Watching "Znikad Donikad" (From nowhere to nowhere) kept me interested, and I didn't dismiss the film as communist propaganda but rather as a valid voice in a discussion that should have taken place years ago after Poland became democratic in 1989. The plot of the film takes place in autumn 1945. The Home Army unit under the command of Lieutenant Grozny (Jerzy Trela) does not give up and begins fighting against the communist regime. Kazimierz Kutz manages to convey that the decision of Lt. Grozny is not just an empty declaration but also means the loss of human lives. But does it make sense to sacrifice human lives? I have a similar opinion to the film director Kazimierz Kutz for two reasons. The first reason is that already in February 1945, at the Yalta Conference, it was decided that Poland would fall under the Soviet zone of influence. The Home Army (AK) was dissolved on 19.01.1945. So did the partisans who stayed in the forests think they could defeat the Soviet Army? The second reason is the history of my family, which illustrates quite well the choices that Poles had to make during those years. My maternal grandfather was shot by Ukrainian nationalists in 1943, and my entire paternal family was deported to Germany for forced labor in 1942, where they were liberated by the British in 1945. My aunt married a Polish officer who was from the Polish units attached to the British army. My uncle-in-law had the same view of communism as George Orwell, so the young couple settled in England and became loyal British citizens. My paternal grandparents also considered emigration, but they were already middle-aged and thought it was too late for them to start a new life, so they returned to their native village in Poland. My maternal grandmother was a young widow with three small children in the same village where she was running a farm with her parents-in-law. Although not a communist, my maternal great-grandmother had a negative attitude towards the anti-communist underground. She believed that a serious man should take care of his family and work hard on his farm and that the forests were mostly filled with idlers, thieves, and drunkards. In 1946, underground partisans came to my grandmother's farm. They beat my great-grandfather and took all the horses, cows, and pigs. I believe that a sober, emotionless, and balanced view of those times is needed. In my family, everyone was assessing the situation rationally and making the correct decisions. The only real drama was the tragical death of my grandfather in 1943. From the 1960s onwards, the Polish and English branches of my family began to meet regularly.
