Poland was a devastated country after World War II with no government, no army, no medical services or supplies, no industry, no means of providing for a family, no money system and no hope. Every family had many who died fighting invading Germans and/or Russians either in the regular army or the underground militias. The Polish people were survivors for they had suffered through a consistent series of wars since the 13th century. And they endured! But this onslaught was the nearest those valiant Polish soles came to complete annihilation. A young couple who survived the war began a shoe business. Antoni was a young man who learned the shoe business as an apprentice and he applied his skills in a making shoes. Post War Poland had great need for shoes. Though the Nazi Germans were tough task masters they left the business infrastructure in place in the western partition of Poland (Germany and Russia drew up a Pact and partitioned Poland in 1939). Communist Russia had completely destroyed any semblance of personal initiative and drained Eastern Poles of all their wealth from 1939 until 1944 but the western partition under the Nazi’s for the same 5 years provided limited opportunity to all who worked, invested and created new wealth with necessities or pleasures of life. Antoni and Antonina, his young bride, were married in1941. In 1942 they moved into a small apartment where a daughter was born in 1943. Together they would build a shoe business and a magnificent home before the Communists began to redistribute wealth earned by hard work, vision and sound business decisions to theoretically equalize incomes. Antonina was the buying agent, marketing manager and treasurer of the shoe shop. She only purchased high quality leather to build the finest quality shoes. She sold the shoes and worked with Antoni to design fashionable foot wear which the women of Krakow wanted. In a short time, she found customers from all of Poland. Antoni began hiring many new men to make more and more shoes for shoeless Poles. The shoes were made in homes of cobblers working on contract. But the most astute decisions made by Antonina were financial. Though she did not have a college education, her struggle through Nazi domination taught her life saving strategies. She knew that she had to protect their new found wealth. She could not put their money in German banks (no-one could trust those banks) and the Russians had no banks. Both banking options were financial suicide. She was creative. She bought hard assets which increased in value and could be hidden in their small apartment. During the war, the Polish Zloty (money) became worthless and the fiat currency of the former German occupiers and the Russian overlords was worthless as well. She converted their wealth into gold coins, valuable paintings and art which she knew had value or could create more income and wealth. Also they had no debt! The gold coins and paintings she hid in their small Krakow apartment. Antony made shoes and ran the manufacturing side of the business. Antonina sold the shoes and managed their finances in a manner which preserved and grew their wealth. She had a cart with shoes for sale which she pushed through the streets of Krakow. She always wore stylish, quality shoes. When women saw her shoes, they excitedly asked where she bought them. She either sold a pair of shoes or left them with a business card. She advertised and marketed in her walks through Krakow. Between 1945 and 1946 this couple had amassed a small fortune. But the communists were coming! When they set up puppet governments, they confiscated all the property of the wealthy, stripped it of its value and redistributed the worthless residue equally, making everyone equally poor. Communist Russia, under Joseph Stalin, enacted wealth strangling redistribution measures which decimated the national wealth of Poland and all of Eastern Europe. Antonina wisely invested, traded and grew the family wealth. Antoni and Antonina decided to convert their gold into land which could not be carried away by government agents. The gold she bought increased in value as the post war communist government printed vast amounts of fiat currency which brought inflation. This dramatic increase in gold value provided the capital to purchase large land holdings outside Krakow. Paintings and art also increased dramatically in the inflationary policies of socialist free stuff and all the cheap vodka you could drink. Their business continued to grow when rising prices of leather also began to increase the cost of goods sold. Antoni and Antonina continued making profits long after other businesses went bankrupt. They successfully converted their wealth into a mansion built on a large estate outside Krakow. They moved into their new home in 1948 where their youngest daughter and and a son were born. Antonina called their home Marzenie (My Dream). My Kochana, we also face the same potential for financial fiasco in our days as world governments attempt to print their way out of financial collapse. The scriptures instruct us to ‘owe no man’. Debt is a form of slavery. Our Lord Jesus Christ warned us against accumulating wealth for those things which do not glorify God. Our greatest wealth is hidden in Jesus Christ. Our wealth in Christ will ultimately be converted into an eternal heavenly home. Jesus Christ is our great hope and dream. The world cannot see it for they do not know God his Heavenly Father. If they knew God they would know Jesus. Just as Antonina hid their wealth in land and built a home for her family, we hide our wealth in Jesus and our home shall be in him, the author and finisher of our faith.
God was glorified in the wisdom and industry of Antoni and Antonina, Kochany
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