All at once, the Germans came out of the woods, and they took us.
They had a truck.
They loaded us on the truck, and they were fixing to carry us off to Germany.
I started crying and screaming.
I was scared to death.
I thought, “I’ll never see Momma and Daddy anymore.”
I was born in Poland, and I was six months old when my mother and daddy went to France.
Then I went to school in France.
But, life in France was pretty rough before the War.
I had a good mother and daddy though, and we had a good life.
In 1938, my brother was gone to the service.
They took him in the Army.
And then, when the war started, it was bad.
For years, as Nazi Germany’s power continued rise, civilian families like that of young
Anna Matysik lived on the brink of war.
In 1939, Hitler’s forces invaded Poland, igniting hostilities in Europe.
In the following May the long-feared German invasion of France was underway.
When the War started, before the Germans came in, we had a lot of bombings.
They were bombing the city.
My mother was a nurse.
When the sirens would go off, my mother had to go to the place for emergencies.
My daddy would go with her, because sometimes it would be during the night.
They would take us out of our bedroom, and we had a cellar.
They’d put my sister and me in the basement, then they would go to the emergency.
And then they would let us sleep in the basement until morning.
It was a hard life, you know?
It wasn’t funny.
It was bad because my brother was a prisoner.
They took him prisoner.
So, this is what was bad in our home, because my mother was crying.
Because, we couldn’t hear from my brother.
The German attack was so swift and so fierce that many of the French forces were left disoriented
and panicked.
Their fighting spirit quickly diminished, and despite valiant support from the British
Armed Forces, France fell under German control that June.
The French military, they done gave up, and they were laying in ditches, drunk.
So, the Germans just came in through our town easy.
Things got bad with the Germans in there, you know.
The few people that were left in our town didn’t have any bread to eat.
A few of my neighbors, one day we decided to go glean.
When the farmers take everything out of the field, like wheat, there’s always some left
in the field, and people would go pick this up.
We were in the field, we were getting ready to glean.
All at once, the Germans came out of the woods, and they took us.
They had a truck.
They loaded us on the truck, and they were fixing to carry us off to Germany.
I don’t know why.
I guess they thought maybe we were spying.
I started crying and screaming.
I was scared to death.
I thought, “I’ll never see Momma and Daddy anymore.”
They were sending a lot of people to concentration.
I was little, but I knew it was a bad place, because I knew they’d probably kill us.
But, my neighbor’s daughter worked for the German commandant in our town, and she told
them Germans they could call him up and ask him if we were telling the truth.
And they turned us loose.
But, I thought we were all gone.
So, I never went back gleaning anymore.
No.
For more than four years Anna and her family lived in fear, subject to German occupation.
But in June of 1944, the tide of the war began to change.
The planes started coming over, bombing.
They kept going round and round.
What they were after, there was an airport there.
They were bombing the airplanes.
The D-Day invasion brought the Ally forces to western Europe in full strength.
The Allies pursued their German foes across France, gradually liberating one town after another.
Oh, this was good, you know!
Everybody was happy the Americans came.
Some of them were marching, some of them were in cars and on trucks, and everybody greeted
them good.
A lot better than the Germans, you know?
We thought, “Well, the War is over now.”
But the war was far from over.
In December of 1944, the Ally’s advance across Europe was brought to a halt when Adolf
Hitler poured every available man and machine into a surprise counter-attack.
The Allied forces were caught off guard, and throngs of troops were surrounded.
The Battle of the Bulge would be the largest and bloodiest battle yet for the United States
Armed Forces.
Miles back from the front lines, continuing life in her newly liberated town,
Anna would soon have a fateful encounter with a young American soldier of the 6th Armored Division.
I was at home, and I looked on the sidewalk.
I saw him coming on the sidewalk - him and his friend.
And I thought, “Ooh, I’m gonna run in the house.”
I ran in the house, and let them pass by.
I didn’t want them to see me.
After they passed, I went back outside and was washing clothes.
And next thing I knew, somebody hit me on the shoulder and it was him!
And I said, “Oh my gosh!”
And then, my Daddy heard me talking to somebody.
He opened the door, and invited him and his friend in.
And that’s how we met.
Noah kept coming back.
I don’t know why he kept coming back.
I couldn’t speak English and he could speak just a little bit of French, not much.
We just learned to communicate, you know - a little bit of this, and a little bit of this.
That’s how we fell in love.
He was at the Battle of the Bulge.
I know it was bad on him.
When I met him, he was shell-shocked.
But…
I think I helped him, you know?
I think he accepted my family.
His family was here, you know?
And he got acquainted with my daddy and mother.
We treated him like he was one of our own.
He needed somebody then.
We went off, we went to a movie - you know, in our town - and this is when he proposed
to me.
I told him, I said, “Gotta talk to Momma and Daddy now!”
As the Allies continued their drive toward Berlin and the German war machine’s strength
began to wane,
prison camps were uncovered, prisoners released, and Anna received an early wedding present.
A taxi drove up, and my daddy went outside,
and he looked in the back seat, and my brother was in there.
My mother and me, we were upstairs.
We ran downstairs when Daddy said, “George!”
And so, we ran downstairs to the taxi, and there was George.
He finally came home, just before our wedding.
We got married in February, and this was a party!
Everybody was celebrating, you know.
It was a happy time, then.
Can you tell me about your wedding dress?
Yeah!
You want to get the wedding dress?
It was made out of parachute.
Yeah, it was made during the War, you know.
And we didn’t have…
So my friend made this out of parachute.
We found a parachute in the field, because a lot of soldiers were coming down.
And we found a parachute and she made my wedding dress.
I wish I could get in it now, but I can’t.
In May of 1945, the war in Europe finally came to an end.
Soon Anna would find herself on a ship to America, where her husband was waiting for her.
The two settled in Alabama, raised a family, and spent a lifetime together.
I had a good life, and I had a good husband.
Seventy-six years.
We were married seventy-six.
And he passed away last year, three days before our anniversary.
I wish y’all could’ve came when he was still here.
He was a talker!
He talked a lot.
He was real good to me.