Europe’s past matters today. My grandma’s survival story tells us why | Peter Wolodarski
Having survived the Holocaust, fled Communism and lived in West Germany, Lusia saw how political institutions can serve both good and evil purposes
My grandmother was born in the Polish city of Równe. She died in Paris two weeks ago, a month before her 100th birthday. When I was growing up, I did not know much about her background. To me she was Grandma Lusia who lived in Germany and spoke Polish; my mum’s mum who called every evening and always wanted me to quickly pass the phone to my mother because it was so expensive to talk; Grandma who would come on surprise visits, driving her car all the way from Frankfurt to Stockholm, who arranged our summer and winter holidays, who always had
