Craig: On September 1st, 1939, World War Two began.

Poland was the front line.

Poland's motto for your freedom and Ours.

What follows is the story of an exceptionally heroic couple whose lives spanned two continents.

2009 Speech broker Poland.

Marian Wojciechowski, age 95.

70th Anniversary of the Battle of Moscow, September 1st, 1939.

At the monument to the Volhynian Cavalry Brigade.

Dedicated to all those who fought in the Battle of Moscow.

In 1918 to rebuild a war torn Europe.

President Woodrow Wilson advocated for a free and independent Poland.

United by their belief in freedom.

The citizens of the United States and Poland would dedicate their lives to the defense of liberty.

It was once said the Poles possessed the freedom gene.

No matter the time or place.

My name is Craig Wojciechowski, and I live both with that gene and within the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The United States of America.

For my grandfather and grandmother, my Jaja and Buscia, freedom was not always so easily exercised.

Marion Wojciechowski, and Wladyslawa Ponieka lived a life in Poland that epitomized the motto of Poland for your freedom and ours.

Marion served in the Polish cavalry, fought and suffered in the Second World War.

Wladyslawa served as a girl guide in the gray ranks.

The Mury and in the Partizan underground in Warsaw.

What I did not fully understand were the sacrifices they made until our splendid adventure to Poland, along with our family friend, United States Representative Marcy Kaptur.

We traveled the country of my heritage, a walking embodiment of the Polish American bond.

It was a moving and enlightening experience.

On one stop, what was for me, just a hill by some train tracks with blueberries growing on.

It was for my Jaja Something much, much more.

It was a reminder of the armored trains, the brave soldiers, and the valiant cavalry.

Along this journey, I also witnessed buildings that displayed graffiti replacing the antagonistic symbols toward the Nazis painted there by the Girl Guides, an early organization similar to the later day.

Girl Scouts.

The Coat.

It's a symbol painted on these structures which stood for Polska Velscheska a fighting Poland was a brave defiance by my Buscia, who was a girl guide during the Nazi invasion of Poland.

My Jaja and Buscia, like countless other Polish and American citizens, sacrificed much so much for the cause of freedom.

Their story, and especially the story of my grandparents, must be told.

Marian: Did this really happen so many years ago from this day?

How quickly the pages of his return knew this very spot.

Had I not found a simple hole in a ground, the German shell would have ended all that I was and ever would be.

Wladyslawa: What you're about to hear is our story.

And while many of the faces and places you will see are not a direct reflection of our journey, they do represent the era in which we lived, when we were simply ordinary people in an extraordinary time.

Marian: My name is Marian Wojciechowski.

Wladyslawa: My name is Wladyslawa Ponieka Both: Freedom means.

Never surrender.

Marian: Our beloved Poland.

Near the end of the 18th century, the Polish state faded as the nations of the world and also partitions among Prussia, Austria and the Russian Empire.

Then in 1918, from the ruin of so-called war to end all wars, Poland rose again from the ashes.

We were born into a new generation in which to lead the Polish people in an era of hope, opportunity and freedom.

But it was not to be.

For the clouds of war were again on the horizon.

Wladyslawa: I look back on my life as a young girl, enjoying scouting and then having to use the skills I learned in this peacetime organization to becoming an active partizan in 1940 in Warsaw.

My daily life turned to merely surviving in a terrifying society that did not respect the people of Poland.

I became a 19 year old woman that used anti-Nazi leaflets and correspondences as a member of the Gray Ranks, shot a strategy to do my patriotic duty.

Marian: I came from the poor farming community in Poland called Poland's on the same soil with America.

The revolutionary War.

General Tadeusz Kosciuszko was known to reside.

I earned money to the ring during my high school years so I could attend the Warsaw School of Economics.

I was interested in various political directions and social problems, trying to find answers to questions how we should manage our country in order to improve the welfare of the people.

I was able to get a job as Assistant of the Secretary in the Union of Agriculture and Economic Cooperatives.

Learning about with product purchase, cleaning, milling and sales.

Wladyslawa: As a young woman from the city of Warsaw, I spent my days with my girlfriends at school and many enjoyable excursions As a member of the Girl Guides known as Girl Scouts today.

I had wonderful parents and the typical brothers I especially loved when my mom would braid my hair.

We would spend our days in Warsaw shopping and spend time with friends.

Like most young girls in our teen years.

In the months prior to September 1st, 1939, I was an aide at the Institute of Deaf and Mute Children.

But I did not imagine that it would not be long before I would be practicing the oath I took as a scout years ago and be delivering bread to the needy and using my first aid skills on people that needed my care.

Marian: I have always loved horses and it was also during this time that I joined Officer School and was assigned to the 21st Regiment of the Dandelion Ski Lancers.

Fighting for one's country is not something special.

It is the duty of every pole.

The Germans were to the West and the Russians were to the east.

We were stuck in a middle fighting France.

As a young man, I joined the cavalry brigade.

While history prizes are battles.

The combined juggernaut of the German and Russian armies were too much for the brave soldiers of Poland.

Hundreds of thousands of Poles, soldiers and civilians were deported to labor camps in Russia, forced to suffer in humane conditions.

Many Poles would die under Soviet rule.

This was a dark time for Poland.

Wladyslawa: In preparation for the imminent invasion by the Germans into Warsaw.

I saw an obligation as a young woman to come tribute by joining the Gray ranks and spending many hours moving in the darkness of night to distribute anti-Nazi leaflets or leaflets giving false information as a one snitch or courier.

I now risked my own life and the life of my entire family.

Marian: Once again, my beloved country faded from the eyes of the world, but not from the heart of the people.

My order was buried.

Ammunition.

Give the horses and uniforms.

The peasants changed into civilian clothes, marched home in a wait for their orders.

The resistance had begun.

Freedom means never surrender.

Wladyslawa: In Warsaw, like many other cities in Poland.

The resistance announcement.

Risking being caught by the Gestapo.

That was exactly what happened to me in 1940 while being a courier.

I was taken to my court of headquarters, which was a Gestapo detention center.

I would remain there for three months.

On various occasions they would take me to 25 Alia Shawkat Street, a building taken over by the Gestapo and placed me in a cell referred to as a tram.

They would torture me and others to provide information.

I would then be returned to my office.

I refused to betray my fellow Partizans or my polar.

Marian: While secretly part of the resistance as silent volumizer.

I continued to work at the Union of Agriculture and Economic Operatives, now under the German authority.

Disposition allowed me the freedom of travel and a clear understanding of food shipments.

Or more importantly, of what amount of food shipments could disappear without Germans noticing.

Food was distributed in secret to those in need.

Trusted contacts were made and information was spread throughout occupied Poland.

It was a dangerous time.

Many did not survive.

Wladyslawa: Because of my refusal to cooperate with the Gestapo.

I was sent to Pawiak Prison in Warsaw again and again.

I was tortured on a regular basis for not providing information.

This torture lasted 21 months.

My defiance toward the questions directed at me only made me more determined to never surrender and relinquish my freedom as a pole.

Marian: In 1942, I was assisting a reconnaissance operative.

A member was captured and later executed.

But letter addressed to me fell into the hands of Gestapo.

When one ends up in the hands of Gestapo, that could be considered a better alternative to the pain and suffering they inflicted.

I was beaten so thoroughly that after finishing, they threw me into a cell, completely disabled.

But for all the weakness of my body, my spirit was never stronger.

I would not give up my fellow Poles.

Freedom means never surrender.

Wladyslawa: It was 1942 and I was transported to Ravensbr ück concentration camp north of Berlin, Germany.

This concentration camp was for women only.

It was there that I became a member of the morale or the walls.

It was an underground resistance Girl Scout group in the camp.

My torture was inflicted by a doctor who was more like a butcher.

I was one of the women that were referred to as kroliki or in English rabbits because of the experimentation done on us.

It was horrific.

They would either slice parts of our bodies and infect them with bacteria for pseudo medical experiments, or like myself, have caustic injections inserted into my body and then wait to record the results.

I lived with those physical and mental scars my entire life.

How can humans be so cruel to one another?

As a member of the Mury and a subgroup of that called cemente, which stood for the cement that helped hold the walls together.

I helped many of the women too weak to care for themselves because we only had each other.

I was one of the fortunate ones saved from the bunker, which was so far more severe punishment by Anna Burda.

When she changed my paperwork, which got me sent to Flossenburg concentration camp.

I was sure to die from more experiments if I remained at province, broke.

One year of my life was left at Ravensbr ück, but I survived.

I refused to die.

Marian: Auschwitz, Gross Rosen and Leitmertz.

All concentration camps.

All hell on Earth.

Through small miracles.

Too many to count.

My God, help me in this oppressions.

In I survive.

In the spring of 1945, we could hear the bombs bursting as the Russian army approached.

Whole columns of prisoners were being marched to the west.

On May 5th, 1945, I was included in such a column.

It was known that any prisoner who no longer had the strength to continue were finished off with a rifle shot and left by the roadside.

Therefore, at the first location during the night, I escaped.

Wladyslawa: Refusing to die.

I arrived at Flossenberg, but I left Ravensbr ück where 92,000 and women died to this subcamp, where before the end of the war, 33,000 more of us would die.

I knew the war must be coming to an end by the uneasy demeanor of the guards.

I was part of the group that was selected for a death march to Neu Rolah, a different subcamp of Ravensbr ück.

As I walked along with the other women, anyone that lagged behind was killed by the Nazi guard.

I was not going to give them the pleasure of watching me die.

Myself and a few other women waited for the right moment and broke from the lines and escaped before we would get the Shakara in Czechoslovak.

Marian: After much hiding and running, I finally stepped onto free soil in Hamburg.

I arrived in that displaced person camp run by the United States Army.

I immediately wanted to join the effort to rebuild a war torn world.

I became a lieutenant in the Polish guard company coordinating with the American Army Germany.

I also served as a leader in a Polish and international refugee organization.

But most importantly, I met my beloved wife and partner.

In all I will ever do.

Wladyslawa.

Wladyslawa: Never giving up hope that I would one day find peace in my life.

Myself and the other women were hiding in a barn in the village of Shakara.

We were discovered and liberated by a Polish U.S. soldier from Texas.

We were taken to a displaced persons camp in Germany, and my new life began when I met this wonderfully kind man, Marian Wojciechowski.

The year was 1945.

It is from this point forward that I will no longer be an I, but rather a.

Our young daughter, Mary-Ann Hania, was born in the displaced persons camp in Ashford of Germany.

She was named after Anna Burda, who changed my paperwork at Flossenburg.

Marian: Then in 1950, with our young daughter Marianne, we boarded the USS Blatchford and set sail for America.

Our names, written at Ellis Island, marked a new chapter in our history.

And though we had a new home, we would never lose our beloved born.

We settled in Toledo and embarked on the life we sacrificed ourselves for.

We traded our weapons in leaflets for words of Polish pride and identity.

These words were printed in the American Echo, a newspaper dedicated to embracing the Polish spirit that we were part of in Toledo.

In 1957, we were naturalized as United States citizens, and now we're a family of two nations.

We proceeded to use our experiences to promote Toledo as a community that welcomes everyone.

I was even informally known by many Toledo fans as the godfather of the Old West, and for ministry programs to support area urban renewal.

For me, I work to revitalize and invest in our communities.

All the while, we lead Polish organization to cultivate Polish traditions and support our brave homeland.

You see our American Dream was to continue the fight for Poland's total independence and secure our freedom from Russian tyranny.

And in 1989, 44 years after being occupied and brutalized by the Soviets, our dream came true.

Poland became free.

Wladyslawa: A beautiful family grew, adding two boys, Lucian and John, as brothers to Marian.

Yet I never forgot what enabled me to survive those horrible five years.

I reunited with other surviving scouts, and was elected commander of the Polish Girl Scouts in the USA.

I taught Polish language classes and wrote about my survival in Poland.

It is my hope that our lives and lives of those who are lost in the horrors of war be a testament to liberty so that history will never forget what it means in the twilight of our lives.

We have lived, laughed and laughed.

Marian: Although we have seen a war being prisoners buried, a son and countless friends and lived with a mental torture and pain that came without treatment in the concentration camps.

We have been truly blessed.

Life like freedom means never surrender.

Craig: My Buscia passed away in 1992, followed by my Jaja in 2011.

Then I'll rest in peace together, side by side at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Toledo, Ohio.

They were honored by Poles and Americans alike eternally.

They are a symbol of the unity among the righteous.

They never stopped giving back to the freedom they earned and loved by helping others.

One should never forget the warmth and kindness they shared with others, even though the hardships took a toll on their memories caused by the flashbacks of torture, pain and suffering.

As the Book of Wisdom reads, the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them forth before men.

Indeed, they be punished.

They shall be greatly blessed because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.

Busica and Jaja re the bravest couple I will ever know, even though they now rest with the just and the worthy.

Their legacy will live on in all of us forever.

Announcer: This program was made possible by the Anastasia Fund and the Polish Cultural Center of Northwest Ohio, also by viewers like you.

Thank you Marian: Forget that we did not neither had the time nor today.

We would not accept this kind of treatment.

And that was not only brutal, I would say that was al-Numan.

And today, you know, would be also an argument.

And you, for instance, you either you or me or what?

No one, I believe three miles would have to these type of fights or this type of and you would see the brutality.