The Germans tore apart a Polish family during the occupation, deporting small children to camps and forcibly Germanizing them. Franciszek Witaszek died at the occupier’s hands, while his daughters spent years in a foreign country under foreign names. Alodia’s story reveals the brutality of German policy toward Polish children.
The Witaszek Family Tragedy
Franciszek Witaszek led an underground organization in Greater Poland until his capture by the Germans. The occupiers executed him in 1943, leaving his wife Halina with two small daughters. Alodia was then only five years old, while her younger sister Daria was even smaller.
The Germans immediately seized control over the orphaned girls after their father’s execution. Occupation authorities placed the sisters in a transit camp near Warsaw just one month after losing their parent. They subsequently transported them to a special center for children operating in Łódź.
Camp for the Youngest Prisoners
The facility held children aged two to sixteen under inhumane conditions. Cold barracks provided no protection against frost, while meager food rations proved insufficient for survival. The Germans systematically neglected their charges, exposing them to disease and death.
The small prisoners suffered without proper medical care and basic attention. Sanitary conditions remained appalling throughout the facility’s entire operation. Many children did not survive their stay at this place due to hunger and illness.
Germanization and New Identity
The Lebensborn program took both sisters after three years spent in camps. A German family accepted them into their home in Stendal in central Germany. The girls received new names – Alodia became Alice Wittke, while Daria transformed into Dora Wittke.
The forced identity change aimed to erase the sisters’ Polish origins forever. The Germans completely severed the girls’ contact with their biological family and country of birth. The sisters grew up believing they were German without any knowledge of their true past.
Mother’s Search and Return
Halina Witaszek searched for her daughters in all available archives for four years. Institutions dealing with locating Polish children in Germany collected documents and photographs of the missing. The mother recognized her daughters in photographs found in documentation in 1947.
The German family unexpectedly contacted the archives revealing the girls’ true origins. Alice returned to Poland that autumn, with her sister joining a month later. The reunion brought no joy – the children knew no Polish and didn’t understand who the people trying to embrace them were.
Difficult Adaptation in Native Country
The girls settled with their mother in Ostrów Kurowski completely alienated from Polish reality. German upbringing had shaped their identity and worldview. Alodia had to relearn her nation’s language and culture from scratch.
The older child completed secondary school in the mid-1950s and pursued biology studies. She later worked as a laboratory assistant in medicine, continuing her scientific career. Her wartime experiences long remained a painful family secret.
Testimony for Future Generations
Alodia Witaszek-Napierała began publicly discussing her experiences only after years of silence. The former camp prisoner’s accounts became valuable material for researchers studying the fate of children in occupied Poland. Documentary makers and historians used her memories to create educational projects about Germanization.
