Randy Suits

The Shoemaker and His Wife Who Could

Antonina at the Shoe Store 1939

Dear Eva,

In late 1944 the retreating German troops now focused primarily on the advancing Russian army. Impoverished Poles who hid their money and wealth began to trade and purchase merchandise more openly. The nation needed food, clothing and shoes on a massive scale. During the war, the business infrastructure was destroyed and manufacturing facilities shut down. There were very few buildings which could mass produce goods on a large scale to achieve maximum efficiency. People in the villages were busy rebuilding their homes and farms now that the Nazi menace was gone. The cities were depleted of skilled craftsmen for those who had not been killed by the gestapo were still trapped in Germany making goods for the Nazi war machine. Poland and Krakow needed a few good men, who would, to lead them out of poverty and despair. The whole nation needed shoes and Antoni and Antonina were the shoemaker and his wife who could put together a production mechanism to provide footwear for a shoeless nation. During the war, they had run a clandestine shoe business supplying shoes to Poles who could not buy them openly. The German occupiers bought all the shoes available in the shops. The Polish Nation was destitute and walking about in shoes in need of repair or replacement. Antoni knew the craftsmen across the countryside. They had made shoes for him, in secret, which Antoni and his wife distributed under a cloak of secrecy. Now they could work openly. He hired a few craftsmen for his small shop in Krakow but the demand was so great that he had to call on the cobblers all around the city to make shoes. He contracted them to make shoes at home and he hired couriers to collect and distribute them. The women who saw the stylish shoes worn by Antonina during the war, sought her out to purchase new shoes. She was skilled at selling. The war economy had taught her how to barter, and exchange goods in every value media. Cash was good but not necessary with Antonina. She was the merchandizing and marketing arm of the business. She and her husband made a grand business team. Together they built a production and sales mechanism which provided quality shoes to their needy nation. The shoe business of this young Polish couple flourished during the years following the German withdrawal and the end of the war in 1945.  Antoni and Antonina became a wealth center for the Polish nation. Hundreds of people worked for them and with them, providing goods to a nation awakening from the 6 year economic hibernation induced by oppression, suppression, starvation and servitude. The people were hungry for prosperity. They were in need of wants and necessities denied them by six years of dearth, destruction and devastation. The Polish were naturally industrious and intelligent. Now their creativity was free to build wealth and abundance. Churches and Synagogues reopened. Each service was filled with thankful Poles, hungry to hear the Word of a God. They could now openly worship and give thanks to the Most High God who delivered them from the wicked Nazi killing machine and religious repression. The nation gave thanks and began to rebuild in the blessing of restoration. The Polish people had overcome the first menace of Nazi tyranny. A second menace of communist totalitarianism would slowly creep back over the populace to choke off full economic recovery. For the next two years, 1945 and 1946, Antoni, Antonina and their Polish countrymen prospered in freedom from repression as they recovered from the wounds of war. God had given the nation rest and they had a short peace. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 11: 27 – 29, 27“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS..” The awakening Poles did find rest! God was, once again, working through the Polish people, the shoemaker and his wife who could.”

We give thanks for the manifestation of God in the Polish People, Kochany