On Friday, November 2nd, 1945, while already in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and serving as military attaché to the Polish Government in exile, Bohdan made an entry on page 5 of his 23rd diary under the title of “Letters from Babunia” , using the term of endearment for Grandma, by which the family referred to his mother, Helena Pawłowicz. He observes that this was the first piece of news he had received from her, since he left Poland in 1939, some weeks before World War II.
This first letter, dated August 27th, 1945, is a reply to Mrs.Dalia Malinowski, a friend living in London at the time, who later forwarded it to Bohdan. The two subsequent ones, dated September 23rd and October 21st respectively, came directly to the family in Brazil. Those letters, like this first one, were copied from Helena’s handwritten originals and then typewritten to be included into the 23rd diary on pages 5 , and 19. They offer a brief account of Helena’s feelings and experiences during the war years in Warsaw, and thereafter, when she found shelter in Zalesie Górne. I have scanned them from the aforementioned diary, converted them into pdfs and rendered their content in English.