Local historian records war account
By Kathleen Folkerth
BATH — Maria Szonert wants Americans to realize that World War II was about more than the United States.
Szonert, 51, a Bath resident and attorney who has become a historian of her native country of Poland, recently participated in a video history project about “the big one” that was undertaken by local public TV stations PBS 45 & 49.
The stations solicited video
entries in August about local residents’ memories
and involvement in the war. Szonert interviewed Cleveland
resident Halina Junak, also a native of Poland, about
her experiences in that country during the war, and
submitted it to the project.
Szonert is the author of “World
War II Through Polish Eyes,” published in 2002
by the Columbia University Press. The book tells the
story of Szonert’s mother-in-law and her family’s
experience during World War II.
The author said Junak contacted
her after reading the book and wanted to share her story.
Szonert ended up writing a book about her, to be titled
“Null and Void.”
Szonert said her video of Junak
focuses on the woman’s experience during the 1944
Battle of Warsaw. Americans don’t know anything
about this event, said Szonert, which claimed the lives
of 200,000 Polish civilians.
“It was the largest slaughter
of civilians in World War
II, larger than Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined,”
Szonert said. “Americans don’t know anything
about it. It’s not in any books.”
She said Junak’s story
is important for two reasons.
“One reason is it is an
eyewitness account of, in my opinion, the largest battle
of civilian people in World War II,” Szonert said.
“The second reason is, this is the view from the
side of the people who were carpet bombed.”
Szonert, who has lived in the
United States since 1983, said she doesn’t think
most Americans want to think about that perspective.
“The American public is
not interested in the view of being carpet bombed,”
Szonert said. “It’s ‘collateral
damage.’ This is such a mechanical approach to
human tragedy. There’s no discussion in the country
about what kind of suffering and pain that causes.”
The local PBS project is a tie-in
to this month’s broadcast of “The War,”
the newest documentary series by Ken Burns, which tells
the story of World War II though the personal accounts
of nearly 50 men and women from four American towns.
The seven-part, 14-hour series is currently being shown.
Visit www.pbs4549.org for
details. PBS 45 & 49 also will broadcast “Northeast
Ohio: The War” Oct. 2 at 10:30 p.m. and Oct. 3
at 1:30 a.m. The 30-minute program shares oral histories
collected from Northeast
Ohioans who served in World War II or experienced the
war.
While Szonert’s video of
Junak was not chosen for the broadcast, according to
PBS 45 & 49 officials, it will be sent with all
the others collected to the Library of Congress’
Veterans History Project.
Szonert said she’s pleased
her submission will be going to Washington, D.C., but
she’s not sure if Junak’s story will generate
much interest beyond historians and researchers.
Junak’s story can be viewed
on the Web site www.pbs4549.org/thewar/index.html.
|
