The brothers never lost hope of finding each other!
George Skrzynecky and Lucjan Poznański spent many years away from each other, not even aware about their bond. They were teenagers when found out they had a twin brother somewhere in the world.
The brothers were born in Germany. Their mother – Elizabeth – was a Polish woman, who was forced to work during WW2. The first years of the boys’ lives were the most painful.
The boys were kept in a forced labor camp. And when they were finally released from there, their mother greeted them. However, after a while, the woman fell ill and was now unable to take care of the children. As a result, the woman gave them up in a closed adoption in Poland. The boys ended up in two different families. The law forbade the biological parents from searching for the children.
Both guys grew up in Poland. All these years they were not aware they had another family. When Poznański has of age to join the army, he found out the people who had raised him, were not his biological parents. He was shocked but also happy to finally know the truth.
Skrzynecky took a more difficult path to find out the truth. At the age of 17, George found some hidden documents that confirmed his identity and the fact that he had a twin brother. The boy was furious to know his parents kept it a secret from him. He later turned to the Red Cross to help him find his twin brother. His efforts were fruitless.
Skrzynecky was unable to bear all this. He went through the past of his parents and moved to California. The guy spent decades in search of his biological family.
When they had already lost all their hope to find each other, the brothers got lucky. In 2014, Lucjan found some information about his biological mother. It revealed that the woman was forbidden to ever see her children or ask about their well-beings. Apart from this, he also found out about his twin brother. And the 69-year-old man turned to the Red Cross Family Links program to find George.
This time, his efforts paid off. He discovered his brother’s name and address. The program also helped them reunite with each other after so many years. They were both excited.
“I never knew for sure when that day would come. But I believed that it would happen somehow, somewhere. I was looking forward to hugging my twin brother and giving him a big kiss”, said Skrzynecky.
The brothers met in 2015, at an airport in Poland. This was their first meeting after their birth. Skrzynecki burst out in tears after seeing his twin brother waiting for him with a bouquet of flowers. He missed his family and his brother, even though they had never spent any time with each other.
This reunion was like a lottery win or the long-lost brothers. Their 70-year-old separation ended with an emotional hug at the airport in Warsaw, Poland.
