George Skrzynecky and Lucian Poznanski, twin brothers who were separated at birth and adopted into different homes, finally reunited after 68 years of living as strangers. The twins were born in Germany in 1946 to Elizabeth, who was a Polish Catholic and had just been freed from a labor camp at the end of World War II.
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However, Elizabeth became ill after giving birth and was unable to care for the twins, so she was forced to give them up for adoption
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. The brothers were then sent to Poland and adopted into different families. Lucian, who lived in Poland, didn’t discover that he was adopted until he was drafted into the army. George stumbled across his adoption papers when he was 17 years old and learned that he had a twin brother. He asked the Red Cross to help him find his brother in the 1960s, but those attempts were unsuccessful.
For 70 years, George had been living without knowing anything about his family and had lost hope of ever finding his twin brother. However, in his 60s, Lucian decided to reach out to the Red Cross for help, and they were able to track George down. When George learned that not only was his brother alive, but also that he wanted to meet him, he couldn’t believe it.
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The two brothers finally met at Warsaw airport in Poland when they were 69 years old. Before the reunion, George said, “I never knew when this day was going to happen — was thinking one day I’ll find my brother. I couldn’t wait to hug him and give him a big kiss.”
The two men had tears in their eyes when they finally approached each other. They hugged, cried, kissed each other’s cheek, and rubbed each other’s heads. Their wives also embraced, and the men received the biggest bouquet of flowers that Lucian could carry
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. The video of their emotional reunion went viral, with the BBC’s video of their homecoming being viewed over 9 million times. In addition to finding each other, the Red Cross also found out some information about the twins’ parents.
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Their father was an American soldier who returned to the United States before they were born, and their mother had attempted to track them down but was barred from learning their whereabouts. After meeting at the airport, the brothers visited Warsaw’s Uprising Museum, and they plan to spend a lot more time together, hoping that this reunion will be the start of a close relationship.