“One family, which was to keep its house in Krzyki (Krietern) for the next half-century and more, chose it because it was empty and because Mother liked the roses in the garden. Father, who was an aristocrat, thought a suburban villa to be something of a come-down from his hereditary palace in Jezupol in the Ukraine. But, having been released from a Nazi concentration camp, he was glad of anything. The front of the house had been completely blown off by a bomb or shell, and it looked uninhabitable. But the back was intact and provided shelter while the rest of the structure was being patched up. And it soon became clear that everything in the East had been lost for ever, so they stayed. The wife of the German owner showed up after several weeks, but all she wanted was to collect a few souvenirs and depart for western Germany. She was to remain in touch with the family until she died several decades later.”
– Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse
Microcosm: A Portrait of a Central European City. London et al.: Pimlico, 2003, p. 431.
Based on a private conversation with Wojciech Dzieduszyck on 25 June, 2000.