By Ailene Dawson Austin Daily Herald.

Wednesday, March 06, 2002

By Ailene Dawson

Austin Daily Herald

Freedom isn’t something that is bestowed or given randomly.

I never thought I would have to question my freedom or doubt that I’d have enough to eat or a safe place to sleep until Sept.11.

I had the privilege, two years ago, of meeting a man who lost his freedom. His last name was Adam Klosowski. He told me about his fight for freedom – how he didn’t give up.

His parents were immigrants to the United States. He enlisted in the Air force early on in when World War II crawled across Europe. His parents weren’t happy with his decision, they needed his help on the farm. But he considered it his "duty" because he felt so lucky to be an American.

Klosowski was part of a bombing crew that had successfully been to Germany and back on many missions. The crew would be retired and sent them back home. He didn’t want to leave. He volunteered for another mission and during that bombing run, his plane was shot down.

Klosowski was captured by Germans and spent the next four month in Poland – a prisoner of war in Stalag IV.

His first food in the camp was piece of hard, sour bread. It was made from barley and rye flour and 20 percent wood flour, a fancy name for sawdust, Klosowski told me.

The Germans would bring a bucket of soybean soup with a trace of meat. When a worm floated to the top, he scooped it out. A second floated up, he tossed it. When the third floated to the top he said, "what the heck, it’s cooked," and ate it.

As the Russian Allied forces moved closer to the Polish camps in the spring of 1945, the Germans began to move the prisoners west, most by rail but Klosowski was one of the thousands moved on foot.

The Germans kept them on the move and many died from exposure and starvation. When he realized they were back tracking, he knew the Germans intended to kill them. He and a buddy escaped.

For the next two weeks, they ran by night toward the Allied lines and hid by day. They dug roots and ate them. The whole time, Klosowski could think of nothing but getting back to freedom – going home.

They hid in a barn one day and as they slept, were nearly discovered when the haystack they were sleeping on was being loaded onto a cart. They stole a calf from this place. They killed it and cooked the meat in their helmets. They carried as much meat as they could with them.

In order to evade detection, Klosowski waded up to his neck in icy water as German patrols passed by looking for the escapees.

When they finally made it to an English camp, they were nearly shot when soldiers found them crawling through a field.

Klosowski said the hardest thing he did was give up the meat, though it smelled rancid and the English offered them plenty of food.

He said he cherished his freedom and, though he was 78, he would gladly fight again to live in a free country.

Our fight in Afghanistan is a fight for freedom – our fight to once again feel safe.

Losing that freedom – freedom to live without fear, freedom to work and prosper, freedom to live is something I will never take lightly again.

Ailene Dawson’s column appears on Wednesdays.