Saturday, 20.09.2003

Bringing the bikes back and then relaxing with beer and ice-cream, not necessarily together, in a cafe.

Cleaning the house -

and a bit later, so around 4am:

Yes, that is right, when most of you were sleeping your worries away, a small team of spirited volunteers were helping Bogna in translating a document about the personal experiences of a Polish soldier in German captivity from Polish into English. If you are interested to read the document, here it is:

Lambinowice/Lamsdorf, 18.02.1965

 INTERVIEW

“On 30.08.1939, I joined to the 2^nd Border Guard (KOP). We went towards Baranowice. Took the oath in Lachowice. Next we went to Dobromil. Bombardment at night. Then we went through Sadowa Wisna and Janow. In Janow we came across a skirmish. We were defending ourselves in a sawmill. The Germans came to the sawmill, destroyed it, but we managed to escape. We swam across the river. Several drowned. In a wood we were attacked by the other side. We defended ourselves with grenades. After the second night took care of the wounded, in the morning only two had survived. During the battle we took 5 Germans prisoner, who cried and showed us prayer books and pictures of their families. We took them to the police. I went with my friend to the direction of  Lwow. On the way we found some of the missing people from our unit. We joined a Polish army unit. Near Lwow I was wounded in my arm. We then went with the wounded by horse carriage, which was flying a flag with a red cross. From behind the mountain we saw a German patrol. One of us knew German, spoke to the patrol who then let us go. Then we met a civilian who directed us to the road to Lwow. He was Ukrainian who led us into a trap by directing us in the wrong direction and we were caught by Germans. They seized our weapons and told us that we were prisoners. We were then all taken to Janow, and then with 300-400 others we were taken to Jaworow, where all prisoners of war were brought together.  After an hour, the Germans took us with lorries through Krakow/Krakau to Jarowslaw. There, we slept for three days in a square. From there we were transported by train through Debice, Tarnow and Moscice, where we waited again. There we slept on concrete at a ammunition factory. One of the prisoners had 20.000 Zloty and tried to escape. He was shot. After two weeks we were told that we would go to a camp in Krakow and from there we would be allowed to return home. However, the train didn’t stop in Krakow. In Cieszyn they kept us for a whole day without food. The train staff in Tarnow were very helpful: they provided civilian clothing so that some of the prisoners might escape. We travelled in freight trains and we were treated like cattle, packing 60 people to a carriage, standing only.  The carriages were surrounded by barbed wire to prevent escape. Just before Krakow one of the prisoners tried to escape through a broken window. In Cieszyn we stood all day and night. We were told that it was due to disease that we could not return home. Similar things were said in  Boguminie. This is how we came to Antycze. Next to the forest were some tents, each with a number. There were 250 people in each tent. Inside the barracks was a wood. I was in a tent number 24. In Antycze they assembled the prisoners, but there were also civilians, clerics and monks. After an evening roll call, we lay down on straw like piglets. After a week I was registered in an office, and they gave me the prisoner number 2550; then they gave me a bath, disinfection, a new tent; and on the next day we were again transported. The train was getting shorter along the way because they put some of the prisoners to work and reduced the number of carriages. I stayed with 50 people in the last carriage in a town Hohenlubinhof near Berlin. It was 1940. There I met a lot of Polish people, women and children. They took us 3 kilometres to a sheep farm. We were lying on straw and were looking for some grain in the ears. We worked by peeling corn and picking sugar beads. After a couple of days we were interrogated by the military; they asked us where the weapons could be and so on. Five Jews were taken to an unknown place. I was there for 8 months, and then 65 people were taken to the town Zeiden and from there to the main camp Tschibet. There was also a Polish soldier named Klos. We were segregated according to profession and I was sent to camp Finstenberg IIIB. There I met people wearing red trousers and blue uniform jackets. There was the number 10 on their clothes. It was the 10^th penal unit. From there they took us through Poznan/Posen to Torun. In Torun a Ukrainian was assigning work to people, but he demanded the ability to pray in Ukrainian. I didn’t know Ukrainian so I stayed. We worked with bricks. After 8 months they took us to Ostrzeszowa 21 X and put us in a seminary. This was a temporary camp. We worked there, building the square. They divided us into two groups. DW meant: not able to work. Prisoners, who were able to work were taken to Lambinowice/Lamsdorf. This was my way to Stalag VIII B.

            I stayed in Lambinowice/Lamsdorf until September 1941 with the number I already mentioned. The commander of this camp was called Dietsch. I was there until 11.12.1942, when I got a discharge document. It was raining when we arrived. 250 people were put into each barrack. Directly after the transport they took us to the latrine. In the barracks were wooden chips on the bunks. We worked by peeling potatoes and cleaning. I could get a piece of bread for each cigarette found. The hunger was terrible. We were dying of hunger gradually. Sometimes we got potato peels and cooked them in the barracks with the wooden chips from the bunks. We had to hide with the food, because the other prisoners would be jealous, as there was not enough to go around. After this work they were taking us to Sowin. There, our work was to put wood on carriages. People from the village nearby helped us a lot. When I got once half a bread, it was a treasure for me. It was impossible to get a cigarette, so we chewed leaves with roofing felt. The Red Cross was sending parcels for the English prisoners. Sometimes, also Polish from England got parcels. Those were good parcels. Our Polish ones were poor. There was porridge and other food in the English parcels. Our food was very bad. Coffee in the morning, everyone wanted to be last in the queue to get the coffee grounds. Black bread in the shape of a brick was divided into 5 pieces. It had to last until the next evening. Sometimes they gave us what we called “monkey fat”, it was bacon fat that was yellow, bitter and tasteless. There was sawdust in the bread. It was also covered in sawdust. It was hard to fall asleep, because everyone stored the bread under their heads.  Usually, only crumbs were left in the morning. After half a year of deprivation I was sent to work to Strasenkbornie near Lewin /next to a brick factory/. I lived with a widow called Blacheck and worked on a private farm. There were 10 of us. The guard lived in attic. Once I didn’t go to work on Sunday and Blacheck was angry, called the guard and took me to work to Schulz. There a Ukrainian called Wasyl worked with me. I worked with cows and then horses in a shed. Once I put some yellow leaves on my leg, and I said that I was injured because a horse had kicked me. They took me to a hospital barrack in Lambinowice/Lamsdorf. The Yugoslavian doctor recognised the problem and said: “A yellow horse kicked you because you don’t want to work for the Germans.” After 2 weeks treatment I was taken to Schwarzdorf near the Czech border. At 22.12.1942 I got discharged and documents with a job agency in Otmuchow. From there we were sent to Paczkow. I worked at a butchers until the liberation of Paczkow. Afterwards I worked in MO as security.”

 After the speech Mr. Apanowicz answered questions. 

• In the camp in Lambinowice/Lamsdorf there was a fat German called Frank by prisoners. He was responsible for barrack 12. A typical day in the camp looked like this: wake up at 7, exercises, bath and breakfast then resting until lunch. Roll call looked this: we stood in 2 rows, everyone had a number hanging from his neck. We sang about daily concerns, and the Ukrainians sang their religious hymns. 

• I saw sick and wounded Russian prisoners who were brought to the camp. The stronger helped the weaker ones. Next to our barrack they were segregated and put into barracks. Once I saw that they brought a big pot of potatoes. One of the Russian prisoners wanted to steal a potato; he was shot immediately. For work we got camp money and we could sometimes buy cigarettes in the camp shop. Once we had a whipround  to buy cigarettes for the Russian prisoners. When we threw them over the fence, many prisoners rushed towards them, and a German began to brat them. We wrote a letter to the commander and asked for permission for them to take the cigarettes to the Russian barracks. He agreed.

• In Schwarzdorf and Schubegross  live people I was in a camp with.

• In the Arbeitskommando was a German called Bruno. There was also a painter in Lambinowice/Lamsdorf called Szpadlewski who painted the barracks.

• I have a few pictures, the discharge document, number, English letters (when English were in Torun).

• The English prisoners received listening devices, bugs, in the tins they got with their parcels. Germans began to open the tins.

• We found out from 10 Polish pilots who where imprisoned as British soldiers that England was preparing to send assistance to Poland.

• Escape was possible at night but very dangerous. When someone was caught he was imprisoned in a barrack for 10-15 days.

• Germans used Ukrainians: Lambinowice/Lamsdorf was a Ukrainian duty.

• Those caught trying to escape were sometimes beaten to death. I saw two escapes, and both of these were found out.

• In the camp we received a weekly camp newspaper in Polish. I remember a propaganda article with a picture of Katyn.

• When they found out haw many prisoners had head lice, they took pictures of it for amusement.

• The most common diseases were mental.

• As I was distributing bread as the leader of the group, the prisoners rushed towards it; and the confused Germans began to beat them.

• The Russians were worse off: those who were well enough were digging graves not only for the sick, but for themselves as well.

• There were 40,000 Polish prisoners in the barracks.

• During the transport they took a 17-year-old boy from the street and he was, as far as I know, the only civilian in the camp.

Josef Apanowicz was interviewed by Stanislaw Polanowski, Museum Director. He swears that everything said in the course of the interview was in his own words and was true to the best of his knowledge.   

A big thanks for all their help to Bogna, Sara and Simone for sacrificing their last night sleep in order to help making this translation.