Jerzy Czerwiński was born on March 15, 1928, in a suburb of Warsaw, where he lived with his parents and sister. His father was a teacher, and his mother, a housewife, had been a nurse in the Polish army during the war against the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1921. He finished the sixth grade in 1939, when Polish schools were closed due to the German occupation. His father was drafted into the army and was killed in the fighting in September 1939. Jerzy Czerwiński attended engineering school for a year before he began to realize his dream of sailing and began attending maritime school. He found employment as a boatman, which gave him a sense of security during the war. In 1944, after the Warsaw Uprising was defeated, the German occupiers were looking for workers for the fortifications and arrested Mr. Czerwiński. After a short stay in the Pruszkow Transit Camp, he was taken on a long train transport to Flossenbürg. There he worked in a quarry, but was soon transferred to an SS Pioneer Barracks in Dresden, where he worked on the construction of underground facilities. After the air raid on Dresden in February 1945, he was evacuated but managed to escape in the general confusion with a fellow French prisoner and a German foreman. An adventurous escape eventually brought him to Glauchau in American-occupied territory. The Americans immediately allowed him to enlist as a soldier for the final phase of the war, but he was not put into action. This "missed opportunity," as well as the Warsaw Uprising, which Mr. Czerwiński witnessed as a "helpless spectator," seems to occupy his thoughts today. Instead, he was an official in the Polish DP camps, where he attended camp schools and then, due to changing schooling opportunities, moved to Mannheim, Murnau, Italy, and finally, in 1947, to England. Education was and is of great value to Mr. Czerwiński. He notes with pride that his children had a better education than he did, and he notes with a smile that his wife learned more in school than he did. In England, thanks to his previous knowledge of nautical matters, he was able to return to nautical school, from which he successfully graduated. He went to sea with the British Merchant Navy. In 1965 he finished his seafaring career and worked in the management of an armament factory. From there he moved to another factory for the last time in 1978. Since retiring in 1992, he has worked as an exhibition guide for the Polish Institute and maintains regular contact with survivors of the Warsaw Uprising and Polish political prisoners of World War II.