest patriotic values ​​to everyone around him, especially the younger generation.

In the memory of Idalia Jędrzejczak, Edward Górecki left an indelible mark.

Despite the many sufferings that life had not spared him, he maintained his serenity and love for his neighbor. He was not bitter, he respected the great and the small. He even tried to justify those who opposed him. He said that everyone has some skeleton in the closet that affects our lives.

He said about the lack of patriotism among the Polish diaspora that "people are what the system has made them, so we cannot blame them, but we have to do our part."

The best way to learn is by example. Mrs. Idalia ends her memoirs with the words: "I wish there were as many examples as possible like Edward Górecki."

We are all like beads of one rosary. Edward Górecki was one of them.

My rosary

Passing through the links of my rosary
With each grain I experience everything again today
My childhood years are happy, home and school
Each one as if with a prayer today thanksgiving cries out

Then the camps, the prison, the expanses of Siberia, This little life of sorrows, this is only a memory,
Because in the next Hail Mary and so on,
To thank Him that after all He saved me from this.

Then the wars that followed, with pain, fear, and tears
Passed away, so that I would remain today — a wanderer.
In my memories today everything floats away — far away.
But always under Your caring care.

And on the rosary I lower the pearls of life.
To end everything like You — with a cross.

In 2010, the Polish American Foundation of Texas published a volume of his poems. The two quoted poems are from that volume.

During the ceremony of posthumously decorating Edward Górecki with the Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta, a piece composed to his poems was played by Hubert Pralitz and Bethany Nan Wildes.

The grave of Edward Górecki in Radom (Source: Elżbieta Górecka's collection)

Edward Górecki was buried in Poland, in Radom, in a common grave with his first wife. They both returned to their homeland and are probably looking at us from Heaven, because St. Peter opened the gates wide for them, and God, as in the poem of another outstanding poet of Polish emigration, Edward Dusza, received them in audience.

..The Lord God in audience
He deigned to receive them all He
wiped out all their sins
He forgave all their faults. (…)

— Heaven is open to you.

Whoever follows the path of suffering,
leaves his home and his parents,
even if he goes to heaven,
he will still return home.

May Poland remain with you
always and everywhere.
Go to your friends,
it will be more pleasant for you.

Because the time will come
for the dead and the living
and Poland will still be
the homeland of happy people.

Thanks to Mrs. Elżbieta Górecka — Edward's second wife — despite the passing of years, his group of friends still remembers him and recalls him with great sympathy. On the tenth anniversary of his death, everyone will meet for a solemn memorial mass. The path to heaven is open to him as a reward for his faithful service to his country.

Translation form Polish by Andrew Wozniewicz.