ALBANY — The Monroe Evening Times’ front page headline read, “Polish DP Begins Work at Albany Vicinity Farm.” 

That displaced person was George Skowronski, one of the first to arrive in Green County on April 28, 1949. He was sponsored by the Edward Oliver family who had a dairy farm near Albany, now with a Monticello address. 

“The tall, well-built youth was one of 975 displaced persons who came to this country to make their homes,” read The Albany Herald newspaper.

Piecing together their father’s arrival in the U.S., Skowronski’s son Tim said his father had endured many hardships during the war in Europe. 

And 70 years from the exact day, Skowronski’s son and two daughters visited the Oliver farm where their father had worked. They drove the tractor that he drove. They walked through the barn where he walked. They connected and shared stories with Dick and Andy Oliver, who were young boys when their father had arrived.

Skowronski sailed to the United States aboard the USAT General L.M. Howze from Bremerhaven, Germany, on April 14, 1949. Tim said his father was born Sept. 29, 1928 in Poznan, Poland, a city in the western portion of the country. Skowronski’s father, Marian Skowronski, was a Sorbonne-educated economist who accepted a position as a sales director for a coal mine in Katowice, Poland, in 1929. This new opportunity moved the family south, to Chorzow.

“My father and aunt enjoyed a happy, carefree and rather privileged life growing up in the 1930s,” Tim said. “Even as the shadow of Nazi Germany spread and grew darker over Europe.”

German troops invaded Poland in September 1939. Despite fleeing northwest away from the invaders, the Skowronskis did not get far.

“My grandmother volunteered as a nurse to tend to wounded soldiers,” Tim said. “Meanwhile, my grandfather took my father and aunt and boarded a train to Kielce, away from the advancing enemy. As the train approached Imbramowice, dive bombers appeared in the sky and attacked the train.”

The three found shelter with a peasant family and stayed until November 1939, when they returned home to Chorzów. The Soviet Union had invaded Poland on Sept. 17, 1939. Marian Skowronski was arrested in January 1940.

“This was a fate common to the business and political elite,” Tim said, recalling that his grandfather had been apprehended as a possible threat to the new order. “Many were executed. My grandfather was spared and was released from custody in mid-1942. My grandfather then served as a lieutenant in the German Army during World War II.”

His grandfather’s lawyer advised him that was not safe to stay in Chorzow.

“This fear was perhaps because my grandmother had converted from Judaism to Christianity, to marry my grandfather,” Tim said. “This was a common occurrence in Poland during the centuries prior to World War II. As the Nazis spread throughout Poland, my grandmother’s Jewish relatives began disappearing, ending up in the ovens of Auschwitz.”

His aunt, Skowronski’s sister, returned to Chorzow in 1943 and was shielded from forced labor camps by Polish nuns in a monastery. For a year, she was hidden from Nazi authorities.

Following his lawyers’ advice, the three traveled to Jaroslaw, a city in southeastern Poland, which today is near the border of Ukraine. They were apparently invited by family friends, the Marczuk family. Marian Skowronski worked. George, who was 14 years old in 1943, had finished the school year with “good” in all subjects noted on his grade report in July. On July 22, George was issued his first Kennkarte, or identification card, by the general government.

“It seems they spent the summer and fall living a normal life for the circumstances, but this normalcy abruptly ended,” Tim said.

In December of that year, George Skowronski was placed into forced labor at 15.

“My father was officially a forced laborer of the Third Reich, essentially a Hitler slave,” Tim said. “He was a non-Jewish forced laborer and was considered the perfect working age.”

Until June 1944, George worked as an office worker for Main Group Food and Agriculture headquartered in Lwow, or Lemberg. In May 1944, headquarters was transferred to Krakow, Poland, and George lost his job. 

On July 1, 1944, George began working for the Coal Trading Office. At this point the forced labor became hard labor.

“My father spoke about having to cut and split a certain amount of wood before he was able to eat, so this is probably where those circumstances originated,” Tim said. 

The Soviets started their final push through Ukraine, into the Galicia region of Poland and into southern Poland, beginning in July 1944. At this time, the German Army retreated out of Lemberg, weeks after his father started working. 

“As the German Army retreated, my father and his work group retreated with them, eventually ending up in the Augsburg area of Bavaria, Germany by the end of the war in May 1945,” Tim said. “His work group supplied the German Army with wood and other supplies and hard labor tasks, such as digging and building fighting positions. My father did quarry work…to build roads for military use. He worked under constant watch by armed guards, with meager rations consisting primarily of dark bread and thin soup.”  

Tim added that his father seldom spoke of the sickness, death and destruction he had witnessed. At the end of World War II, George lived in Obergunzburg. At one point, he had pneumonia and received medical treatment from U.S. Army medical personnel. He found work with the 2nd Battalion, 314th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division in administrative positions until the end of 1945. George later joined a U.S. Army Auxiliary Unit, where he worked as a clerk with a Post Exchange in Frantiskovy Lazne, Czech. 

“It is obvious from the letters and other written documents he kept that the men in the unit were very good to him,” Tim said. “They appreciated his hard work, honesty, and diligence. I believe it is this positive experience that increased his desire to join the Army Reserves soon after arriving in the U.S.” 

The division returned to the U.S. in January 1946. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Team 114 took over administration of the displaced persons camps in the Augsburg area. George registered at the center on Jan. 8. Tim said his Index Card number read G08238866.

On Feb. 1, George became a labor reporter at the Polish Displaced Person Camp in Hindenburg-Kaserne. He held this job until June 1, 1946, when the camp closed. 

“According to the letter of employment he received on June 3: ‘From the entrusted works to him, he displayed consciention, punctuality, honesty, diligence, working always for our best satisfaction.” The letter is in English and Polish.

From June 1, 1946, to February 1948, George mentioned he lived with a family who owned a hotel in Krumbach as he worked to be sent to either the U.S. or Australia. On Feb. 10, George started working as a secretary and chief clerk for the Preparatory Commission for International Refugee Organization Team 1062 in Augsburg. 

“He had seven boys working under him doing statistical work, according to The Monroe Evening Times front page article of Thursday, April 28, 1949,” Tim said. 

He worked there until he left for the U.S. in March 1949 and ended up on a farm in Albany, sponsored by Edward Oliver and his wife Naomi Arlene (Bartlett) Oliver. On March 28, George received his smallpox vaccination at the Area Medical Department, Area 8, in Bremen and then boarded the transport ship USAT General L.M. Howze. He set sail for Boston, admitted to the U.S. on April 24, 1949. He took a train to Albany.

 Albany, a picturesque rural town built on the banks of the Sugar River, was originally named Campbell’s Ford by its founders, James Campbell and Thomas Stewart. The river and fertile surrounding area made it an ideal location for industrial and agricultural activity. 

The Oliver family farm was a few miles outside of Albany. Edward and his wife, who was a school teacher, had three boys: Jim, 7, Dick, 5, and Andy, 3. It wasn’t until years after his father’s death that Tim contacted the Oliver brothers and pieced more of the puzzle together. 

Andy, the youngest of the three, shared two vivid memories. He remembered George’s morning bath routine drove his father crazy. 

“It seems after milking the cows, my father would come back into the house, take a bath, and then come downstairs for breakfast,” Tim said with a laugh. “Of course, after breakfast he was going back out to work the farm and get dirty again!”

Jim, the oldest, remembered George showing off his wood splitting abilities. He was sitting, and likely showing off his strength, as he split pieces from his seat, Tim said. Jim revealed more than memories. It turned out his life had a fascinating connection to George.

The refugee program that brought George to Albany as farm laborer also brought hundreds of others, placing them on farms in many states. One family was placed on a farm in Pennsylvania. This family had several children, including a daughter, who Jim Oliver ended up marrying.

“In an incredible twist of historical fate, this daughter was born in Germany in a DP camp at the same time my father was in Germany and the daughter’s mother had been a clerk laborer in Jaroslaw in 1943, hiding from the Germans and Russians at the exact time that George was there,” Tim said. “Jim said he thought of my father often, as his wife’s family shared their memories of what happened to them during the war, a remarkably similar story to my father’s.” 

George didn’t stay at the Oliver farm for an extended time.

“Edward Oliver was a very exacting farmer who definitely recognized that my father had no real talent for farming,” Tim said. “These two factors undoubtedly led to Mr. Oliver taking my father to Madison and dropping him off with a final breakfast and a $10 bill.” 

Before leaving George, Edward Oliver pointed to one end of State Street and said, “That is the State Capitol building.” Pointing to the other end he said, “That is Bascom Hill and the University of Wisconsin.” He wished George a good life and said goodbye. George was on his own to do with his life as he chose; he vowed to make the most of it.

“I can only imagine the thoughts running through his mind at this moment,” Tim said. “He needed a place to live and a job. He was in unfamiliar surroundings with no family or friends for support. He knew he wanted to complete his education. How and where to begin?”

George went to the YMCA near the UW campus. There he found a room to rent for $5 a month. He went to the Slavic Languages Department at the University, where he found the Department chair, Dr. Edmund I. Zawacki, a man of Polish heritage and a Polish speaker. Dr. Zawacki wrote an employment recommendation letter on George’s behalf.  

August ‘Augie’ Faulkner offered George a bellhop position at the Edgewater Hotel at the end of Wisconsin Avenue and eventually he became the night desk clerk and started helping with the bookkeeping. 

The next step was to complete his education. With his school records from Jaroslaw, and test scores from Central High School, he was credited with 10 years. He could earn his high school diploma in two years. George was eager to start at the university, so he took classes at Central High School and at the vocational school and finished in one year.

George applied to become a naturalized citizen. He was officially granted citizenship on June 15, 1954. 

“This was easily one of the proudest moments of his life,” Tim said. “He never took that privilege for granted.”

He enrolled at UW-Madison in June 1951 and pursued a bachelor’s degree in zoology. While in college, George met an art student named Nancy who sold tickets at the Wisconsin Union ticket booth.

“They got married the day after graduation on June 16, 1956, at Saint Francis Episcopal Church on University Avenue,” Tim said. “Their marriage lasted until my mother’s death in August 1996.”

George served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Reserves for 28 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. His final duty was as a West Point liaison officer/recruiter in the northeastern region of Wisconsin. He worked in research and development in the paper industry in Neenah and was employed by the same company through its iterations: Marathon became American Can, became James River, became Fort James, and today, Georgia-Pacific. George was involved in organizations including Rotary International, TAPPI and the Institute of Paper Chemistry.

The couple raised a family of four children, always emphasizing the value of hard work and education. After Nancy died, George returned to Poland every year to visit his sister and other family members. On Sept. 3, 2003, George died while in Poland visiting his family after suffering a stroke.

“I am certain he wouldn’t have done this had the Berlin Wall not come down and communism eliminated,” Tim said. “My dad truly appreciated and took full advantage of the opportunities afforded him by this country, which started on the Oliver family farm. During conversations with the Oliver brothers, I emphasized that had their parents not sponsored my father as a refugee and subsequently let my father go to Madison to get his education, my family and I would not exist. Both were key events in my father’s journey.”