Our next special interviewee is Mr Michal Hominiec. A resident of Stratford of fifty years, Mr Hominiec grew up in Podole former Polish Eastern borderlands. His dad, an army officer, had been killed at the start of WWII, leaving his mother to fend for their four very young children.
Young Michal witnessed his little sister being killed by the German military by a single blow to the head – she lived for another week, lost her speech and died. And this was just a beginning: ‘I was five or six-years-old and would wake up to see bodies of Polish people hanging from the nearby trees’. The Bandera people would come to our house every night, they would probe us, look at us but still leave us alone. Other Poles did not share the same fate – many were butchered, thrown into wells, cut through with saws and men were dismembered by pulling apart with horses (…) I don’t know how our mother survived this and fed us through those times… we somehow survived…’
As a young man, Mr Hominiec attended college for non-commisioned officers and later served in the Polish navy. His cheerful personality and personal warmth is a rare quality and we were humbled to be greeted with such hospitality by him and his lovely wife, Mrs Hominiec. They have taught us about perseverance and strong work ethic; the importance of having faith in life, turning adversity into something positive and… laughing a lot!
Photo credits: Radek & Kamila Maziuk
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