I was born in the village of Plagwitz, close to Löwenberg, in Germany, now Lwówek Śląski in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship in Poland. Members of my family were evacuated in February of 1945 to escape the onslaught of Russian troops, ending up and finding refuge with in-laws at the Dutch/German border. The Löwenberg area became Polish according to the WWI Versailles Treaty, after Hitler; and until the lowering of the Iron Curtain and German Unification and Poland joining the European Union, my family was not allowed to return there. I consider it home.