(Bronislaw and his family left New Britain, CT and returned to Poland about 1921.) They were able to buy a large farm with animals and machinery and had a fairly good life there. But the Polish economy became very unstable … land prices were fluctuating and people were paying a lot of money for it.
Maryanna convinced him to sell the farm, which he did. But Bronislaw didn't turn the money over fast enough and within just a few weeks the money he held in hand was almost worthless, leaving him with enough to buy one cow. His father divided a portion of his land with rope and gave it to (Bronislaw and his brother, Jozef). On it they grew vegetables for trade and personal consumption but it was hardly enough to feed all of them.
(It would appear this is actually why the decision was made to come back to the U.S. Bronislaw returned ahead of his family on April 23, 1928 and after a couple of years sent for his three oldest children; Bronislaw Jr. and Helen joined their father on August 24, 1930 while Bernice stayed behind to marry Frank; Maryanna, Tony, Stanley, Hedy and Eugene arrived on May 15, 1934.)
(One evening in 1934,) just two weeks before the family was to leave for America, Frank Niedbala was at the Grala home with some other friends … teenagers from the village all hung out together. “He and Bernice did like each other,” admitted Frank, “but never really dated.” They were also considered to be too young to marry without parental approval. As Frank left that night, Maryanna stopped him at the door and suggested he come up with $1,000.00 for Bernice's hand in marriage … basically a dowry. He was from a rather well-off family and got the money from his parents. Bernice became engaged to Frank (and remained in Baba after the family set sail). They married in 1935 (and settled into the Baba homestead where their daughter Eugenia was born in 1936).
Frank was drafted into the Polish army in the fall of 1938. (Worried for his family’s safety, a letter was written to Bronislaw asking if they could join him in America. He refused the request saying Bernice already had her chance to come back. As the story goes, Maryanna persuaded him to change his mind ... possibly motivated by the officials at their Polish Club who spoke of onerous conditions on Europe's horizon and advised members to call their families home. Bernice and her daughter, Eugenia arrived in NY on January 15, 1939.)His unit fought in eastern Poland, near Hrubieszow, very near the Polish/Russian Border. He was in the artillery and fought on the front line. In 1940 he returned to Baba and opened up a blacksmith shop where he worked for two years while trying to get immigration papers.
In 1942 the Germans moved in and took one blacksmith from every town. Frank was taken to Kalingrad where he worked as a blacksmith for the Germans until 1943 or 1944 when he developed arthritis and couldn’t do blacksmithing any longer. They then sent him to an area in Lithuania where he did some farm-related work, taking care of cattle.
The Russians took over Poland and Frank was forced to work for them at various jobs for another two years. During that time, he was assigned to digging 9 x 9-foot ditches for tanks. Trying to get an easier task, he professed to be a mason to get a job building cooking ovens for the Russian army. They liked him immediately because he made suggestions on how to improve the ovens by having one chimney for every four ovens. “Knowing Franek over the years,” commented Cookie, “he always had quite an inventive, engineering mind.” After the ovens got built, he was "promoted" to cook. He also entertained the troops by playing the accordion and was fluent in Polish, German and Russian.
At one point, between his time with the Germans and the Russians, he was put in jail in Bartoszyce because someone had stolen his identification papers. The only proof he had that he was Polish was a picture he kept in his hat (and still has in his wallet) of a young Bernice and himself in a Polish Army uniform.
In 1945 or 1946 Frank became very ill with pneumonia and the Russians released him. He went to stay with relatives in the village of Lyse until he got well. Once recovered, he returned to Baba to find a very poor village with no work. His search for work took him to the German-controlled town of Olsztyn where he repaired mill equipment at the lumber mill.
Frank finally got his immigration papers and, after a long 9-year separation, was reunited with Bernice and Eugenia on January 17, 1948.
