My Father's Circus

Right before WWII started, and after the Nazis vanquished Poland, a high-ranking Nazi appropriated the Polish Circus Francesco. My Vati, who was the eldest son of the Francesco family, never had the chance to take over the circus when his father died shortly after the Nazis took over. Since Müller, the Nazi, didn’t know much about circuses and also needed skilled circus acrobats, he conscripted the Francesco family to work for ‘his’ circus.

That’s how Vati, and with him Circus Francesco, came to Germany. My father’s family consisted of their mother, an older sister, Sonja, my Vati, Colya, his two years younger brother Henrik, and a much younger brother, Josef. I was named after my father’s sister.

Mutti joined Circus Francesco as a cashier and ticket taker two years before the war ended. When the war was finally over, Vati and his mother regained ownership of their circus, and their first desire was to leave Germany, where they suffered so much, and return to Poland.

By that time, Mutti and Vati were together, had married and had their first surviving daughter. Mutti refused to go to Poland with Vati, because she never again wanted to live under a totalitarian government. So Vati said good-bye to his family and stayed with her and the baby in Germany.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you how I almost ended up living in Poland instead of our traveling carnival in Germany.