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Services
Friends may visit with the family from 4-7 PM on Thursday, March 26, 2015 at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne.
Funeral services will be held 9AM on Friday, March 27, 2015 from the funeral home then to Annunciation RC Church, 45 Urban Club Road, Wayne where a 10 AM Funeral Mass will be offered.
Stanislawa "Stella" Drozdzyk (nee Malinowska) age 96 of Haskell and formerly of Wayne and Rutherford, passed Sunday, March 22, 2015.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, where she lived for the first 20 years of her life, she experienced the WWII Nazi occupation of her country and was compelled to contribute to its efforts against the Germans. Stella joined the Polish Underground Resistance at the age of 21, where she attained the rank of lieutenant. Her job in a telegraph office, and her fluent command of the German language, enabled her to pass classified German information to her compatriots. Eventually, Stella was captured by the Nazis; she was sent to Niederhagen Concentration Camp in Germany, and spent the better part of a year there.
That camp was liberated by the Canadians, who together with British and Polish forces of the Allies, had come through France during the invasion at Normandy. Her future husband, Zbigniew Drozdzyk, was part of that military invasion. His unit's subsequent attachment to the displaced persons camp where Stella was housed led to their meeting, falling in love, and marrying on June 9, 1946 in Aschendorf, Germany.
It was a small church ceremony, but with full military regalia, because of Zbigniew's rank as field captain. Stella would reminisce about the flowers that overflowed the church; Field Captain Drozdzyk had had them specially delivered from Holland for his bride.
Soon after, Zbigniew was transferred to England, where he remained with the British Army. He often told Stella about seeing Winston Churchill, because the Prime Minister visited the base frequently. After four years in London, Stella became pregnant and Zbigniew decided that they should move to America so their child could be born there and be a United States citizen. Stella was not happy to move again, having finally settled after so many years of displacement. But when she was eight months pregnant, opportunity arose and they crossed the Atlantic on the S.S. America, entering the United States through New York. At that point in her pregnancy most ships would not have let her aboard, but because she was thin and the pregnancy was not so obvious, she managed passage. Stella would relate to the family how she was sick from the minute she boarded the ship until it docked in New York, in September of 1951. Their daughter, Yvonne, was born one month later.
Stella and Zbigniew became American citizens in Hackensack NJ on December 10, 1956. Her love of this country was only superceded by the love she had for her family.
Stella was the devoted wife of forty eight years to the late Zbigniew; loving mother of Yvonne Kushnier and Yvonne’s husband Richard Kushnier of Wayne; cherished grandmother of Dr.Alexander Kushnier of Berkeley, CA.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Friends may visit with the family from 4-7 PM on Thursday, March 26, 2015 at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne.
Funeral services will be held 9AM on Friday, March 27, 2015 from the funeral home then to Annunciation RC Church, 45 Urban Club Road, Wayne where a 10 AM Funeral Mass will be offered.
Services
Friends may visit with the family from 4-7 PM on Thursday, March 26, 2015 at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne.
Funeral services will be held 9AM on Friday, March 27, 2015 from the funeral home then to Annunciation RC Church, 45 Urban Club Road, Wayne where a 10 AM Funeral Mass will be offered.
Stanislawa "Stella" Drozdzyk (nee Malinowska) age 96 of Haskell and formerly of Wayne and Rutherford, passed Sunday, March 22, 2015.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, where she lived for the first 20 years of her life, she experienced the WWII Nazi occupation of her country and was compelled to contribute to its efforts against the Germans. Stella joined the Polish Underground Resistance at the age of 21, where she attained the rank of lieutenant. Her job in a telegraph office, and her fluent command of the German language, enabled her to pass classified German information to her compatriots. Eventually, Stella was captured by the Nazis; she was sent to Niederhagen Concentration Camp in Germany, and spent the better part of a year there.
That camp was liberated by the Canadians, who together with British and Polish forces of the Allies, had come through France during the invasion at Normandy. Her future husband, Zbigniew Drozdzyk, was part of that military invasion. His unit's subsequent attachment to the displaced persons camp where Stella was housed led to their meeting, falling in love, and marrying on June 9, 1946 in Aschendorf, Germany.
It was a small church ceremony, but with full military regalia, because of Zbigniew's rank as field captain. Stella would reminisce about the flowers that overflowed the church; Field Captain Drozdzyk had had them specially delivered from Holland for his bride.
Soon after, Zbigniew was transferred to England, where he remained with the British Army. He often told Stella about seeing Winston Churchill, because the Prime Minister visited the base frequently. After four years in London, Stella became pregnant and Zbigniew decided that they should move to America so their child could be born there and be a United States citizen. Stella was not happy to move again, having finally settled after so many years of displacement. But when she was eight months pregnant, opportunity arose and they crossed the Atlantic on the S.S. America, entering the United States through New York. At that point in her pregnancy most ships would not have let her aboard, but because she was thin and the pregnancy was not so obvious, she managed passage. Stella would relate to the family how she was sick from the minute she boarded the ship until it docked in New York, in September of 1951. Their daughter, Yvonne, was born one month later.
Stella and Zbigniew became American citizens in Hackensack NJ on December 10, 1956. Her love of this country was only superceded by the love she had for her family.
Stella was the devoted wife of forty eight years to the late Zbigniew; loving mother of Yvonne Kushnier and Yvonne’s husband Richard Kushnier of Wayne; cherished grandmother of Dr.Alexander Kushnier of Berkeley, CA.
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