[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 10 (Thursday, January 17, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E59]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RECOGNIZING ALICJA EDWARDS OF EUREKA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. GREG GIANFORTE

                               of montana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 17, 2019

  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Alicja Edwards of 
Eureka, a Montana artist, author, and World War II refugee, who 
overcame the atrocities of war and recorded her family's journey as 
part of the historic diaspora of the Polish people.
   When she was a teenager, Alicja's small town in eastern Poland came 
under attack by Nazi Germany and suffered a brutal Soviet occupation. 
She and her family were forced into a Soviet gulag where they endured 
mistreatment, illness, and hunger.
   Three years later, Alicja and thousands of other Poles were exiled 
to Iran. It was there where she met American Army Lieutenant Ernest 
Edwards who she married in 1945. The couple raised two children, lived 
in Japan, France, and America, and were married for 50 years before 
Ernest's passing.
   Alicja is renowned for her memoires, And God Was Our Witness and 
They Called Us D.P.'s, that detailed the suffering of her family and 
hundreds of thousands of Poles displaced during and after World War II.
   In And God Was Our Witness, she describes the value of freedom and 
liberty:
   ``Priceless Freedom has never been perceived or truly understood by 
anyone, till it was lost or forcibly taken away. Only then, one becomes 
aware of the magnitude of its potency and power in directing one's life 
and fate.''
   Alicja is a noted artist and owns an antique and art shop in Eureka, 
where she continues to paint, play the piano, and inspire others.
   Madam Speaker, for her indomitable resolve, strength and courage, 
and her inspiring memoires of the Polish diaspora, I recognize Alicja 
Edwards for her spirit of Montana.

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