April 18, 1944 was a Tuesday. Janusz turned 14 on that day and I went to see him at his parents’ apartment at 45 Tamka Street. It was a balmy spring day and we decided to go out with a camera. Janusz put an overcoat on as his mother insisted that he wore one. But it was really warm and he kept it unbuttoned. I was more adventurous and did not care for an overcoat. We walked down the street until we reached the mermaid sculpture which stood on the Vistula embankment where Tamka ended. There we took pictures of ourselves climbing the monument. Someone may ask a question how come two 14 year old boys spent time playing hokey rather than being at school. Well, we did not go to a regular school at that time. In German occupied Poland only seven years of general education were allowed for the Polish children and some subjects, such as Polish history, were not allowed at all. There was an illegal underground school, however. Classes of four, five or six students met in teachers or students private apartments where the illegal teaching took place. Locations were ever-changing and hours were irregular. Perhaps on that particular day we were on our way to one of the “komplety” as the illegal classes were called. Or, maybe, it was a free day, with no “komplety”. On the photos we are both wearing pre-war caps of our Mikołaj Rej School; I am in our old school uniform: navy blue jacket and knickerbockers. We were students of that school and classmates since 1938. On picture where Janusz stands next to the mermaid, the river can be seen in the background and the contours of the right bank of Warsaw, the Praga district, are visible on the other side of the river. After the summer of 1944, I did not see Janusz until about two years later. We returned to the destroyed city, but our old school did not reopen. We met in another school, the Stefan Batory High School in Warsaw, however. After high school graduation our roads were somewhat separated, as Janusz went to study chemistry, while I went to medical school. But some years later, again, we met. After leaving Poland I settled in suburban Northern Virginia, while Janusz, only few years later decided on making home in suburban Maryland, just across the river. We stayed close friends. It was a lifelong relation and it will be missed. Kris (Krzysztof) Murawski Annandale, VA