Farewell to "Lala". Lidia Lwow-Eberle has passed away. So, what does the generation of 1920 leave us with?

A hundred years is the age when it should not be surprising that a person is passing away. So the death of Lidia Lwow-Eberle is not a shock, but it leaves us with a bitter reflection that perhaps we have wasted too much time; that we have spoken to THEM too little. And the last of the „1920 generation” are passing away.

She was a sophisticated and elegant lady. But she was not lofty. On the contrary, Warm, sometimes too withdrawn; but when invited, she was happy to talk. About the difficult life at home, where they spoke Russian and about escaping to Poland and how she was becoming more and more Polish. And about the fight first next to „Kmicic” and then Zygmunt Szendzielarz „Łupaszka” in the 5th Vilnius Brigade of the Home Army during the difficult years of World War II and just after it.

One of the most striking things in her stories was her incredible modesty. She spoke openly about the fact that she loved Poland and therefore she fought for this country. This is probably true for the whole generation of the 1920s. In one of Arkadiusz Gołębiewski’s films she expressed a thought that was stunningly revealing to me. She said that what they were doing was not then called „patriotism”. It was not patriotism at all. Defending the Homeland was an obvious thing. That is what they were.

Lidia Lwow-Eberle was persecuted by the communists for her involvement in Polish partisans. She was imprisoned in Fordon and isolated in Inowrocław. And yet - although it is hard to imagine - she did not hold a grudge in her heart, although she spent all her youth in prison. She decided to move forward. She loved people. I think that allowed her to conclude after years:

„I had a beautiful life.”

Can we possibly not envy her such an attitude?