Date: Fri 06-Nov-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

vote-Rodnicki-Poland

Full Text:

One Woman's Cherished Right: The Vote

BY STEVE BIGHAM

Voters were expected to stay away from the polls in droves Tuesday. Many

people have been turned off by the nasty tone of certain campaigns. For some,

getting out to vote was too much of an inconvenience. And others simply

concluded one less vote wouldn't affect the outcome.

Wiktoria Rodnicki of Newtown voted. To her, being able to pull the lever is a

privilege -- a freedom she has not always enjoyed.

Mrs Rodnicki has seen the best and worst of both worlds. She has not always

enjoyed the freedoms that many take for granted. She grew up in a world where

there were no voting booths and the only thing you fought for was your life.

In 1939, at age 16, Mrs Rodnicki and her family were taken from their home in

Poland and forced to work in a Russian labor camp. In those early days of

World War II, Russia and Germany signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov non-aggression

pact, which secretly provided for the dismemberment of Poland into Nazi and

Soviet-controlled zones. Both invaded the eastern European nation in September

of that year, deporting several hundred thousand people.

Speaking in her broken English earlier this week, the Woodbine Lane resident

spoke of the mistreatment her family received and how both her parents died

from disease.

"It was horrible, but I was finally able to escape to Pakistan," the

77-year-old woman recounted this week.

In Pakistan, she lived in a chicken coop for more than a month as she tried to

plan her next move. Separated from her brothers and sisters, she was alone and

afraid. In time, she made her way to the Persian Gulf where she worked in a

hospital in Teheran, Iran. Eventually, she made her way to Palestine where she

enlisted in the Polish Army. During World War II she drove a truck through

Egypt and northward to Italy.

During World War II, 400,000 Poles fought under Soviet command, and 200,000

went into combat on western fronts in units loyal to the Polish government in

exile.

While in Italy she met the man she would marry, Paul Rodnicki, who had also

joined the Polish army after escaping a Russian concentration camp.

During the war, about six million Poles were killed.

After the war, the Rodnickis traveled to England where they lived for five

years. Once they were approved for American citizenship, the two made their

way to the United States in 1952. Mr Rodnicki died in 1973.

Mrs Rodnicki points to her American citizenship papers which she hangs on the

walls in her living room.

"I appreciate being able to come to the United States," she said.

Thankful to be an American, Mrs Rodnicki remains proud of her Polish heritage

and, to show her pride, has marched in the Labor Day Parade since 1982.

On Tuesday, the Newtown resident got a lift to the her polling place at the

Sandy Hook Fire Company. She was prepared, however, to walk.