Marilla Christmas

Dad (EJZ), Mom (CAMZ) and Rita Sonnelitter,
c1970.

John (JFZ) and Tye, age 3.

Archanioł Boży Gabryjel

Gabriel, Archangel of God is the first carol in the śpiewnik. Its place in the hymnal is a sign of its importance and popularity for the Season of Advent.

Verse 1 of 5 begins the narrative with an exciting opening.

Archanioł Boży Gabryjel,

Posłan do Panny Maryi.

          

               Archangel of God Gabriel,

               Envoy to Lady Mary.

Z majestatu Trójcy Świętej,

tak sprawował poselstwo k'niej:

               From the majesty of the Holy Trinity,

               Thus delivered the messenger, to her:

Zdrowaś Panno, łaskiś pełna,

Pan jest z Tobą, to rzecz pewna.

          

               Hail Lady, of Grace full,   (i.e., Hail Mary, full of Grace. . .)

               The Lord is with Thee, that thing is true (i.e., for sure!)

These Archangels are a big deal! They are the warriors who fought and defeated Lucifer himself, way back at the beginning. Yet we need not fear them; they're on our side. And so the hymn can be performed in a way that sounds like a comforting folksong:

Verse 2 describes her perfectly understandable reaction:

Panna się wielce zdumiała,
z poselstwa, które słyszała.

          The Lady was very surprised (astounded),

               By the message that she heard.

Pokorniuchno się skłoniła,
jako Panna świątobliwa;

       

               Meekly she bowed,

               Like a sainted Lady;

zasmuciła się z tej mowy,
nic nie rzekła Aniołowi.

        

               She was overcome by this message,

               She said nothing to the Angel.

Here it is again in another key, with a fire in the fireplace and snow falling outside.

Now that we are all steady, we can go on the the big news in Verse 3. This warrior angel has the wisdom to speak with kindness to a mortal woman.

Ale poseł z wysokości,
napełnion Boskiej mądrości,

      

               But the messenger from Above (from on high)

               Full of Divine wisdom,

 rzekł Jej: "Nie bój się, Maryja,
Najszczęśliwszaś Panno miła; -

  

               Said to her: "Do not fear, Mary,

               You are the happiest blessed Lady;

   nalazłaś łaskę u Pana,
oto poczniesz Jego Syna."

     

               You have found grace with the Lord,

               Here you will conceive His Son."

In Verse 4, Gabriel gives particulars.

Jezus nazwiesz imię Jego,
będzie Synem Najwyższego -

               "Jesus you will call the name of Him (i.e., You will call his name Jesus)

               He will be the Son of the Supreme Being - 

wielki z strony człowieczeństwa,
a niezmierny z strony Bóstwa.

               great on the part of humanity (i.e., great among men)

               and immense on the part of the Deity.

Wieczny Syn Ojca wiecznego,
Zbawiciel świata całego."

               Eternal Son of the Eternal Father,

               Savior of the whole world."

               

In Verse 5, we leave the narrative and sing as the Chorus, directly to God. Thus the volume is cranked up for the finale in which the faithful respond to the retelling of the story.

Bogu Ojcu Wszechmocnemu,
Synowi Jego miłemu

               To God the Father Almighty,

               To His Beloved Son

i Duchowi Najświętszemu,
Bogu w Trójcy jedynemu,

               And to the Most Holy Spirit,

               To the Triune God,  (three in one, literally)

dziękujemy w uniżności,
za ten cud Jego miłości.

               We give thanks in humility,

               For this miracle of His love.

Here is La Schola Cantorum performing Archanioł Boży Gabryjel in formal, majestic manner. Notice that the singers sing a verse, then repeat the last four lines of that verse. Up in the choir loft, serene above the rustling, coughing, and tintinabulation, they set the example of professional concentration.

May you all have a hopeful and meaningful Advent season. Pay your debts, forgive people, plan your better future behavior. I know I should. Obyś miał Błogosławiony Adwent!

Dzień Swiętego Mikołaja

The feast day of Saint Nicholas is  December 6, because Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, died on this day in AD 343.  During his lifetime he was beloved for his acts of charity  - in particular, for anonymous charity -  and to this day he is beloved  and imitated in it by Christians all over the world.

See Nicholas sneaking up to the window of the house to toss in pouches of coin, one for each of three distressed young women.  This 1425 painting by Gentile de Fabriano is in the Vatican.  The legend about this event is apparently typical of the kind of thing this man enjoyed doing.

The four weeks of Advent are sombre ones for children:  they mentally review their bad deeds of the past year, make resolutions, and review their catechism, all prior to Christmas Day. Saint Nicolas's feast day is a bit of a breather.  There are the coins in the shoes, and piernicki - gingerbread cookies.

Besides being the favorite of children, this Greek Bishop of ancient times, "Ἅγιος Νικόλαος," is patron saint of sailors.  That is why a ship is often depicted in the crook of his staff.

We've encountered the saint, in one of his many, many later manifestations, previously on Gene and Clara's.

Szczęśliwego Dzień Swiętego Mikołaja!

The War Was in Color

Zdrojewski Geneologic Detail - A Little Guide to Recent Comments by Elzbieta Nowak

The Eugeniusz photo post  has a comment of 02/28/17 by Elzbieta Nowak, correcting the spelling of "Eugeniusz."

The post "Poznań Zdrojewskis: From the Old Country, Part 3" features nieces and nephews Teresa, Zdziszek, Renia; Stawek; Pawełek; Marija; Alinka.  Pani Nowak has supplied in the comment translations of the inscriptions on the photos, as well as biographical details of individuals.

"European 'Official Papers'" includes the Abzugsattest of Ludwik and Wiktoria Zdrojewski as they left Lęg (Leng, Ling) in late C19.  Again Pani Nowak supplies biographical detail for them, for brother Franciszek, and their descendants.

"Uncle Joe, Aunt Julia, Joseph Jr." discusses them in America and includes a photo of Ludvik and Wiktoria.  Elzbieta Nowak's comment on this post concerns not them, but further data about Franciszek in Poland, his wife Helena, and their children Sabina and Edmund. And here is an interesting puzzle solved:

That comment begins with Poznań Zdrojewskis: Od Starego Kraju, część 8.

I had wondered if that was a book title, but now I believe it to be a reference to my own post!  Assuming typing error consisting of 8 for the correct 3,  that is simply a Polish translation of "Poznań Zdrojewskis: From the Old Country, Part 3".  This took me long enough to figure out, but heyhey, I think we have arrived safely in port at last.

We therefore have, thanks to Elzbieta Nowak, data on family from Ludwik and Wiktoria, on through Sabina and Edmund (of whom we heard the grownups speaking when we were children in the 1960s) and their children. Many thanks to Pani Nowak.

Richard Mazurowski

Richard Mazurowski (1925-2017) was son of Pearl Haremska Mazurowska, nephew of Clara Haremska Matynka, brother of Genevieve Mazurowska Stroinska, cousin of Clara Matynka Zdrojewska. He was Dad to Debbie, and he was Uncle Dick to Sharon and to Marty and me.

Below, we see him acting as groomsman in a wedding party sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Richard (Ryszard) is third from the right. Sorry, I have no idea who the couple are. But first from the left is Clara Adamina Matynka, aka Mom.  Clara and Richard and Genevieve are first cousins; their mothers were sisters.

We can zoom in a little here, to the curly locks, 3-piece morning dress, and proper cravat.

Below we see another wedding party. The print is on deckle-edge paper. I like the ordinary houses with the Italian Renaissance-style campanile in the background. It houses the belfry of the parish church.

Genevieve and Edward Stroinski are the couple this time. Richard appears as Best Man. Isn't that Florence with him? I think it is. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Cabinetry and the making of fine furniture was Uncle Dick's profession. Below is a bookcase he designed, built, and installed for Gene and Clara. This is in the G&C house in Bowmansville, the year being between 1950 and 1956. Here in the Trove are at least three prints just of this bookcase. They were happy to have it; mayhap it was their Christmas gift to themselves.  See the bits of Christmas tree at the right of the photo?

1957 was the year of G&C moving into the Marilla house. Below is a scene at one of the early parties there. Proper parties always included 40 people or thereabouts, and went on in several rooms, including the finished part of the basement. Below we see, left to right, Casimir Zdrojewski, Adam Matynka, and Richard. The item of furniture in the background is a cobbler's bench done up by him.

The house on Poplar Street was similarly a noted party venue. Below we have New Year celebrations featuring dancing, lots of dancing, here with Florence and Richard.

Fourth of July featured culinary special ops, such as BBQ at the tent site in Marilla. Dick and Gene do not mess around.  I'm guessing 1960s here.

Below we see a very patient, as well as very stylish, Uncle Dick, in the dining room at another Marilla party, c1969.

(No snake is climbing up that wall. That is the stem of a split-leaved Philodendron, the leaves of which had, um, split the scene, for some reason.)

Left to right, below,  we have Clara Matynka, Uncle Dick, some idiot blowing out candles and looking like Oscar Wilde, Aunt Florence aka Auntie 'Lossie, Clara Zdrojewska aka Mom, and Uncle Eddie Stroinski. We also appear to have a fruit-Jello mold. 

But look at the wall behind Mom and Uncle Eddie. See those red-and-black encyclopedias? They are the same Compton's Encyclopedia, shelved on the same Uncle Dick bookcase, as in the Bowmansville photo above. When G&C worked on the design of the Marilla house, they stipulated a recessed niche in that wall, to accomodate that bookcase.

Below are Mom and Uncle Dick at a family event in 1971.

Uncle Dick set up his own furniture refinishing business, using his business name of Richard Mast, and went in with Uncle Eddie Jr. and Uncle Eddie Sr. Below we see him showing the latest progress on the revitalizing of the Zdrojewski grandfather clock, in the 1980s.

Uncle Dick was always at the wheel of  the station wagon when it was loaded up with "The Poplar Street Gang" and driven to Marilla for partying. He also had a motorboat for some time. I remember seeing it in the garage. If you send me any boating photos, or any photos at all of Dick and Florence, I will be delighted to put them up. 

Amoebic Dysentery - Germs and Worms versus The Big Brass

I. Brain assembles scattered facts and forms pattern; clarity ensues.

Here is a swimming hole in a southwest Chinese village in the summer of 1945. I am not 100% sure of all that the villagers did with this water, but they must have done some things of significance or Dad would not have snapped the photo.

This village was a recruiting station for KMT soldiers attached to US OSS for jump, combat, and demolition training for purposes of harassing Tojo’s occupying forces. They learned quickly. These volunteers made excellent soldiers who fought eagerly for their country. In two months they and their mentors conducted multiple missions and did their job.

Later in the summer the team was flown to Kaifeng, from whence they jumped to Hsien for the Hwang-Ho Bridges mission. Here is a scene in Kaifeng, city of canals.

A shadow of a certain kind passed over Dad’s face as he told 12-year-old me, once, I had amoebic dysentery. It was very painful and it took a long time to go away. It was a shadow of remembered pain. He had been lucky: he survived, had never been captured, was not maimed, and his illness did go away. So the illness must have been impressively painful to have caused such a recollection decades on.

Dysentery comes from the Greek for bad gut, bowels gone wrong. Medically, it indicates pain and blood. All diarrhea involves loss of body salts and water. Dysentery severe and prolonged additionally can result in blood-loss anemia. Amoebic dysentery, prolonged and undertreated, can result in liver infection and abscess formation with the protozoan, with consequent liver impairment and jaundice. The creatures can settle in the brain, too; after all, once they get into the bloodstream they have to fetch up somewhere.

The Bug in Evidence

Our pathogen, Entamoeba histolytica, has an absurdly complex life cycle. In brief, victim-host ingests an encysted form. Organisms excyst in the intestinal lumen, develop into their trophozoite form, and either are excreted or invade the tissue lining the intestine.

Here is normal intestinal lining:

The section has been stained with H&E, hematoxalin (blue, for nuclear material) and eosin (pink, for cytoplasm.) This is from a histopathology text (Figure 24.3) but anyone who has ever nurtured and grown any plant or animal can see that the structures are healthy. Those villi are long and elegant. The cells lining each villus are plump and entire. They can do their work of absorbing sugars, salts, amino acids, water, and so on, and of keeping out toxins and pathogens.

But if the toxins or pathogens are too strong, or the host is weakened, they can damage these defensive structures and effect a breach. Then the germ can go systemic. Here is a CDC photomicrograph of a typical flask-shaped ulcer of intestinal amebiasis. Yep, it is an ulcer all right – a hole in the lining – and the bad guys have poured in. But also note the remaining villi. They are blunted and thickened. Most of their own lining cells are shriveling up or exploding, and so not working well at all. The victim-host cannot absorb much water, nutrients, or medicines. After consuming his store of body fat, he starts to break down his muscle tissue for protein and energy. He becomes weak and cachexic. Yet he continues to fight.

What treatment can be offered a person with amoebic dysentery?

Stop the ingestion of new cysts. Clean up the drinking water, improve general sanitation and kitchen hygiene, and get the human carriers out of the kitchen. Such things were pretty well impossible in rural China in 1945. Oral electrolyte solutions were not generally available at that time, either. Intravenous electrolyte replenishment and intravenous alimentation were only fantasies, on remote battlegrounds.

As far as I can learn, the only antimicrobials available at that time were the sulfa drugs and, more rarely, penicillin. Sulfa would only work if the diagnosis were wrong and the soldier in fact had a bacterial disease. (It presents its own problems as well: it must be mixed with plenty of water to avoid damaging the soldier’s kidneys. And what’s in that water? Something sulfa does not kill?) Penicillin has no effect on enteric protozoans.

We are fortunate now to have metronidazole (Flagyl) which trashes the DNA of microbial cells while doing no harm to host cells. The MDs have that now among their options for killing amoebae that have invaded human tissues. We also have the aminoglycoside drug paromomycin, which gums up the works of microbial ribosomes; the MDs have that among their options for killing amoebae still in the gut lumen. But those were not available commercially until 1960. I can find no evidence that anything like either of them was available, even experimentally, during World War II.

So, a stricken man could only eat and drink the cleanest stuff he could find, and the easiest to absorb, including salt. It was a race to rebuild the intestinal lining, using materials gleaned largely from elsewhere in the body, before those ran out or new waves of the pathogen attacked.

During the war years there were thousands of men in this fix, in all theaters and climates, with the highest rates being in CBI, the China-Burma-India theater. The Army epidemiologists kept records:

In late 1942 and in 1943, increasing numbers of troops entered North Africa and the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and the China-Burma-India theaters, all north of the Equator. Rates for the total Army rose to 25 per 1,000 and for troops overseas to 66 per 1,000, the 1943 annual rate for all overseas troops being the highest of the war. June 1943 marked the high point in monthly rates for troops overseas, the figure being 164 (chart 28). Large numbers of unseasoned young men made a first entry into poorly sanitated areas of highly endemic diarrheal disease. Conditions were different in subsequent years for smaller numbers of men were rotated into already established bases where preventive medicine practices were established and the bulk of troops had become accustomed to conditions. For overseas troops in 1943, 7.4 percent of all disease and 3.5 percent of all noneffectiveness was due to the diarrheas and dysenteries (table 67). Rates for the total Army were better in 1944 and 1945, 22 and 22, respectively. Rates overseas fell from 66 in 1943, to 38 in 1944, and to 33 in 1945 (table 54). 

And again:

Highest rates were encountered when United States Army troops intermingled in densely populated areas with Eastern peoples, as in China-Burma India, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Philippines. It was at these points of contact with Eastern civilizations that highest rates of diarrheal disease occurred. Diarrheal disease was hyperendemic in these locations into which United States troops were introduced. The criticism was often made that United States troops, accustomed to the advanced sanitary practices of Western civilization, were not sufficiently briefed regarding precautions necessary to prevent personal and mass diarrheal disease in these Eastern locations.

And here is the money quote (emphasis mine):

China, Burma, and India are all hyperendemic areas in respect to diarrheal disease. Many sanitary practices of these overcrowded populations, both personal and communal, are tied to habits and customs of generations past. The saving and collection of night soil for agricultural purposes and the promiscuous deposition of filth including feces and garbage favored survival and spread of the infectious agents of intestinal diseases. Food is commonly unprotected from dust, rodents, and flies. Refrigeration is almost universally lacking. Flies are generally abundant. Diarrhea and dysentery, bacillary and protozoal, are constantly present.

These diseases were quickly established among United States troops entering this environment, where standards of sanitation were so different from those at home. Close contact with the native population was often demanded by the military situation. Native help was almost universally employed in foodhandling throughout the theater.

In the China sector, arrangements existed whereby the Chinese Government provided food and lodging for United States Army personnel. A Chinese Government agency, the War Area Service Command, organized and staffed messes and living accommodations at stations and airfields. Air shipments over “the Hump” were limited to essential military materials, and personnel and sanitation materials had low priority. The United States Army in China, in certain respects, was a nonpaying guest, and severe criticism of sanitation was not considered diplomatic. However, inspections were made by medical officers, and mess sergeants were assigned to supervise. Ultimately, new equipment and sanitation supplies were provided, and a gradual improvement in sanitation was achieved. Separate data for the sectors of the theater are available for the period from November 1944 through December 1945. The China rate for diarrheas and dysenteries was 122 cases per 1,000 troops per annum, contrasted with a rate of 86 for the India-Burma sector. The latter sector had the benefit of a belatedly organized preventive medicine program and the opening of area and research laboratories.

Here’s Dad on the troopship home, passing through Suez headed for Strathclyde. Seasickness may be contributing to the drama in this photo.

They let him go home for a month to recuperate, that Christmas, before having him back in D.C. for prolonged debriefing. He still has smudges under his eyes and an anxious expression.

There is a later photo showing him standing on a scale and smiling a big smile that goes around his face three times. He must have reached some goal for weight gain.

II. Higher-ups enter the story; confusion and obfuscation abound.

Primary source item dated August 29, 1945 is a mimeographed recommendation for citation. It mentions the entire Team Jackal and summarizes their various actions.

There was a big encampment at Kunming, and they all had to wait around there for some time, so an OSS named Krause had the duty of writing these up.

Importantly, the final two sentences of this recommendation read (emphasis mine): These men all did extremely fine job despite fact they were continually besieged by attacks of dysentary, [sic] diarrhea and worms. Intelligence submitted was also excellent and helped to pinpoint targets for Air Force.

Now contrast this with primary source item dated 13 September 1945. I don’t know the proper term for this 3-page document of which I have flimsy copy; it is a writeup of the reasons for the citation. (The body of the text, edited down by some 15%, appears with similar wording in the citation proper. The rest of this document is attestation of data points concerning the recipient, in the manner of an affadavit, except that it is unsigned.) Nor can I tell which headquarters is meant: HQ in China? in Assam? in D.C.?

The writer added many details about the various missions, for which I commend and thank him.

But he censored out the germs and worms.

Instead there are slick, nonspecific phrases about untiring energy and devotion to duty.

Why do higher-ups do this? Is it personal, or careerist, in that they want to sound suave themselves, rather than crude? This guy could have transmitted the truth that was given to him, using language less graphic. He did not have to write diarrhea. He could have written . . . chronic debilitation due to health conditions in the area of operation. Phrasing of that sort would preserve and transmit the truth while maintaining a tone of propriety. Our soldiers deserve both truth and propriety. They do not deserve to come home to a lifetime of psychological isolation from badly-informed countrymen.

Or is it policy? If so, is the policy of sanitizing reports and citations for some purpose of domestic morale? Or is it to cover mistakes that led to avoidable casualty? Or is it intended to burnish the public image of one outfit that is competing with all the other outfits for, well, everything – replacements, equipment, fame? Did all branches pretty up their reports this way?

What did our WWII Staff and Cabinet think was going to happen when the citizenry found out various suppressed truths as to front-line hardships, as eventually they did, twenty-five years later on the development of wartime news on evening television? What did they think their situation was going to be when the citizenry no longer felt they could believe anything they said?

Was it part of diplomatic policy, as above: severe criticism of sanitation was not considered diplomatic. Was this instance of potential, implied criticism censored to avoid offending the sensibilities of Chiang Kai-shek? If so, that did not work out too well, did it?

This is a case of elision of unpleasant truth just days from the Japanese surrender and, possibly, before leaving China. One step back from the scene of battle, the truth begins to take hits.

This sanitizing of field reports may well have been done for the best of reasons as understood at the time. If on the other hand any single one of the actors on that stage at that time were indeed of the sort against whom Hotspur made his protest, in his own time, then he deserves that same protest, as well. Here Gielgud delivers it, from Henry IV, Part I, I:3.

Memorial Day 2016

" . . . Our echoes roll from soul to soul

And grow for ever and for ever . . . "

These forget-me-nots grow on the lawn here in Argyle.

Mom and Dad brought them from Marilla

one time when they visited here.

The lines are Tennyson, from The Princess.

Here is a bigger excerpt:

The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O, sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river;
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow for ever and for ever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.