“NAPLES was the city of song and laughter,” reminisced Ada Rosinski from her home in Newtown.
“People were always singing in the street. Life was beautiful, everyone was happy.
“Men worked while the girls stayed at home to cook and clean, as it was back in those days.
“I remember the occasional parties in the streets for weddings or birthdays. I had a beautiful voice and used to sing and dance for people. But then it all changed.”
Life was pleasant for Ada Rosinski, a 17-year-old at the time, as she was greeted by sunny, easy going mornings with her family. But all of a sudden, “it became very, very hard.”
The sun faded away on November 1, 1940, when Naples was bombed for the first time after reports war was coming.
“Announcements were made over the radio,” Ada told the County Times. It disrupted happy families when males as young as 16 joined, were taken, or were convinced to fight against the enemy and support their home country.
Shopkeepers abandoned their businesses and fled as air sirens pitched the skies acting un-purposely like a warm up sound before the plane engines came to be heard. Life in a beautiful, peaceful city had just taken a turn for the worse, with soldiers invading the streets.
“Water and food, they were taking over everything,” says Ada, looking down as she slightly shakes her head to the horrible memories, with her right hand’s two first fingers touching her lip.
“There was a pump in the middle of the town which the boys would try and rush to to pick up some water for the family.
“But sometimes they would never return.
“Some were found dead in the street.” Mothers used to hide their sons in their rooms to protect them from lurking soldiers, who, when knocked on their doors, used to ask for the men. “There’s no one here,” Ada said they used to claim, “Sometimes they would break in and search the house and if boys were found, they were taken.
“They had no respect, breaking everything around. They were awful, and cruel.
“We saw a few soldiers far away, we would never dream of going near them. They started shooting if someone went near.”
Food was scarce and findings were carefully rationed, but shared with the neighbours as community friends stuck together through, what must have been, a nightmare.
“We used to sleep fully clothed just in case we heard the sirens, then we’d all run to the basement. Myself, my mum and my sister were terrified.”
Meanwhile, in Poland, a young man had just started his own printing company.
But as news broke that war had begun, Czes Rosinski, who had to serve his country, crossed over to England to fight against the Nazi German soldiers, “walking miles and miles every day,” says Ada, who had never met or heard of this man at the time.
Czes was captured by the invading Germans and held prisoner before managing to escape and travelling to London where he stayed for a long time.
After noticing a place in the paper, he moved to Newtown, which seemed like a much quieter, more peaceful place to live in.
He stayed in Newtown working at a printing company, which is now where St Mary’s Close flats have been erected after the demolition years ago.
After the war had ended in 1945, Ada’s sister, Olga, had found love with a British soldier in Naples. They got married and both moved to his home here in Newtown to find work. But Olga was feeling very home-sick leaving her mother and sister behind especially after the family-uniting war and the times they had experienced together over the last few years and decades.
Seeing as Olga was so happy being with her new husband, but missing the rest of her family, her mother moved to Newtown to be with them – and Ada joined. This was another hard time for the family, in a strange new place with a different language and a different culture. But once again, they fought through it.
“We started going to the Catholic church. And one day they announced a ‘dance’ up on the top floor of the Pryce Jones building,” said Ada. “It was a St Patrick’s Day dance and I went with a friend.”
It was there that Czes noticed Ada and they began to chat, which led to a few more meetings and only six months after Ada had introduced Czes to her family, who were a bit wary before the meeting. But soon they were engaged, and not long after Ada and Czes, as refugees from Poland and Italy, were married in Wales.
It was the war that moved people around, only for them to find love. Whether it be the need for comfort, the vulnerability of peace, or the celebration of happiness, the impact had affected the lives of millions around the world and for people to find love after it, Ada’s story shows that with determination and support for one another then happiness can be found after anything, no matter how hard.