The Last Checkmate

History is the grand master, and only by studying his game can the pupil learn and improve. [Maria Florkowska]

What is life after war? Returning to the lives we left is impossible, yet creating a life anew feels nearly as insurmountable. We live, fight, and survive while the memories--and the past--endure. [Maria Florkowska]

Maybe we aren't meant to leave the past behind. Maybe we're meant to bring it with us so we can join others weighed down by the same burdens, and we can carry them together. Maybe that's how we find peace. [Maria Florkowska]

True freedom comes from bravery, strength, and goodness. The only one who can take those from you is you. [Aleksander Florkowski]

When she [Hania] produced a sedative and offered it to me, I shook my head in refusal. I wanted to allow myself to cry, to live fully in this moment, because as painful as it was, it meant my walls had come down in a way I hadn't permitted in a long time. The ache of love and loss pierced me to the core of my soul. And it reminded me that I was still human. [Maria Florkowska]

Anger and grief were intense and debilitating, warping everything beyond recognition. The prison that held my body was trivial by comparison. My true prison was the one that held my soul. [Maria Florkowska]

Have faith, child. Even though your family isn't here, they're always with you spiritually. And you're always with them. [Father Maksymilian Kolbe]

Before the war, I thanked God for things like my family, friends, and sunshine, but if something affected those blessings, I lamented my misfortune. I had the audacity to ask God why He let rain chase away my sunshine, as if a thunderstorm were the worst thing that could happen to a girl. But far worse things could happen to a girl: getting her entire family arrested, being interrogated by the Gestapo, having no power to present whatever lay ahead. All I had was rain, and I didn't know if the sunshine would ever return. So I'd find blessings amid the thunder and lightning. [Maria Florkowska]

I'm alive. I'm safe. And I'm free.

The burdens are simultaneously too horrific to speak of and yet necessary to divulge. History is the grand master, and only by studying his game can the pupil learn and improve.