Two days after the Battle of Monte Cassino, Anders and the group performed on the hill where the battle raged, amongst the ruins of the abbey. It was then that Anders and Gwidon Borucki, the actor and Anders' Army soldier to whom the artist was married at the time, performed the famous military song The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino for the first time in history.
Though both of them were married at the time, general Anders invited the singer to dinner whilst in Baghdad. The two walked down the aisle in 1948. In 1946, Anders starred in two films directed by Michał Waszyński: the Italian movie The Unknown Man of San Marino and the Polish-Italian production Wielka Droga (The Great Road, trans. NS).
In the first post-war years, Anders moved to Great Britain and suspended her career as a singer to focus on family life. It was a twist of fate that she went back to performing in the 1950s – one of the hosts of Radio Free Europe asked her to perform. Anders yielded to the journalist's request ('it was an innocent beginning of a whole number of recordings for Radio Free Europe and my comeback to the stage'). The singer performed for Polish immigrants in the British Isles. Marian Hemar, another notable Polish artist-émigré wrote lyrics for Anders. Having started a co-operation with the BBC, Anders recorded nearly 1,000 songs for the station in five years. She gave concerts in the US, Israel, Sweden, Italy and France, never using her husband's name – she performed under the alias Renata Bogdańska, or simply Renata.
Irena Anders was decorated with the Monte Cassino Commemorative Cross, the Cross of Merit, the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. She died in London in 2010 at 90 years old. Anders is buried next to her husband in the Monte Cassino Polish war cemetery.
Originally written in Polish by Marcelina Obarska, translated into English by N. Sajewicz, August 2021