Angeleno with a Camera

Last week, as they orbited 260 miles above earth, a crew of four men and two women enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner with what NASA called “a few tweaks.”

By Jessica Brecker

Text, art and photography by Jessica Brecker 

One short year after Jerzy Poglodzinski’s 1948 birth, George Orwell published “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, but from Poglodzinski’s viewpoint, 1948 might as well have been 1984.

Like the lead character in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston Smith, Jerzy Poglodzinski, having been beaten to a point of incomprehension, was about to rat out his friends. But heroes are not rats and neither is Poglodzinski. Behind a friendly smile and blue eyes as glimmering as the pool he kept clean for 25 years, Poglodzinski is not just a man, but a priceless embodiment of history no book could ever tell.

 “Blood was coming out my ears. I was about to name names of my friends.  I don’t know why [the guard] stopped, but he did,” said Poglodzinski. “The guard said, ‘Ah forget it, this guy is never going to talk, enough with him,’ I was lucky.”

It was in 1984 that Poglodzinski left Poland.

Poglodzinski retired from City College last January but today, in suspenders and brown cadet cap, he sits in a booth at McDonald’s on Melrose and Vermont, slowly nursing his coffee. Poglodzinski is warm and friendly, but explains he is a private person. He mentions his recent surgery to remove throat polyps, a reminder of the times he was interrogated. He’s not here to talk campus politics. He seems surprised at the notion that he must tell his story.

“It was very long time ago when I was born,” said Poglodzinski.

He is shy when asked his birth-date but brave enough to disclose his time of birth; 8 a.m. on a Wednesday, in December of 1948, in the small town of Govin, Poland.

“We used to say, the [Russians] came in and forgot to leave.”  Jerzy said as he laughed about this saying he and his contemporaries had.

After World War II, Poland became a satellite state of the Soviet Union, and the country was governed by Communist rule from late 1944 to 1989.

 Poglodzinski recalls a somewhat uneventful childhood in which he went to school and obeyed his parents. When it came time for secondary school he went to a Technikum, or a technical trade school.

“It was designing construction machines,” said Poglodzinski of his trade. Schooling kept him from being drafted into the army at age 19, but on completion of his studies, in 1969, he was drafted immediately.

“You had to go, everybody was drafted,” Poglodzinski said, “you could do two years in the army or seven years in prison.”

 For 23 year old Poglodzinski, the army was a tedious waste of two years.

“You do regular stuff,” Poglodzinski said.

“It was boring, you don’t have to make decisions, boring. I didn’t like to be a solder. I didn’t want to be a policeman or something like that. I don’t like tight supervision, I resent it.”

After serving his mandatory two years in the Polish Army, Poglodzinski was released.

Poglodzinski describes an early career at the drawing board, designing machines used in construction for the defunct company “Kromit”. He found the work satisfactory but mundane. However, like many people in their twenties, he found friends and fun outside of work.

“We had a good time, we had parties.” Poglodzinski said, “Young people don’t care about Presidents, what they think, what they do.”

Jerzy says his great passion at this time was the game of bridge. His fondest memories are related to the game, which provided a social outlet as well as a means of escape from an oppressive and monotonous existence.

But these times would be short, by 1976 the oppression had become too much for Jerzy to ignore, and food was becoming hard to come by.

“Somehow I got access to printed material,” said Poglodzinski, “I started to break out from bridge, from my girlfriends, and got into politics.” Poglodzinski began to read more and learn more. Soon he was attending meetings, and helping to distribute literature. 

“At this time I’d say I was basically getting ready to be a leader,” said Poglodzinski.

These activities began to get him attention alright.

 “I got some guys following me, secret police,” Poglodzinski said.

In 1980, when food prices increased once again, another electrical worker, Lech Walesa, began a crusade to change the world.

In September of 1980, Walesa organized and led the first independent self-governing trade union in Poland, titled; Solidarity, or NSZZ Solidarnosc. Poglodzinski joined. In only 15 months, membership grew from one million to nine million people, a quarter of the population of Poland.

As a man, Walesa was charismatic enough to organize and lead millions of Polish workers in resistance (1980-1990), become President of Poland (1990-1995), and win the Nobel Peace Prize (1983).

At this point in the interview Jerzy pauses; he doesn’t want to be asked about the details. But there were underground meetings, and his friends were getting arrested.

On the topic of why he got political, he does not hesitate to answer: “for justice, for openness, for the right to speak out, for the right to not be trampled by the boots, for the right not to be spit on.” 

Thanks to Solidarity, Poland’s true history was released once again, and for the first time in decades Poles began to relearn their identity. Unfortunately Poglodzinski and his friends eventually paid a price for this freedom, but in the beginning there was great hope.

 “There was no doubt that Solidarity had struck a chord in the hearts of the overwhelming majority of Poles,” Polish Film Director, Roman Polanski wrote in his 1981 autobiography, “Polanski.”

“The Solidarity libraries were full of once banned books.”

 “They talked to us like partners…,” said Poglodzinski of that time, “about how much freedom to give or not…before they could shoot people, this time they couldn’t.”

That was because Communist officials had an embarrassing situation on their hands. Communism, by definition, is for the working class.

 On Dec. 13, 1981 General Wojciech Jaruzelski, First Secretary of the Polish Communist party, imposed martial law. Solidarity’s leaders were arrested and the organization was driven underground until 1989.

 “I’m always trying to stay free, that is all.  It is not always easy,” says Poglodzinski, “the KGB killed a lot of people, anyone with potential to be anti-communism.”

The KGB, or Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, served as internal security, intelligence, and secret police for the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991.

Jerzy was imprisoned for one year, from Dec. 13, 1982 to Dec. 3, 1983. During this time he was tortured. When he failed to give names he was released, but he did not feel free.

“My friends were disappearing,” Poglodzinski said.

“I had two choices, it was very clear to me. Stay and live in fear and probably be killed, or go to a new country where I didn’t know anyone or how it worked there or much of the language.”

Poglodzinski decided the American Embassy was his best chance of not disappearing. He went there, and they told him to come back in two weeks. Two weeks later he was given a green card and a plane ticket to Los Angeles, paid for by “Amnesty International.”

When Jerzy arrived at LAX, “Amnesty International” was not there to meet him, nor anyone else.  With no money or prospects he found a Polish Catholic church in the phone-book. Poglodzinski received $400 from the church to get him started. To pay them back he became a loyal member and went to church almost every Sunday.

“I was happy nobody’s following me,” said Poglodzinski of that time, “I wouldn’t disappear…and that will make someone very happy!”

Fortunately for City College, Poglodzinski was just unhappy enough with his career to enroll as a student, earning an Associate’s of Arts Degree in 1989, the same year Communist rule was finally struck down in his home country. After earning his degree he decided he liked LACC so much that he wanted to work there.

One job Jerzy did not find boring was the one he held for 25 years, keeping City College’s pool clean for the students to enjoy.

“My English was shaky, but they asked me if I knew anything about cleaning swimming pools,” said Poglodzinski, “I said no, but in three months I will be an expert!”

And he was, transforming a green swamp like body of water into a sparkling blue inviting one. He claims he would sometimes arrive as early as 3 a.m. on weekdays, and sacrificed some of his Sundays, just to make sure the water was warmed to a comfortable temperature.

Poglodzinski does not consider himself a hero. However, the medal he received from his home country four years ago says otherwise.

“I am ashamed,” he says of the award, “it looks interesting, but I don’t really care.”

There is one award Poglodzinski cares about though.

He is proud of the New Visions Award for Outstanding and Dedicated Service that City College awarded him on May 10, 1994.

He is also very proud of the multiple letters of recommendation and thanks he has received throughout the years from many professors as well as the Team Leader Deputy Richard Pfeiffer, and Kinesiology Department Chairman Daniel P. Cowgill.

“Jerzy is a quiet, self-assured person, who strives for personal excellence as well as wholeness,” wrote Kinesiology Department Chairman Daniel P. Cowgill, on Poglodzinski’s retirement last December, “He sets a wonderful example for young people to emulate.”