“Loss of Innocence,” new in my series of Polish War Stories

Let’s imagine.

Imagine yourself as a sixteen-year-old girl coming from a small village on the outskirts of Warsaw to the big metropolis. You overflow with hope for a bright future. You are ambitious and determined to make the best out of your young, budding life. The change in living conditions is enormous, but you can handle it. In this big city, the way of dressing is different, but that’s easy to learn. You meet new people, but you are eloquent and have youth on your side. Through the family connections, you get a job. The owner sees your performance and appreciates it with the advance in your position.

But you know that you need education. The school in your little village provided you with just basic knowledge. Painfully basic. You know you need more and nothing will stop you from achieving this dreamed goal. During this transition, you lost a couple of years, but you know this can be overcome.

You are young and pay more attention to the social life than to the political nightmare brewing. You cannot sense it and, even if you did, you can do nothing about it.

After long preparations, you are elated to start the first class in a new school.

Little do you know that the monster from the neighboring country decided to start his quest for world dominance precisely on the same day, the day of your first class in a new school. Then it hits you. It’s not only that you will not go to school. You may or may not know that this moment shuttered the future of your generation. And the generations to come. And not only for your peers. That moment devastated the lives of the people in your country. And in the entire world for that matter. At that moment, your generation lost its innocence.