Georges Szumanski : the story of a former member of the Polish resistance Article rédigé par les 1ère LLCE à l’occasion de la venue de Georges Szumanski ("Paroles d’hommes et de femmes") qui nous a raconté son histoire avec humilité, humour et résilience. Thank you Sir.

On Friday 9th December 2022, Georges Szumanksi- aged 98 years old, came to our school library at JJR to talk to us about his story. He lived during World War 2. A comic book was written based on his story named “Les migrants”. He explained to us how he survived this period in details.

He was born in current Ukraine, so in the former territory of Poland. He was the only child of his parents. When he was young, George lived with different communities like Christians and Jewish people. There were no problems between these communities, they were friends. But some people had some prejudice on the Jewish people. Some people even said that the Rabbi made bread with the Christians’ blood. After the start of the war, for some months, they didn’t suffer that much until the attack of Poland by the Germans. The former territory of Poland disappeared . Georges and his friends resisted with blowing tires. The German took control of the schools and the Soviets put portraits of Stalin. His biggest memory is when a German man threw a little Jewish girl over a bridge while he was going kayaking with his friends. He told us he never went back kayaking after that.

Georges spoke to us for nearly 2 hours with kindness and a sense of humour. At the end, he shared the message that he wanted to give to us. He insisted on the fact that it’s very important to vote. He really touched us, and we will never forget that unique moment. That’s what we told him in the letters we wrote to him afterwards.