Henryk GORA 1923-2007

As mentioned in a previous post (Catching up) Ted ROWBURY's brother-in-law Henryk GORA, known as Frank or sometimes Henry, died recently on January 17, after suffering a stroke the day before. Ted has sent this brief note of his life:

He was born 2 May 1923 at Podgrodzie, Poland to Kazimiesz and Zofia GORA. In 1942 his family were hiding at night in the forests as people were being rounded up for work in the concentration camps. During that year while on his way to college Henryk was caught and taken to Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria.

My brother told me that Frank had told him that when he first got taken to the camp he was given a number and told to stand in line with others.

An old man who was standing nearby took this number and stood in the line and told Frank to move away as he was old and Frank was young.

It was a line to the gas chambers.

Even in those terrible conditions there was still compassion from one to another.

Here he was put to work in a factory making spark plugs for engines. He told me that they would sabotage them so that they would not work. When I asked him what would happen if they were caught he said they would have been shot but it was no big deal as they had a terrible life and spoiling the plugs gave them something to hopefully help to win the war.

After they were liberated in 1945 he joined the Polish Army and was then transferred to the British Army. Eventually they were asked which country they wanted to go to so Henryk came to England. He was at Manchester first where for a short time he worked for ICI.

After a time he came to Birmingham and met my sister Joan ROWBURY. They were married on the 22 Mar 1952 at Birmingham Register Office, but did not have any children.

After a short time he started work at James Booth Aluminium where he worked for over 30 years. He was Naturalised on 25 Oct 1960. He was a very keen gardener and a couple of days before he died he was doing bits and bobs in it.

He was a great person to be with and I spent many happy hours in his company.

At Frank's funeral as we were leaving the church the organist played You are my Sunshine. Afterwards Frank's God-daughter asked Joan why that was played as it was her father's favourite song.

Joan told her that when Frank and Johnnie (her father) were in lodgings together in a friend's house the friend had a young daughter and she taught them both the words.

It was the only song that Frank knew all the words to and it was also his favourite.

This made everyone smile on a rather sad day.