A Call To Arms

About the Book

It is September 1, 1939. Its territorial demands rejected, Germany invades Poland. Overwhelmed Poles capitulate. Their government takes exile in France where it forms a new army.

The German invasion leaves Edmund Stawowy, 18, who works as an interpreter for a French construction company building a dam in Poland, out of work. He takes refuge in a nearby village. The Germans intend to finish the dam but can't find the plans. They think Edmund knows where they are. Gestapo agents locate Edmund and ask him to collaborate. But does he? Later, while listening to Radio Paris on a clandestine radio, Edmund hears a special Polish government communiqué that Poland is not defeated; it will continue fighting the Germans from France and urges all Poles to join the fight. Spurred by patriotism, Edmund vows to go to France to enlist. But France is a long way from Poland whose borders are sealed by the Germans. But Edmund is determined. While crossing the Polish Slovak border, German border patrols apprehend him. He is interrogated and thrown in jail where he contracts scurvy. After five weeks of living in inhumane conditions, he is deported to Germany as a slave laborer. There, he falls in love with a German girl, something strictly forbidden by the Nazis.

After a year of planning an escape, and in trouble with the police; Edmund is nearly beaten to death. The Gestapo is about to send him to a concentration camp, but he escapes to occupied France. In Paris, he visits his former employers. They cannot employ a fugitive in occupied France, he is told. They advise him to go to the unoccupied zone where the company is building a dam on the Rhone River. After a three week stay in Paris and an ardent romance with a young Parisian prostitute, Edmund sets off for the unoccupied zone. While crossing the demarcation line in Chalons-sur-Saone, he is again apprehended by the Germans, interrogated then thrown in solitary for one month. Upon his release he tries another crossing, but is caught again. This time he is made to work as an interpreter at a German border police outpost. He is again thrown in solitary for another two weeks. On his third try, he makes it into the unoccupied zone and heads for Génissiat site of the new dam where he is welcomed by engineers he worked with in Poland.

While working at the new dam, Edmund explores ways of getting to England where the exiled Polish government and its forces had been evacuated to after France capitulated. But getting to England, blockaded by the Germans, is virtually impossible. But that doesn't stop Edmund! As a last resort, he enlists in the French Foreign Legion which he knows will take him to Algeria. From there he hopes to reach England.

Months later, the Allies invade Algeria and Morocco. Vichy orders the Legion to stop them. After a cease fire, the Legion joins the Allies to fight Rommel in Tunisia. Later, under a special Allied agreement, Edmund and other Poles serving in the Legion are honorably discharged and shipped to England to serve in their own forces under British command. Along the way, Edmund's convoy is attacked by German U-boats. Carrying German POWs, his ship is spared, the others are sunk. Edmund ends up in the Royal Air Force, where after a lengthy courtship he marries Marjorie Smith, a WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) stationed at the same camp. Marjorie and Edmund have an interesting life and serve together until war's end.

Set during the most tumultuous time in human history, A CALL TO ARMS is a story of patriotism, relentless pursuit of an ideal, human endurance, adventure and love, for which there is always a price to pay.

About the Author

In 1925, the author, Edmund Stawowy, born in Poland, emigrated to France with his parents. They settled in Merlebach, a small Lorraine coal mining town bordering the coal rich, demilitarized, German populated Saar Basin. Edmund attended French school, where German and Polish were also taught. By age 13, he was fluent in all three languages.

When the Great Depression hit France, thousands of Lorraine's coal miners lost their jobs. Edmund's father was one of them. The family had an addition, Edmund had a five-year-old brother named Siegfried. His father decided that the family would be better off if they returned to Poland. And they did, later that year. They lived on Edmund's grandfather's small farm in a little village named Radlin in western Poland where Edmund was born. Edmund helped out by caring for the farm's three cows.

In March 1936, Edmund got a job as an interpreter with a French construction company building a hydro-electric dam in Roznow on the Dunajec River in south east Poland. When Germany invaded Poland September 1, 1939, and Edmund took refuge in Zlota, a nearby village. While there, listening to a clandestine radio one evening, he heard a special Polish Government radio communiqué from Paris informing all Poles in their Nazi occupied homeland and abroad, that though forced to capitulate, "Poland was not defeated!" That it would continue its armed conflict with Nazi Germany from France. It urged all able bodied Poles to join the fight. Spurred by patriotism, Edmund vowed to God that as soon as humanly possible, he would somehow reach France and enlist in the new Polish army. To finance his venture, he got a foreign language teacher's job in Tarnow, a nearby city.

On February 15, 1940, Edmund was ready. Catching a night train out of Tarnow, he headed for the Slovak border. After crossing it, he hoped to continue to Hungary and Romania, then on to France and Paris. What he didn't take into consideration was the severe winter. Nearing the Slovak border, he was arrested by German border guards, interrogated and thrown in jail where he developed scurvy. Then as a slave laborer, was sent to Lauffen, a small west German town. A year later, Edmund escaped to German occupied France. In Paris, he visited his former Roznow employer who informed him of a new dam the company was building in Génissiat on the Rhone River in the "Unoccupied Zone". All the engineers he knew in Poland worked there and a new job awaited him. After two weeks in Paris, Edmund boarded a train and headed for Génissiat. Upon reaching the demarcation line, in Chalons-sur-Saone, he was again arrested by German border guards, interrogated and thrown in jail. Released a month later, he attempted another crossing but failed and was jailed again. His third attempt was successful and he reached Génissiat, where he was welcomed with open arms. Though Edmund felt safe now and had a good job, he knew he must fulfill the pledge he made to enlist in the free Polish forces evacuated from France to England before France capitulated. But being an island, England would be hard to reach, and costly. Once again, Edmund starts saving and planning. He also has problems with the Génissiat gendarmes, who hate foreigners.

One year later, still unable to find a safe way to England, as a last resort, Edmund enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, which he knew would take him to Algeria. He believed England could be reached easier from there. He was sent to Saida, the Legion's main infantry training center in Algeria where he started his training along with other recruits. A few months later, November 8, 1942, the Allies invaded Algeria and Morocco. Vichy orders the Legion to stop them. Fortunately, everything ended peacefully and the Legion joined the Allies against Rommel's Afrikakorps.

In March 1943, under a special Allied agreement, Edmund was honorably discharged from the Legion and shipped to England. The convoy he traveled with was attacked by German U-Boats in the Atlantic. Edmund's ship, the Nea Hellas, was spared because it carried a load of German POWs; the rest were sunk. Arriving in England, Edmund enlisted in the Royal Air Force where he served until 1957 when he was honorably discharged. While in the RAF, Edmund married a WAAF but the marriage ended in divorce. Edmund got a job as a mechanic on a strip coal mine near Nottingham and later near Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he worked until 1951. Then after being granted British citizenship, Edmund emigrated to Canada where he worked as a maintenance mechanic in Dorval, P.Q. for a few months; then as a welder in Hamilton and Toronto, Ont. and Vancouver, B.C. While in Vancouver, Edmund married another English woman, but that marriage also ended in divorce. After a year in Vancouver, her returned to Hamilton, Ont. In 1957, Edmund emigrated to San Diego, California but unable to find work, he returned to Hamilton, Ont. In 1964, tired of his unhealthy welding profession, Edmund got a job at the newly opened King's Inn Hotel in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island in the Bahamas.

While there, Edmund married for the third time, but that too ended in divorce. After working at the hotel for three years, Edmund got a real estate license ad worked selling land for a developer until July 1973 when the Bahamas gained their independence from Britain.

After being denied a new work permit by Bahamian immigration, Edmund got a job as assistant manager of a new gaming casino opening in Santa Marta, a resort city on Colombia's Caribbean north coast. The casino's owner was Richard D. Johnson. But the casino ended up being a fraud and was shut down by Santa Marta's Chamber of Commerce after two years. Edmund lost $20,000 he invested in the casino and never got paid for the two years he worked there. As for Johnson, he disappeared without a trace. Anyway, after the casino disaster, Edmund opened a real estate brokerage in Santa Marta with a Colombian partner but lack of business forced them to close it down after a year. A few weeks later, Edmund in partnership with his new Colombian wife, Miriam, opened a ladies and men's wear store and a unisex beauty salon. They prospered. The marriage produced a daughter, Miriam Alexandra. When Miriam A. reached 18, Edmund and his wife separated and father and daughter moved to their Miami Beach condo in February 1992. Shortly thereafter, daughter Miriam registered for a four year term at Florida's International University (FIU) to get a degree in journalism, while Edmund took a real estate course to get a Florida real estate license. However, after obtaining it, instead of going to work as planned, he decided to write his overdue and long awaited by many, WWII memoir: A CALL TO ARMS. It will be followed by ESCAPE FROM PARADISE, a romantic novel based on true events, to be published shortly.

Edmund now lives alone in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida.