Viewpoint

An Introduction from Charles Williams, M.D., FACR, Radiology Associates of Tallahassee:

“Few of us can imagine eating out of a garbage pail to keep from starving. George Bonk did. Because he was not allowed to attend primary school, he educated himself with purloined textbooks. He survived childhood polio and later became a Tallahassee physician who was noted for driving a sports car. He was a founding member of Radiology Associates and my medical partner for many years. I would like to thank his widow Donna Bonk for providing us with this comprehensive history of a remarkable physician and his parents who achieved so much in their lifetimes.”

THE LIFE OF GEORGE BONK, M.D. – 1935 - 2021

A Note from Donna Paul Bonk: I came late into George’s life, but I’ve been made a very special member of this family by both his daughters, Marla and Kristin. I hope this story will be of interest to both them and their children as it is to me. They are descendants of truly remarkable people and are to be very proud of their heritage.

PREFACE

I had been married for ten years to George when I came across a dusty box filled with photos, documents, news articles, and a multitude of ID cards--a box that George and his daughters had brought back from Chicago eleven years before, after the death of his mother, Dr. Eugenia Bonk.

As I started to look at these most interesting memorabilia, I started asking George about each puzzling article and excitedly realized that I was uncovering the story of George and his parents through a most harrowing period of history--the crushing of Poland, their homeland, by both Hitler and Stalin in WWII and the Bonks’ subsequent escapes from both.

My interest was piqued, and I started reading history books, watching documentaries on Poland during WWII and then examining more thoroughly the contents of this box. One of the most intriguing photos was a rather weathered and torn one of small George, encased in plastic, with writing on the back that translated “My Talisman - during Occupation, Uprising, and POW Camp - Everything, all my joy and life to me, is on this picture.” This was his father’s ‘amulet’ throughout the war. Finally, as I began asking more questions of George, his past started to unfold.

And so, this is my attempt to piece together this remarkable but frightening story of the Bonk family (Alfred, Eugenia, and George), who spend six years running as fugitives from the secret police of two countries--Germany and Russia; then, another five years living as “Displaced Persons” in post war Germany; and finally, their subsequent resettling in a new country and the rebuilding of careers.

The story of the Bonks begins in Lwow, Poland, the cultural center of eastern Poland, pre WWII. Both Alfred and Eugenia had received their medical degrees in 1925 and 1926, respectively, and then married. Alfred was in the military and eventually promoted to Major, while Eugenia was practicing as a Pediatrician. George, their only child, was born in 1935, and sometime shortly thereafter Alfred opened up his own Radiology Office. But on Sept. 1, 1939, their idyllic life changed--Germany invaded Poland.

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During the first year of WWII, Germany was allied with Italy, Russia and Japan. Hitler and Stalin had made a secret pact to divide up Poland. Germany attacked on the western front and the Red Army moved in from the east. Because Lwow was the cultural center of eastern Poland, the Russian army situated themselves in Lwow and took over this entire region.

As soon as Germany invaded, Alfred Bonk donned his military uniform once again and went immediately to fight in the western front as a Major in the cavalry. Polish forces, mainly foot soldiers and a brigade of horse calvary, were thinly scattered along the western border. They fought courageously but were no match for Hitler’s tanks.

Meanwhile, Eugenia and George were back in Lwow, when soon after, the Red Army moved in. Stalin, the most ruthless dictator, had sent orders to either execute all the “intelligentsia” (educated professionals and military officers) and/or send them and their families to Siberia. The Bonk family fell into this category and are put on the “death list” by both Germans and Russians. They would spend the next six years running from both the Russians and the Germans, sometimes with false IDs.

Both the Germans and the Russians had the same policy - to mass execute or deport all Polish intellectuals - anyone who could be potential troublemakers. From the very beginning, the policy was designed to completely eradicate Polish culture, history and schooling. The intention was to “Germanize” the western part of Poland and “Russianize” the eastern part.

George remembers vividly the day when Russian soldiers came rushing in his house with rifles, demanding to search. Eugenia had been instructed by Alfred, when he left for the western front, to throw away all his military insignia. But Eugenia had kept three of his military buttons for sentimental reasons and young George was aware of this. When the soldiers entered, he ran upstairs, found the buttons and climbed out the back window and buried them. He was only five at the time, but remembers even now how scared he was but somehow knew what he had to do to protect his family, even at that age. He learned survival skills as a very young child.

Back on the western front, Alfred has been captured and sent east on a train, but managed to escape and continued east to gather Eugenia and George and get them out of eastern Poland. Somehow, he knew about the Russians moving in and had rather them be on the German partition of Poland, rather than the Russian side. It was well known the brutality of Stalin. But once again Alfred is captured, this time by the Russian forces and put on a train, destined for one of the POW camps near the Katyn Forrest--the site where 22,000 Polish nationals (non-Jews) including Polish military officers and Polish intelligentsia were mass executed, later to be known as the Katyn Forrest Massacre--a massacre that Russia had tried to blame the Germans for. And although the Allies secretly knew Stalin had been behind this, it was not until 1989 that Russia confessed to this brutality.

Alfred, though wounded, manages to escape again and finally reach Lwow, rescue Eugenia and George, and together they struggle over 200 miles west to Warsaw, which is now occupied by the German forces. It is here in Warsaw that the Bonks will spend the next four years, with Alfred keeping his rank as Major Bonk in the Polish Underground Army. And both he and Eugenia will work in the underground hospital. During these four years Alfred will constantly be acquiring false IDs to give to the Germans. Young George, at the age of six, unbeknownst to his parents, becomes a member of the Children’s Underground Army and remembers to this day throwing bricks and grenades

from rooftops onto German vehicles, causing whatever havoc he could.

A year after the Bonks come to Warsaw, they move George out to the country to stay with a family-- Polio has hit many children in Warsaw. But George is exposed to a child with this dreaded disease who was visiting the farm and immediately becomes paralyzed along his entire right side. He remained on this farm for one year and remembers being rolled out on a bed daily to spend the sunlight hours by himself, just looking out at the land. If anyone today knows George well, you know that he can spend hours on end sitting outdoors and examining every bit of nature, asking constant questions of himself of how things work, how to observe weather, how physics plays a role in everyday living-- his mind is constantly working! At a very early age, George learned how to concentrate, develop observation skills, and think “in the present.”

George vividly remembers various people coming out to the farm and constantly massaging so vigorously his limbs that he cried most of the time - this was the medical therapy for Polio prevalent at this time. And to this day, George will not go to a masseuse! But fortunately, after one year, his paralysis ends, and he goes back to Warsaw to be with his parents, to remain until the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.

In the spring of 1941, Germany invades Russia and Stalin quickly joins the Allies in the fight against Hitler. Germany pushes back Russia from the eastern side of Poland and Lwow is now occupied by the Germans. And even after the entire country was occupied by German forces, Europe’s largest underground army was formed in Poland to continue the battle, forcing Germany to maintain a large occupation force. It was the Underground Polish military, when all others failed, that scaled the steep 1700-foot mountain to capture the German fortress at Monte Cassino, thus opening the road to Rome and northern Italy. And in England, Polish airmen shot down more than 750 German aircraft while over Germany.

The second front by the Allies on the shores of Normandy occurred in the summer of 1944, and the Soviets had regained back eastern Poland, including Lwow and was again arresting Polish nationals, this time the Polish Home Army and torturing them. Even though the Poles had set up a government in exile in London, Stalin, determined to claim Poland for Russia after the war, had set up his own “Polish” government. He even ordered many Soviet officers to dress in Polish uniforms and started planting them in Lwow to begin this masquerade.

Meanwhile, the Underground Home Army in Warsaw was worried that the Soviets would eventually enter Warsaw to fight the Germans and do the same as they did in Lwow. They decided that if they could overtake the Germans themselves, they would show the world they were independent and claim Warsaw for the Home Army, as well as save the city from destruction.

On August 1, 1944, the Warsaw Uprising Uprising started with 63 days of intense fighting between 950,000 Warsaw civilians and the Underground Home Army against the German forces. The Red Army sat right across the Vistula River next to Warsaw and lifted no arms to help, even though they had promised to. They even prevented the American and British planes from using their airbase to provide weapons and supplies for the Polish military and civilians fighting. They wanted the Germans to win rather than the Polish Home Army -- the uprising’s failure would allow the pro Soviet Polish administration to get control of Poland after the war. Without Allied support, the Underground Army was forced to surrender when its supplies gave out.

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The Bonk family was right in the midst of this intense street fighting, and Major Bonk was a commanding officer over sectors in Warsaw. When the Uprising was over in October, 200,000 poles perished. The Germans later commented on the ferocity and tenaciousness with which the Poles fought. Alfred and Eugenia were both wounded with eye and other facial cuts--young George had been sent to a Warsaw suburb right before the Uprising. Soon, all prisoners were evacuated and put on a train to head west to Germany to POW camps. Somehow, Alfred, jumped the train, gathered George and rejoined the train to reunite the family. Hitler then ordered the complete destruction of the Polish capital, obliterating every building there.

It was not until 2007 when George and I made a trip to Poland, his first time back there since that summer of 1944, that I saw actual tears in George’s eyes, remembering the past, as we walked the streets of Warsaw looking at all the new buildings and eventually coming upon a sign on a building in Old Town, commemorating the valiant fighting by the Poles of Warsaw during the Uprising. It was quite an emotional moment for him and made an impact on my wanting to know more about his story.

It is now October of 1944 and the train of POWs takes the Bonk family to Zeithein, a city located south of Berlin and halfway between Dresden and Leipzig--to the POW camp of Stalag IV B. It is here where they will remain until the end of the war. Major Alfred Bonk becomes the commander of the POW hospital overseeing the multitude of severely-wounded survivors of the Warsaw Uprising. And, it is here that Alfred uses his radiology skills in putting together an x-ray machine. George was not aware of this fact until I came upon a portion of a book, Nie bylem Kolumbem, written in Polish by a fellow surgeon of Alfred’s who happened to be at the same POW camp hospital. He wrote about the conditions there and credits Major Bonk as “putting together an x-ray machine which enabled the surgeons to set bones visually rather than just by ‘feel’ as they had been previously doing.” Alfred was a pioneer in the building of the field of radiology and many years later a radiology department in Chicago would be named after him.

For the next seven months George, who was about 9 1/2, would spend his days at the camp scavenging for extra food and taking apart and fixing any small appliance he could find. Conditions were deplorable; dysentery and prolonged malnutrition were rampant. The POW’s daily nutrition consisted of turnip soup, sometimes with dried cabbage leaves added, and a small chunk of bread. George would risk his life many times sneaking across camp to steal potatoes to add to this soup. This was during the period at the last six months of the war and the Allied forces had bombed so many cities in Germany that food was scarce everywhere; food for the POW camps all throughout Germany was almost non-existent.

It was in February of 1945 when Allied forces sent 800 aircraft for the “Burning of Dresden,” only fifty miles away from Stalag IV B. George remembers the massive sounds of the planes and the burning red skies. A series of five attacks will take place over the next month and leave Dresden in ashes. George and I recently watched a movie on the burning of Dresden, and all the memories came back of that month and the roaring planes and lighted skies of that momentous attack.

Finally, in the late spring of 1945, after Germany had surrendered, Russian troops liberate Stalag IV B. Major Bonk realizes it would be a mistake to head back toward Poland because of the Russian Communist occupation, and thus the family dons the red, white and blue badges of French repatriates and walk westwards toward France, hoping to meet up with the American front. They had just twentyfour hours to make a decision before heading out, but they knew they had to flee from the Russians. If upon a chance meeting any French returning persons, they posed as Belgian citizens.

As soon as they crossed the line where all three allies (American, British, and Russian) had converged, some American trucks picked them up. The Bonk family thought they had ended up in the American sector, in the town called Northeim. But as the Americans and British were arguing as to what sector each were in charge of, the sectors were switched and the Bonks were moved to the British sector in the town of Gottingen, south of Hannover. They are to remain there for the next five years.

As “displaced persons” (thousands and thousands of survivors would be known as DPs), the Bonks must wait until they can find a sponsor to bring them to the states. During this time, Alfred became the Sr. Medical officer of the military camp and would also be the liaison between the British occupation forces and the displaced Polish contingent. Always a leader, Alfred is “summed up” in a letter written in 1949 by a Military British Government testimonial. As President of the Polish committee in Gottingen, Alfred is “an inestimable value to the British office in dealing with Polish DPs. He is a man possessed of great public spirit and natural pride who has successfully for a long period steered the Polish community into ways of good conduct and good living. It is largely due to his effort that the Polish DPs in a very large area of Germany have proved themselves to be good, hard-working law-abiding citizens...as a man of command, integrity and strength of character, this gentleman has earned the respect of his compatriots in exile and of the officials of the Occupying Powers.”

Eugenia works as a Pediatrician in the military camp and thus neither parent is home much. George steals a German bike and for the next five years will spend hour upon hour riding in the nearby forests, still fixing appliances. Having never been in a school system, George is tutored by various German teachers and, of course, becomes fluent in German, as well as English. He spends many an hour reading all the classics. And to round out his education, he remembers going to the opera house in town every Sunday by himself, listening to both operas and plays.

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George was wise beyond his years. He remembers vividly, when he was 12 and playing with a few fifteen-olds, they found an old German helmet along with some airplane cannon bullets. They made a fire in the helmet, put the bullets in it, stood back and waited for it to explode. When it didn’t, the older boys wanted to have a look. George warned them repeatedly not to. But they went anyway while he remained firm. The helmet exploded; two died and two were blinded. George learned early on in Warsaw that friendships were very tenuous and that making wrong decisions could be deadly.

After four years of placing numerous notices in medical magazines and trying other avenues of finding a sponsor, finally Alfred hears from a Dr. Earl Woodson, of the Woodson Clinic in Poteau, Oklahoma. And in late May of 1945, the Bonks find themselves on the USA military sea transportation ship named the “General W.G. Haan,” along with 1300 other “displaced persons.” After arriving in New Orleans, the Bonk family is put on a train headed for Poteau, Oklahoma, a town of 5000.

In Poteau, OK, the Bonks will spend about one and half years there, living in a “fixed up” chicken coop; though after eight months, Eugenia is hired as a psychiatric intern for the mentally ill at the Eastern State Hospital in Vinita, Oklahoma, a city about 125 miles away and moves to an apt. there. Even though she practiced as a Pediatrician in Poland and Germany, she could not practice her field without a license. She did not want to take the necessary Boards in a foreign country, but apparently she could intern in psychiatry in a state hospital.

Alfred Bonk for the next one and a half years works alongside Dr. Woodson in his clinic in general surgery as an x-ray specialist. But he quickly learns English and starts studying for the Illinois State Board exam which he will pass in 1952. Meanwhile, George at age 15, having never been in a formalized school setting, is interviewed by the Education Superintendent. George gives him a sampling of what he knows in Latin, Physics, Chemistry, Classical Literature, Humanities and even throws out the only two quadratic equations he knows. In actuality, George had only been exposed to a smattering of information and the “sampling” is really all that he knows. The superintendent, having no idea what grade to place him in, has George simultaneously take senior classes at the local high school in Poteau and freshman classes at the local jr. college. He has to work extremely hard at courses he had limited background in, learning English along the way. After 1 1/2 years, he will start at Oklahoma University in his third semester, and not quite 17!

Sometime in early 1952 Alfred left Dr. Woodson’s practice and moved to Chicago to study for the Illinois State Board exam. At some point Eugenia joined him and will work as a psychiatrist in a psychiatric unit for the State of Illinois for the next twenty years. Alfred becomes licensed, and after practicing for a few years, becomes Director of the Department of Radiology at the Edgewater Hospital in Chicago and eventually, the Department will be named after him.

George spends three semesters at the University of Oklahoma and then transfers to Northwestern for his last two years. Following graduation, he then is accepted into the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois and graduates in June of 1958. During the summers in medical school, George becomes quite the entrepreneur and teaches water skiing in Wisconsin on Lake Geneva. He had never water skied before but on a vacation up in Wisconsin with his parents, he quickly learns, takes a loan from his dad to buy a boat, and talks the big fancy hotels on the lake into hiring him to teach their guests. After the first summer,

he pays the loan back in full. Water skiing will become a passion for him for many years to come and many, many friends and family of his will learn this sport from him.

After an internship at Jackson Memorial in Dade City and where he meets his first wife, Claire, George heads back to Chicago to start an Internal Medicine residency. After six months, he realizes this is not his desired specialty and is accepted into the Radiology Residency Program at Northwestern. At the same time, George joins the Illinois National Guard and will be promoted to Captain.

After completion of the three-year residency program, George decides to remain at Northwestern for two years as an instructor. Now married and with a daughter, George accepts a partnership in Tallahassee with the two originating partners of Radiology Associates, Drs. David McCullough and Fred Lindsey. George becomes specialized in mammography and along with the next incoming partner, Dr. Don Hansard, these two physicians will be the first in Tallahassee to bring in the new technologies of the Ultrasound and the CT scan. They will also start the first breast biopsies using a needle gun, with a stereotactic machine. Like father, like son-George would always be exploring/searching for new technologies in radiology.

WWII resulted in the death of one fifth of the Polish population, with 3 million Polish Jews killed, along with 3 million Polish Christians. That the Bonk family not only survived this hellish war--running for their lives, losing their home and all possessions along with family members and friends, but that they moved to another country, not knowing the language, starting over again in their early 50‘s, and with each member of the trio accomplishing so much in their careers. The fortitude and resilience shown by these three throughout these frightening years is truly remarkable--their industriousness is indisputable. The story of the Bonk Family is truly an interesting one and one that I am so proud to have played a part in setting to work.