“Everything For Freedom”: An Ambassador’s Family Survives Nazism And Communism

Ambassador Aldona Wos was born in March 1955 in Poland. She immigrated to the United States with her parents and older brother in 1961, settling on Long Island. She remembers learning English in elementary school but being too shy to speak until a teacher visited her parents. On the walk home, the teacher kept asking questions and Aldona had to speak. As a senior in high school, her father asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up, and she responded, “Father, I would like to be an Ambassador.” He stressed the importance of an education and having a profession where you can give back to the community. She asserts that one of the lessons of surviving communism is that the communists can take everything but your education, and in hard times it is good to have a profession where your services are always in demand. She chose to become a Physician, graduating from the Medical University of Warsaw. Returning to New York, she specialized in lung diseases and practiced medicine for 18 years. After marrying Louis DeJoy, the couple moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where she became active in local politics, saying “yes” when people needed help. In 2004, President Bush appointed her as the U.S. Ambassador to Estonia, where she served until December 2006. She has also served on the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina, and as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for the state of North Carolina. She is currently the President of the Institute of World Politics. In 2007, Polish President Lech Kaczynski awarded her the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In this interview, she focuses on her family’s history and their struggles under both Nazi and Communist rule. She discusses how her great grandparents served as forced labor on farms in Imperial Germany. In 1939, when both the Nazis and Soviets invaded Poland, her family all served in the Polish resistance. Early in the war, her father escaped the Soviets and returned to Warsaw. The family had a zipper and sewing shop in the area of Warsaw that became the ghetto, and the Nazis gave them permission to keep working. Her father and grandfather helped Jews escape the ghetto, hidden in their work cart, even though it would result in the death penalty if discovered. Years later, her father was recognized by Yad Vashem with the “Righteous Among the Nations” medal for his efforts during the war. After the Warsaw Uprising, her family was sent to concentration camps, her grandmother and aunts to Ravensbrück and her father and grandfather to Flossenbürg. After the war, the Communists took control of Poland, and the family chafed under Soviet rule. She remembers her father keeping a briefcase by the bed, and her mother explaining that it was necessary “in case we have to leave in a hurry.” Her parents wanted to leave Poland because, under communism, there was no opportunity for higher education, and the people were always being spied upon with no idea who the informers were. When her father received a visa, the family had 10 days to sell their belongings and leave Poland. They traveled to Canada on an ocean liner. When Aldona returned to Warsaw for medical school, she again experienced life under communism, and she discusses the failed economic policies that kept the people repressed and controlled. Now, she is active with the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, D.C., and cautions that “we can never forget” those who suffered and died because of communism. At the end of the interview, she talks about her service to the nation, stating, “Family is very important” and “service for the benefit of others” is her goal. She concludes by noting, “The happiest people give of themselves.”