> Similarly, you grandfather got lucky that he didn't die when his village was burned, that he didn't die in a work camp, that he could immigrate to the US, tha

> Similarly, you grandfather got lucky that he didn't die when his village was burned, that he didn't die in a work camp, that he could immigrate to the US, that someone gave him a job and wasn't in a community that hated Polish people for no reason. Your parents and you were lucky to be born to the families you were. There's less context about you/your father/your uncle, but I imagine there was a lot of luck of someone else giving you a chance involved. Thanks for this. You're right. You've made me realize that I'm probably falling victim to intergenerational information loss or just a lack of appreciation. A couple years ago I sat down with my grandfather with a voice recorder and asked him a bunch of questions about what it was like when he was in Germany, when he immigrated, what he did once he got here. He was lucky to be able to immigrate to the US. After the war, he worked for a while in an office for the German government (he actually still gets a pension check from the German government) doing paperwork for displaced citizens and helping them get visas to Australia and the US. He had all his paperwork worked out to go to Australia instead of the US and at the last minute he was able to get sponsorship in Chicago and was able to come here instead. I think the only reason that connection came through was because it was someone he helped immigrate earlier. He was lucky that someone gave him a job. In fact, that's the exact expression he used when I asked him. If I asked him, the guy with the hardest cross to bear, he'd definitely attribute a lot of his life to getting lucky. But my dad and uncle weren't lucky to get to a community that didn't hate Polish people. I've heard a story that my uncle and dad were beat up as they were walking home from school one day and my uncle had his head put through a window, just for being Polish. I think it's all about context. My grandfather looks at what life would have been like if he was still in Poland and thinks, "Of course I'm lucky!" My dad looks at the kids he grew up around and thinks, "I didn't speak any English until the first grade. I'm lucky, but things could have been easier for me." And I think, "I'm just a normal American guy, things are as easy for me as they would be for anyone."