Harald Krusche Biography: much abbreviated

Harald Wiktor (Harold Victor) Krusche, the son of Edward and Wanda nee Hadrian, was born March 21, 1909, in Lodz, Poland. He grew up in Pabianice, which for generations had been the seat of the family textile industry and whose markets reached around the world. Before the Second World War, Pabianice was a vibrant, multiethnic, and cosmopolitan town known for its practiced wit and repartee. Krusche uncles were famous for staging practical jokes on a grand scale. After the war, its population was cut in half, its factories ruined or sovietised, its élan lost forever.

Of a mixed line of Huguenots and Polish gentry, his parents exemplified the Polish ideals of patriotism, democracy, and egalitarianism. His father, uncles, aunts, and cousins, held advanced technical degrees and owned or directed their own businesses and factories, including one of the largest cotton mills in the Russian Empire. His father was a graduate of Switzerland's famous technical institute, Winterthur. He specialized in dye chemistry and had his own factory. He also loved to play the piano. His mother was a graduate of Letteverein, then at the forefront of European feminist education. She was also a brilliant pianist who even played duets with Paderewski. At one time she helped raise money to send a local boy, Arturek Rubenstein, to Vienna. Not surprisingly then, Edward and Wanda fell in love playing music together … When Edward died prematurely in 1925, Wanda was heartbroken and never really recovered from her loss. Harald was only 16 at the time and his little sister, Nora, was only 13. During the war Nora was a courier for AK, the Polish underground; as well she was part of an underground co-op that grew food for the city of Warsaw. She became the first professor of horticultural economics in Poland and was awarded the honour of Polonia Restituta.

In Pabianice Harald attended a unique public school which was funded by the local industrialists to provide the best possible education for the town's children. Along with its own museum, gallery, and library, it had amazing state of the art laboratories where each student had a personal x-ray machine, vacuum pump, generator, etc… equipment not available even at the universities. In his wanderings after school, he spent a lot of time learning from the many master machinists and other specialists in the town. He played all kinds of sports and developed a lifelong love of nature.

After high school he went to the Cavalry Cadet School in Grudziadz where he excelled in the 20 event bojowka. Upon graduation he was assigned to the 4^th Rifle Cavalry Regiment with which he trained in the summers, touring much of the Polish countryside on horseback, learning much about the country's socio-economic conditions. Later he was transferred to the 14^th Ulan Regiment in Lwow.

In 1930 he enrolled in the Gdansk Polytechnic. He was a member of various student organizations. By 1933 Hitler's influence made it increasingly difficult for Polish students to carry on. As a result Harald and two friends transferred to the Lwow Polytechnic. In the interim summer they worked as co-op students in the Rumanian oil industry. In Lwow he met and married Janina Wierzynska.

WWII

Harald Krusche was mobilized on March 23, 1939, and assigned the 945 Supply Column of the 27^th Ulan Regiment in General Anders Nowograd Cavalry Brigade. The story of its battles and retreat is well documented. HWK was at a crowded meeting with Anders when a courier crashed in, shouting that the Bolsheviks had crossed the border. Stunned silence filled the room. Then speculation. Perhaps thought some they are coming to help us. Then two hours later, another courier came in and whispered in the General's ear. They were being shot at.

After the dissolution of the brigade on September 27, HWK headed for his cousin's house in Kielce where he joined his sister, aunts, and many cousins all working for the Red Cross. He also put on the Red Cross Arm band and drove around the countryside looking for provisions for its hospital. Then one day, the Germans posted signs ordering all Polish officers to report for identity cards or be shot. Harald met an old friend, Ludwik Wielowieyski, and for 2 days they vacillated. As it turned out, it was a one way trip. So began 5 years of captivity.

Harald has hours of stories from this era that could fill a book. Some are wonderful examples how his quick sense of humour unarmed many an explosive situation. Others are alarming narrow escapes. Others show sheer determination. There is the story of how Harald, having escaped POW camp, and after many hair-raising adventures, made it to the Danish coast from where he rowed to Sweden. He arrived at the Polish Embassy just in time for a formal dinner. Years of forgotten graces returned in an instant. In Sweden he worked for the Red Cross until he was delegated by the Polish Government, the Polish Red Cross, and the Swedish Red Cross to help evacuate Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. When the Polish Embassy in Sweden was usurped by the Soviet regime he was re-mobilized and flown to Dundee to instruct at a training center. It wasn't till later, while studying for his Master's in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College, that he found out that his wife had been killed in the Warsaw Uprising. He decided to emigrate, sponsored by the Dorosz family of engineers in Regina where he was demobilized in 1949.

CANADA

First impressions of Canada: a fishy smelling harbour; more bananas than one can eat; friends urging him to stay in Montreal; harvest time on the prairies – finally the Rockies - Alberta the land of his dreams. HVK came here by no accident. In POW camp it became obvious that a return to Poland would be impossible. Alternatives had to be figured out. He picked Alberta then, based on its growing petroleum economy, its mountains, marshlands, and forests. To this end he had written a petroleum related thesis, and had researched the industrial potential of the Prairie Provinces.

Once in Calgary he managed, with the help of Mr. Oberholtzer, the Deputy Minister of Industry, to get hired to turn around the Turner Valley Propane Plant. This pilot project was the first petrochemical plant in Canada, and the only propane plant in NW North America. HVK's many fascinating innovations there have been published by the Turner Valley Historical Society.

In 1951 he married Madelaine Suska, a geologist, whom he had first met while still in Sweden. Together they had many adventures and raised two children.

From Turner Valley, HVK went on in 1952 to an even more challenging pilot venture, the construction of the Celanese plant outside of Edmonton. A year was spent with a group of engineers studying the prototype; another making plans, writing manuals, hiring staff; then excavations, building, installing, and testing. It was an exhilarating and singular time in an engineer's career to be part of such a venture. HVK worked there many years, developing his division, proposing many valuable processes some of which were patented and sold. By the late sixties he was head of production for the whole plant.

In 1968, HVK joined the City of Edmonton as its first Pollution Control Engineer. The word environmental engineer had not yet been coined. Much of the work entailed public education- He was a regular guest on the Tommy Banks Show and was interviewed both by Peter Gzowski and Barbara Frum. He introduced the very first anti-noise bylaws in Canada and worked on committees to shape other environmental laws, e.g. the Chemical Institute of Canada. He was an early member of The Committee for an Independent Canada and The Alberta Wilderness Association. He was a founding member of the Environment Conservation Authority which was probably the first and only citizen's advisory board to be able to propose truly effective environmental legislation in Alberta. It's members included the archeologist, Dick Forbis, and pioneerinig ecologist, PK Anderson.

After his retirement he built a 42' Cascade sloop from the bare hull. Christened the "Bachmat," it is now moored at the San Diego Yacht Club. He also built a little house in Hilo, Hawaii where he wrote his memoirs. He has friends in cafes all over... from the Turner Valley Inn, to Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo, to Jalisco Cafe in Imperial Beach CA. In his spare time, he dabbles in astrophysics – full of awe for universe and its infinite beauty.