(3/3) “I did all I could to find out information about my...

(3/3) “I did all I could to find out information about my father, but it seemed that everyone who knew him had been killed. I traveled to Poland and searched records. We hired a researcher. We took out an ad in the paper, asking if anyone had information about Klaudiusz Jamiolkowski or Stanislaw Jamiolwski. But we heard nothing. The closest we came was discovering a family in my father’s village that shared his family crest. Their bloodlines crossed over one hundred years ago, but they had no direct knowledge of my father. I ended up becoming great friends with this family. Then one day, just a few years ago, I got a phone call from that family: ‘Tadzio!’ they told me. ‘The commander of the Polish Home Army just gave an oral history. And he mentioned your father by name!’ I went to Poland and found this commander. He was over ninety years old. He told me that he remembered my father well, because he’d lied about his age to become the youngest soldier in the Polish Home Army. And he confirmed every one of the stories that my father had told me.”