THIRTEEN IS MY LUCKY NUMBER
The Dramatic True Story of a Polish Resistance Fighter by Bill C. Biega
"Thirteen Is My Lucky Number" is about life in Warsaw under Nazi occupation, the Uprising against the Nazis. Then life in prison camp, escape to the American Army, working as a Liaison Officer.
At the beginning of the occupation in 1939, the high schools are closed by the Germans. But teachers continue teaching students in small groups gathered in apartments. The Jews were first required to wear yellow stars of David, then they were moved into a crowded working class district, shipped to extermination camps, finally those remaining were crushed and buried in the blazing rubble of the Ghetto.
It is also the story of organizing resistance to the occupier and of the final battle for freedom, doomed to failure by the political events of the time. Also there is a love story with a happy ending. The young lovers miraculously survive the battle and prison camp and eventually reach America to create a new life.
Reviews
Andrew Nagorski, Newsweek, 1996
A very interesting book. It is a different view of the wartime events in
Poland than seen in other books .... some provoking glimpses of the life of an
an immigrant in the American industrial world.
Book Description
An inspiring love story, in which good luck helps the writer to survive the
dangers and hardships of Nazi occupied Warsaw, the fury of an abortive uprising,
prison camp and the challenge of the first post war years in western Europe,
then in America.
Excerpted from Thirteen is My Lucky
Number: The Dramatic True Story of a Polish Resistance Fighter by Bill C.
Biega. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
From Prologue: The pandemonium of warfare had died down. Only an occasional
burst of machine-gun fire, the crack of an isolated rifle shot, the vro - oo -
oo - m of an exploding shell or grenade, disturbed the dark night. The acrid
smell of burning ruins had become so normal that it no longer registered in the
brain as being anything unusual. I shivered in my tattered clothes. The nights
were getting chilly as September drew to a close. The remnants of a wall
sheltered me from the wind as I peered through the darkness over the field of
rubble towards the broad avenue and the dark silhouette of the B.G.K., the
National Economy Bank, the closest German stronghold.......
Only fourteen remained of the original 180 that had started out with such high hopes to take Warsaw back from the Nazis just eight weeks ago, on August 1, 1944. Two were girls, one of them my bride of six weeks, half were wounded as I was. This tiny squad was the last defense position between the front line, 200 yards to my left in the ruins of the once elegant Cafe Club and the cinema Coliseum, and the battalion reserve in a half-ruined house 100 yards behind me.
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