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Note written on the 28 June 2019

I am 97 and some months old. Only my left eye works due to an artificial cornea implanted a few years ago. My birthdate is 12 October 1921.

I don’t feel fully capable and ready to write those arguments for the reasons mentioned below. There are also other reasons not to write about the past.

Before the war, I finished 7 years of primary school. After the war, on 1 March 1945, I started schooling at Silesian Scientific Institute in Katowice, where in expedited track – in 2,5 years – I passed the exam from the 4th grade of the mechanical gymnasium and 4th-grade general secondary school with a title of a mechanic and with the right to higher education. Due to my financial situation, I didn’t study any further. Working as a mechanic, I worked in different positions. I always had a dictionary by my side to ensure I made no correspondence mistakes. The Polish dictionary was accidentally destroyed. Therefore, I will not ‘sin’ by writing correctly and not having a dictionary at hand. Furthermore, I will write (without corrections) due to my eyes not being in full order and appropriate preparation. I will be scrutinised for correct writing.

Despite the aforementioned lack of education and pedagogical skills, I will write for the following reasons:

1. I am often asked to write the truth from 70 years back;
2. I was returning from the hospital to my wife, and I heard on the bus that Hitler might not have known about the cruelties taking place in concentration camps and that he could have been a good man.
3. When I was in the Miners’ Hospital in Bytom in the surgical wing, in various conversations with one patient, he told me that I was in the camp, as I didn’t feel like ‘working’.
4. At my age, one can feel lonely and have time to think about the past, particularly at night.
5. Some people are interested in the past.
6. The invitation to School no. 28 and from the Salzejan’s School in Zabrze—the welcome, flowers, memorabilia, children’s cordiality, teachers and other people present, and them listening to my stories—restored my will to live.

I can’t keep what I experienced during the meetings at the schools only for myself; I will cede it to those who haven’t made it from the camps.

Considering the fair assessment of the value of education and the instilling of culture, knowledge, and patriotism, school principals and outstanding teachers are not appreciated, they are not decorated with merit crosses, and their salaries are also low.

The prisoners of concentration camps, even those not party aligns, had their decorations from the People’s Republic time stripped, and those still living – were forgotten.

Written on the 5 of July 2019

Two ‘capos’, criminals, apolitical prisoners, have found in block 4a a priest – political prisoners marked with a red triangle. They kicked him, accused him of spreading religious lies, etc. They told him to get on a table and, while crouching, hold a heavy stool in his hands in front of him. If the stool fell down or the priest fell with it from the table, they kicked him, called him names, and he had to climb the table again with the stool.

That took place in block 4a, where the block leader was Franc Kozub, and the staff officer was Prof. Lipiński (or Lipczyński), and political prisoners Marusiak, Misiewicz, Dąbrowskie, and others, aged about 20, mostly from Warsaw. None present during that event, myself included, didn’t defend the priest, as everyone was afraid that ‘capos’ would attack them. I haven’t met other imprisoned criminals, but there weren’t many.

As an ex-prisoner of a concentration camp, marked with the number 24871, it is not appropriate for me to criticise other prisoners, but I mentioned I would write the truth, and so I am doing so.
News told me that there’s a priest and political prisoners in the block next door, and one can take confession with him in secret. I went there on Sunday after evening’s roll call and took confession, and I remember it well.

Written on the 5 of July 2019

In the month of April 1942, in the afternoon hours, prisoners’ commandos were returning from work to the centre of the Auschwitz Camp. On the square between the block, an SS man penal-trained a group of prisoners. In German, he was giving orders: “… down, run for 5 metres, down, up and run, etc.”. After a few minutes, some prisoners couldn’t get up from the ground anymore. The SSman then approached the laying prisoner, kicked him, and, if the prisoner was capable of getting up – he had to continue running. After a few minutes, some prisoners stopped getting up. Some other prisoners were watching this penal training, and I asked one of them, ‘What is this punishment for?’ and was told it was for contacting civilians when labouring outside of the camp. I don’t know how the penal exercises ended, as I had to go to my block 4a as the time for the evening roll call and prisoner count was approaching.

From experience, I know that the labour at the camp was unpaid.
When I was arrested near my home, a man from the Gestapo told me that I wouldn’t be given anything, as I’d get everything there, but he didn’t tell me where I was going. Because I didn’t have any money, I bought the first postcard with a postmark for a piece of bread from another prisoner on an (illegal) camp exchange and sent it to my parents.

I suspect those penal commando exercises were a sanction for informing the family where the prisoner is located.

During my stay at the quarantine in the death block no 11, before I was released from the camp, I met Jan Pudlik, an ex-city mayor of Piekary Slaskie, who told me he had been sentenced to death but told his wife he’d come home.

After I was released from the camp, I was ordered to start working within three days. I was sent to forced labour in Heydebreck (Kędzierzyn), so my Mother informed Mrs. Pudlik of the news from the camp. In Kędzierzyn, I lived in a barrack (infested with bedbugs) for Poles, and if I didn’t report there, I would have been arrested and sent to a camp or transported to forced labour.

In the camp, Karol Kozik from Old Bieruń and Mosur from Wojkowice wished to inform their families that money was waiting at home. I couldn’t fulfil this wish, as above, as leaving the work assignment in Kędzierzyn without a special pass could result in an arrest, and such arrests happen. In Kędzierzyn, Poles needed to carry a yellow square on their clothes, measuring 8x8cm with a letter P, but we didn’t adhere to this. I, as a Pole and ex-concentration camp prisoner in Auschwitz, had to report twice a week to the Gestapo in Kędzierzyn personally. This lasted about half a year.

Written on 22nd July 2019

With this note, I enclose page 12 from the magazine “Gwarek” from 20.02.2018 with the article ‘I’d like to say that’, written based on my meeting on 13.02.2018 with the governor of Świerklaniec Commune, Mr Marek Cyl, his assistant and stenotypist of the magazine, as above.
I had the opportunity to attend for three hours; hence, only the most essential facts are enclosed. At the end of the article, there’s a mention that I found work in Kędzierzyn Koźle (Heydebreck at the time). I didn’t have the choice of place and kind of work, which I will describe below.

After leaving the camp’s gates, along with other prisoners, in civilian clothes, we were addressed by an SS-man, which was translated by a political prisoner ‘dwarf’, that on the way home, we were to report to the Gestapo in my case in Katowice. He said we couldn’t tell people what we saw in the camp or what was taking place there, and if we did, we would be returned to the camp and wouldn’t survive. The SS man escorted us to the train station in Oświęcim, where I bought a ticket and left for Katowice. As ordered, I reported to the Gestapo and met a Gestapo officer who arrested me on 20.12.1941 and, in May 1942, interrogated me in the Auschwitz camp. He had a gun on his das and said that I couldn’t tell people what I’d seen there and if I still didn’t confess, he would send me back to the camp. He told me to return to the old workplace in Jowisz Mine in Wojkowice Komorne within three days. He also told me to report to him after one month. Jowisz mine didn’t hire me, and the Work Bureau in Będzin gave me an order to work in Kędzierzyn. There, I worked in the railway workshop. After one month, I showed my work-meister Oeleś a release note from the cap, who telephoned the Gestapo in Katowice and told me I should immediately report to the Gestapo in Kędzierzyn. At the Gestapo in Kędzierzyn, I was threatened that if I didn’t confess to what I was imprisoned for and tell people what I had seen in the camp, I would be returned there. They also ordered me to report to them twice weekly after work. Knowing the fate of some of the arrested people, I was afraid that the Gestapo in Katowice would pressure me to become an informant. Working in Kędzierzyn and under the supervision of Germans (autochthons), I was safe.

In Bobrowniki, I know of cases of informant reporting wanted people. If they were not useful, such informants were eliminated too. Suppose I was forced to report on people in the conspiracy. If I were forced to reveal the identity of people involved in the conspiracy, I would have had two options – to take my own life or hide until the end of the war. I met prisoners who advised me against reporting about releases from prison and being forced to inform where wanted people were hiding and that I could be suspected of that too.

I have a clear conscience and can tell about this.

In Kędzierzyn, I was in forced labour from June 1942 until the end of the war, that is, until January 1945. The experiences from this period were not easy, but I remember them to this day, and maybe I will manage to write about them. Kędzierzyn was bombarded from July 1944 until January 1945. There was no safe shelter for the working Poles, French or Russians.

Written on 22nd July 2019

I suggest that the readers of this note acquaint themselves with other people or books with information about the past. I list below some works where such information is available:

• Bobrowniki – memoirs and documentsBacia Tadeusz – information on pages 119, 152, 156, 161, 166, 167, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173, 186
• Bacia Stanisław (brother of Tadeusz) – information on pages 110, 111, 115, 121, 122, 139, 140, 142, 182, 187, 328
• Bobrowniki until the year 1945 (collected by Mrs Halina Gajdzik): Bacia Tadeusz – information on page 171

While in Auschwitz camp, I couldn’t see everything directly. A lot of information could be obtained from guides working in the camp and from the literature.

On this note, I wanted to inform the reader that during my stay there from 20.12.1941 until 02.06.1842, prisoner’s numbering grew from 25,000 to 40,000. According to the information board, which was placed in the canteen there, the main camp held 1200 prisoners, and in Brzezinka (Birkenau), around 8000 prisoners. From the numbers above, one can reason the purpose of the camp. In the number of 40,000 prisoners, one has to include prisoners transferred to other camps, released from the camp or who died in the camps.

People visiting the camps now can see giant trees, which weren’t there during my stay.

One cannot imagine the masses of prisoners returning and carried back in from work, from outside of the camp for the evening roll call. The old prisoners, with low numbers, said that other prisoners were removing bark from the trees and eating it. There was also information that the black barley coffee (the only meal for breakfast) was whitened with powder from ground human bones. I think it was not milk. It was a drink called “RWO”.

I was just a regular prisoner working physically. I tried to say something, and I wondered why older prisoners, who had functions such as block leader, writers (Schreiber), room leaders, and brigadiers, didn’t want to tell and know nearly everything that was taking place. I don’t understand how you can live in the camp for five years, where in my transport, prisoners died after four months.

I have been asked lately, ‘Do you think prisoners should still ask for war reparations?’. I think that to maintain good relations with Germany, we should stop those demands, but I don’t know what the widows and orphans of those husbands who died in camps would say. I remember that widows of miners worked in mines so the kids would be fed and get an education.

I can say that if I were offered a million, assuring me that I’ll live, I wouldn’t want to be there for six months (and that’s how long I’ve been there).

Written on 22 July 2019

From the 20th of December 1941 until approximately January 1942, I was on block 9. The winter was very harsh. There were blizzards, and the temperature dropped to approximately -24C. We slept on hay, on the floor with open windows, by SS-man orders and on the side, as it was so crowded. It was impossible to lie on the back. There were no beds or toilets. And only cold water. We had a bucket for the toilet in the corner of the room. We slept (laying) in thin underwear under a thin, old duvet with clothing folded into a cube instead of a pillow. Before laying down, inspecting the underwear for fleas to destroy them was mandatory. Prisoners lying down had scabies and deep abscesses from frostbite and avitaminosis. Before laying on the floor, another prisoner, so-called ‘sztubowy’ (room leader), rubbed other prisoners’ backs with ointment for scabies and an ointment for abscesses.

I remember that for Christmas, 24.12.1941, an SS man entered the block and put a gun to the head of a young prisoner.

After a morning roll call, we worked on removing the snow from the campgrounds.

In the morning, we could only drink black barley coffee, and once per day, after the evening roll call, we were given a portion of bread, about 200 grams, a piece of margarine or a spoon of marmalade. At the same time, the main meal was given – turnip soup, under half a litre, and one bigger or two small potatoes in skins. Everything that was given to us was immediately eaten, and we waited for food until the next day. Hunger doesn’t hurt, but it makes one feel weak. At the beginning of a month, I was moved to block 4a, a group of young prisoners from Warsaw, to a room leader, prof. Lipiński. I was assigned to a group of capo – Golus, named ‘New Builds’.

The Auschwitz camp was being extended. There were blocks with construction started. Therefore, a decision was made to train 15 prisoners to be builders. I was in that group, along with a few men from Warsaw. After a morning roll call, there were lectures until noon. There were tables, and a brigadier Alojz was drawing on blackboard methods or laying brick, lecturing about varieties of mortar, etc. At noon, the classes finished, and we went to block 4a for an hour’s nap and after a nap to remove snow. We were trained until the early days of March 1942, and it turned out none of us could lay bricks, so we were assigned to carry bricks and mortar to the block being built. There was no further training after that. We went to work after a morning roll call, returned for an evening roll call and food distribution, etc.

I remember what happened one day during training and afternoon rest. Our room, where we slept, had a window facing a square, and someone yelled that a soup was poured from a barrel into the sewers. Thus, a few prisoners, myself included, went out to the square with bowls for soup, but we weren’t allowed to leave our beds. It turned out that it wasn’t soup being poured out, just water. Our block leader from block 4a, Franz Kozub, noticed this. He stood on the staircase and punched every prisoner running up the stairs in the back of the head. I got hit, too. After the hit, the bowl fell out of my hand; I fell down the staircase and ran up to the first floor. The punch was painful like someone had driven a nail into my brain. After this punch, I never fully regained balance while walking. After regaining freedom, I was treated for headaches for a long time, but USG and other procedures didn’t reveal anything.

During the classes, there was also a 20-minute break. During one of such breaks, an SS man caught and brought into the class 2 prisoners who illegally got two turnips. SS-man cut those turnips in such a way that the prisoners had to hold them in their teeth while crouching on a school table with hands stretched in front of them. After that, he took those turnips and discarded them somewhere.

There was also a case when a master builder training us, Alojz, obtained a few potatoes illegally and, during the 20-minute break, baked them in sand in a bucket in front of the building. An SS man came, smelled the baking potatoes, kicked the bucket, and smashed the potatoes with his shoes. He also kicked brigadeer Alojz (I don’t remember his last name).

I also remember an event during snow removal. My frozen knees hurt badly, so I had to rest hunched over the shovel in the snow. A guard noticed this and kicked me in the stomach. After a few days with a stomachache, I went to a doctor in the camp. How I was received there was described in the magazine Agora, attached to note 03 dated 22.07.2019.

On block 4a, one could often hear machine gunshots as someone decided to forgo their life and went to the fences.

Written on 25 July 2019

Because I don’t have the aptitude for substantive, organised writing and thinking, I will mention a few events from my stay in the camp:

1. In the night and during clouded days, the camp was brightly lit with thousands of kilowatts, while at the same time, cities and other objects were in a blackout (translator’s note – drawing attention to bombardment)
2. I worked on new builds in and outside the camp under Capo Golus’s supervision. One day, in the spring, we were doing groundwork outside, bout 50 metres from the camp gate. From the camp, SS men drove out in a ‘Gazik’ car, stopped next to our work, called the capo over and ordered to hit every prisoner on the backside with a shovel five times. Nobody wanted to volunteer for beating, and the SS men were waiting for the order to be carried out. I volunteered for the beating, and other prisoners did so after me. I don’t know what it was for until this day, but I suspect that one of the prisoners must have felt weak and stood idle by a shovel, or the SS men ordered it for their amusement. After leaving the camp, I felt pain in the place I was hit for a few years.
3. All the prisoners were rounded up during the roll call, but one was running around the camp, jumping, dancing and calling out, repeating ‘block 11’. He lost his mind, most likely. At the next roll call, I did not see him again.
4. The roll calls were often extended, sometimes up to 4 hours. Particularly in the evening, if someone was missing, the number of prisoners had to be correct. The next day, the found prisoner, on the morning roll call, had to go around the camp in a jester’s hat and carry a plaque on a long stick saying ‘ich bin wideda’ and calling out ‘I am here again’. In front of him, another prisoner marched with a drum drumming with sticks. The extended roll call exhausted the prisoners; they fainted, sat on the snow and froze to death. The found prisoner was often accused of trying to flee and was moved to a penal group, so-called ‘SK’, for the night in a bunker and hung from his wrist by a rope or killed.
5. I have seen a situation when prisoners crowded onto a cart with bread, but nobody ate any bread as a guard, and some capo scattered the prisoners with beating.
6. I had a situation in block 4a where my scarf went missing, and I didn’t ask for a new one. It was perpetually -24c and snowed heavily. I was buttoning up my shirt and coat under the neck. After a few days, I picked up an abandoned scarf from the ground. It was infested with fleas, and there was one on every square centimetre, but I wore it until the end of the winter.
7. In principle, there were no criminals in the camp, but things sometimes happened. On block 4a, I was approached by a young prisoner who convinced me to keep a piece of bread until the morning, as he was doing that as well. I left it in the night in the bed under my head, but by the morning, it was gone.
8. On one of the blocks, a prisoner named ‘M’ had a mania of taking things from people. But I didn’t look for my scarf with him. One day, this prisoner ‘M’ didn’t go out for the morning roll call. The call was extended, as someone’s trousers went missing and they needed to be found. It turned out that this prisoner ‘M’ had his pants, but he was cold and had put on another prisoner’s trousers. The were found with prisoner ‘M’ as the the knee level they had the owner’s number. Prisoner ‘M’ received such a treatment that he didn’t join the evening roll call, and I haven’t seen him again.
9. There was a canteen in the camp, and if someone received money from home, he could buy soap RiF (it didn’t foam), cigarettes “Brawa”—very strong—or pickled beetroots from a barrel—very tart—a card or a letter with a postmark or needle and thread. Whoever ate beets, green peas, and smoked cigarettes got diarrhoea and diet. In principle, the prisoners were honest and loyal to each other.
10. After interrogating me in the camp around 10th May 1942 by the Gestapo, the block leader from block 4a – Ludyga B, escorted me to block 11 for quarantine and told me that I’d be released from the camp. From the windows of my room in block 11, I could see the square and the death wall, as long as no prisoners were being killed. Very often, when prisoners were being shot, I was moved to a room that could be locked with a key, which didn’t have a view of the death wall. After every execution, the sand under the death wall was exchanged, and once I found a bullet shell there, calibre 6mm, as it was forgotten during cleaning. The blood from the square was washed off into sewers. One day, there was a group of prisoners brought over from Czechoslovakia to block 11, and according to the room leader, they were shot to death. One afternoon, the SS men made a show for their arguments on the square in front of block 11 – two prisoners, naked from the waist up, fought between each other until one of them was on the ground with a promise that the winner would be made a capo. According to the prisoners witnessing it, the fighters were Jewish.
11. I was in a situation where, in block 11, we were told to strip naked and set the clothes aside folded as it was to be sent to remove fleas. When I was naked, a prisoner approached me with a bowl of soup, and I ate it. The clothes weren’t taken, and flea removal was called off. When I was freed again, I asked Piotr Witek, who had been arrested with me, whether he had brought this soup. He told me he wasn’t there at that time. I can’t say whom I associate this event with, and I don’t want to guess either. It was known that Germans and SS men, in revenge for sabotage, were shooting innocent people.
12. One day, I was led from block 11 along with some other prisoners, watched over by a guard from the camp gate for special work—about 50 metres from the gate, the rail track ended. At the track’s end was a toilet and a wooden barak 8×12 metres. We were led into this barrack and had to sift through clothes on the left side and put any money or jewellery found into suitcases. Any clothing searched through was placed on the right side. There was no money there, and I found a thickly gold-plated watch, which I stuffed deep into wood shavings on the floor. There was no food there. I found a cube of rancid butter and tried to eat some of it. I got the runs that endangered my release from the camp. Taking anything found in the camp was strictly forbidden, impossible, and pointless. I suspect that this clothing was from the Jews brought over from France, stripped naked and killed in the gas chambers. It was a cruel sight to watch every day naked, dead prisoners being ferried by other prisoners to be burnt on a platform.
13. Thinking about block 4a, I recall sitting on the bed, and each time I lay down, I felt like I was falling somewhere into a chasm. I didn’t go to a doctor for obvious reasons.
14. On the 2nd June 1942, after the quarantine ended, I was led outside some other prisoners from block 11 to block no 24. On the staircase of this block, an SS man stood and ordered us to strip naked, facing him, crouch, turn with our back to him and crouch again. After such inspection, there were sacks with our salvaged civilian clothes. After dressing up, we were led to the camp gates where the ‘Karzel’ lectured as, as mentioned in previous notes.

Written on 30 July 2019

1. In the camp, there was strict discipline, whereupon SS-man entering the block, we had to stand at attention, remove the hat from our heads, smack it against the knee firmly and stay like that. Only after he left could we release the position. It was the same outside the block. In front of approaching the SS man, one had to stand at attention and take off his hat, which could be put back on only after he left. If the prisoner was too late to do that or didn’t hit it against the knee enthusiastically enough, he got kicked and had to straighten up quickly not to be kicked again. Such practices were widespread.
2. We got up from the bed around 5 AM after a gong (bell). 2 prisoners brought black barley coffee from the kitchen, which so-called sztubowy gave out to the prisoners, as the only morning meal. The prisoners left the block, and only two stayed behind to wash the floors. They were leaving only for a morning roll call at 6 AM. At the roll call, we were divided by a block leader into 10 rows; he counted the prisoners and reported it to the SS-man standing nearby, who compared the numbers. There were cases where a weakened prisoner with a head low had to leave a row for elimination. On the following roll call, the prisoner was already absent. SS-man went to the point of collating all the blocks’ reports. If the number of prisoners matched, another gong (bell) rang. After that, the prisoners left for assigned work under the watch of capos and armed guards. We were forced to sing while leaving the camp for work outside the gates, and a band played. At the gates, we stood at attention, removed our hats, and our kapo reported his number to the watch post and the number of prisoners leaving. The prisoners were assigned 1 or 2 armed guards. Upon return from work, we also had to sing, stand at the gate at attention, and remove our hats. The capo reported his number and the number of prisoners while the band was playing. We were faking German songs as we didn’t know the language. Before the evening roll call, there was a chance to talk with other prisoners, ask where they worked or find a familiar prisoner in the crowd. One prisoner told me he works at the furnaces burning naked corpses and that after 4 weeks of the work, he’d be killed and burned himself as that was the frequency at which those crews were changed.
3. After 20.12.1941, on block 9, there was a Christmas tree. We were taught carols and slogans named ‘My milestones’ in German, but nobody learned that during my stay in the camp.
4. From 20.12.1941, during the entire winter, there was only one bath in the baths. I stripped naked, and with a towel wrapped around my waist, in shoes with no socks, I ran from block 4a to the bath house about 40 metres away. At the same time, our clothes were sent for flea treatment. The water was cold. We were given another underwear to use, and after a few hours of waiting, our clothing was returned. In that period, there was only one underwear change; I used one pair of socks and mended holes in those socks with thread. Every day, we had to wash our upper bodies and feet in cold water, as there was none hot.
5. My commando worked outside the camp on the construction of stables. One day, we heard screams from the stables, and one passing prisoner told us that another prisoner’s gold teeth were being pulled out there.
6. I remember that exhausted Russian prisoners were entering the camp. Some of those war prisoners dragged themselves on their own accord; some were supported by others, while the rest were dragged in dead on the snow. After three months, there were no more of those prisoners, and when I entered this zone, I saw naked corpses. I have asked one prisoner what happened to those Russian captives. He said there were about 3000; after three months, the remaining 300 were moved to Brzezinka. I remember after being arrested and handcuffed at the station, a gendarme told me I would be hanged. I didn’t care much about it as I thought they weren’t stringing me up yet.
7. After experiences in the camp and forced labour, I was being treated for insomnia and other illnesses. I had dreams about scenes from the camp, forced labour in Kędzierzyn and bombardments I survived there. I delayed starting a family as we feared war. I was also treated in psychiatric clinics, state-funded and privately. In one of those clinics, around 1946, I received a few sleeping pills and three days off work, as the regulations didn’t allow for more help. I was told by a doctor ” that bedbugs are given better treatment in the People’s Republic than ex-camp prisoners. My wife Irene, knowing my mental state, decided to marry me. We married on the 14th of April 1957. I had nightmares. M wide comforted me then; she didn’t have a merry, calm life with me. I won’t write about current treatment options, as my life has ended now. I have over 97 years now; I pay for nurses, cardiologists, various treatments and medicines. I worked in different positions for over 42 years, 40 in the mining industry. I currently receive about 1200 PLN (approx 280 EUR in 2019), which is about 50% of my work-related pension, as I also receive a war veteran pension.
8. In 2018, I had visitors from Germany who were interested in the living conditions of former prisoners of concentration camps who told me that people aren’t bad. Still, it’s politicians that spread animosity and hate.
9. I won’t write about the interest our government’s interest in camp prisoners who still live, as nobody’s interested in that, and it won’t change anything. Lately, I’ve heard that there was a gathering of representatives from interested countries on the anniversary of the liberation from Auschwitz camp, and I thought that if we had access to Katyń and from Moscow, there wouldn’t be anyone invited. Today, that is, 30.07.2019, it was reported on the TV that in Warsaw and Poznań, there will be joyful parades and dances on the anniversary of the war breaking out (i.e. 01.09.1939). I don’t know whether living grandsons and granddaughters of the prisoners who died in those camps and soldiers who died in the II WW will be invited and if they’ll be dancing happily. The intentions described above bring thoughts of a situation from Auschwitz. An entire camp full of prisoners, myself included, was lined up for the morning roll call. Only one prisoner ran around the camp, dancing, jumping and repeating ’11th block, 11th block’. He must have lost his mind for some reason. I haven’t seen it at the evening roll call.
10. My face was swollen from hunger after half a year in the camp. After an extended stay in the camp, one was losing weight to about 35 kilograms and died. I know as I was there and have seen it. Watching some politicians’ merry, plump faces, I relate those to the faces of prisoners swollen from hunger. I returned from the camp to the house of my parents, who were surprised by the sight of my face, as they didn’t know it was the result of hunger—from my transport people died after about 4 months. The names of those people can be found in publications mentioned in note 04 from 22.07.2019.
11. I admire the universal abilities of some of our politicians who can fill any role, for as long as it’s well paid and has a ‘small bonus’. In People’s Republic, I didn’t belong to any party, and I do not belong to any now – it was not easy to live this way as I could have been fired from work for it. I was a leader in the construction and renovation division, and all employees reporting to me belonged to the party. I couldn’t order any work from private companies. To do so, I had to have two refusals from state companies and documented lower, competitive prices approved by Voivedeship’s Price Commission. After the work was completed, I had inspectors from the National Inspection Commission and the Citizen’s Militia. I won’t write about the remuneration and differences in salaries and bonuses of directors in times of the People’s Republic and presently in the Polish Republic.
12. I wonder if writing about forced labour in Kędzierzyn makes sense, but I wasn’t hungry there. There was one meal for lunch, turnip soup or cabbage with bread, and I could have any amount of soup. I usually had trouble breathing after such a meal for a few hours due to an overfilled stomach.

I’d like to apologise to a potential reader for my notes, which contain repeated descriptions and memories and illegible writing. At my age, I often forget what I wrote yesterday for lunch or whether I had taken my medication—pills.

Written on 31 August 2019
I intended to finish describing the events of my life with note 07 and return to normal thinking, but it’s not easy. Therefore, I’ll describe a few situations which probably weren’t kept in memory and explain:

1. A few months before my arrest, news reached me that opposite my home in Bobrowniki, Mr Dróżdż was shot in his yard, as someone reported him for having a radio, which should have been given up to Germans. On the day of the murder of Mr Dróżdż, I saw a horse cart leaving his yard with the body and heading towards the cemetery. Later, I got to know that his body was buried outside of the fence of the cemetery without witnesses or burial rites. There were more such murders and burials in Bobrowniki. During Hitler’s occupation, a gendarme murderer lived in the lovely house of Mr Karol Zięba in Bobrowniki. When Russian soldiers entered Bobrowniki, the gendarme fled and left a letter in the house, which I have seen. The letter was addressed to Szupert, that is the name of the murderer, with congratulations on eliminating a Polish bandit, that is, Mr. Dróżdż. The letter ended with congratulations and the words ‘Heil Hitler’. A few years after the war, I learned from Mr Węgrzyn and other inhabitants of Bobrowniki that the gendarme murderer originated from Silesia, graduated from the gymnasium in Piekary Śląskie, alongside Jan Dróżdż, a son of the murder victim and together with Stanisław Kadłubiec.
2. A few years after the war, other news reached me. The aforementioned gendarme was on duty at the station in Bobrowniki and occasionally entered in uniform into the pub of Mr Antoni Zięba. He met at the pub my supervisor in conspiracy ‘Orzeł Biały’ (translators’s note – White Eagle) Stanisław Kadłubiec. Kadłubiec wanted to talk with the gendarme in Polish, as they knew each other from the gymnasium in Pierkary Śląskie and took the maturity exam together. The gendarme didn’t want to talk. Thus, Kadłubies spoke to him in unparliamentary words. The offended gendarme caused the arrest of Stanisław Kadłubic and of an accompanying friend, Jan Dróżdż, and their despatch to a concentration camp in Oświęcim. I lived in fear that they would be arrested for being members of the conspiracy ‘Orzeł Biały’ and that they’d be forced with torture to reveal my name and the machine gun ammo cases they were given, etc. After three months, Lt Stanisław Kadłubiec and Jan Dróżdż were released from the camp. Probably by mistake, and from personal experience, I know they were obliged to report to the Gestapo after a month, so they decided to go into hiding until the end of the war. Lr Kadłubiec fell ill and was secretly treated in a hospital in Siewierz. After he died, he was secretly transported and buried in a forest in Rogoźnik. After the war, he was exhumated and buried in the cemetery in Bobrowniki, next to his mother and father. I have a picture of his grave with words: “What I was, you are. What I am, you will become”. The life story of Lt. Kadłbiec can be found in the book ‘Bobrowniki – memoirs and Documents’. Jan Dróżdż lived through the war in hiding. After the war, he was the dean of a secondary school in Tarnowskie Góry.
3. The house where the gendarme above lived belonged to Karol Zięba, who was arrested together with me on 20 December 1941. Krol Zięba died in the camp after four months, that is on the 28 April 1942. The widow of Karol Zięba was taken in by their daughter Irena, who took work in Regional Management PZBWiOK in Katowice. As a protégé, she was my deputy and secretary of the then ZBWPiOK branch in Bobrowniki. Among other things, she contributed to bringing back paintings by the artist Brandenbauer from the Auschwitz Museum and exhibiting them at the People’s House in Bobrowniki.
4. Wacław Dzyszy was a friend of mine from the youngest years. Before the war, he attended a gymnasium, and during the war, he was transported to Germany for forced labour. After the war, during the People’s Republic, he worked in the Security Bureau in Katowicach, and after some studying, he was promoted to the rank of captain. He warned me not to criticise the politics of the People’s Republic too much, as this can cause trouble. He told me, in deep secret, that if someone was to be arrested, that person would be subjected to a search in their place, some bullets were placed under a pillow, protocol was made, and the person would be arrested. One day after the war, Mieczysława Węgrzyn turned to me, a daughter of Władysław Węgrzyn whom I knew, with a please to Wacław Dyszy to release her father from prison. Władysław Węgrzyn was an honorary member of the management of the ZBWPiOK branch in Bobrowniki, where he volunteered (Piotr Warmus was a similar member). Alongside this, I got to know that the Węgrzyn above was a trusted friend of my supervisor in conspiracy ‘Orzeł Biały’ Lt Stanisław Kadłubiec, and from his tales, I got to know that he was the one transporting Lt. Kadłubiec from the hospital in Siewierz, and buried him in the forest secretly. It’s described in the book ‘Bobrowniki – memoirs and Documents’. I asked Captain Wacław Dyszy with the plea from Mieczysława Węgrzyn. The captain told me in secret that during some party in Bobrowniki, a secretly assigned worker from the Security Bureau started talking with Mr Węgrzyn, who was present there, and told him he belonged to a conspiracy. Węgrzyn informed the agent that he had ammo from the times of the occupation. They agreed that Węgrzyn would transport what he had into an agreed location in a cart, and he was arrested there. After leaving the camp, Lt. Kadłubiec, until his death, showed no interest in what happened to the ammo and my two boxes for a machine gun. After this event, my friend Captain Dysza told me he had trouble in the Security Office and that I might be interrogated too. Shortly after this conversation, a man came into my yard in Bobrowniki, where I lived, and pretended to be an old friend. He led me to the street, opened a lapel of his suit, showed me some pin, and led me to the Civil Militia for an interrogation regarding Captain Dysza. I didn’t know of anything that would incriminate Captain Wacław Dysza. I had to sign a protocol that if I told anyone that I was interrogated, I would face a two-year imprisonment. After a short while, I received a written summon to the Security Bureau in Będzin with a date and time for an appointment. In the corridor in the Security Bureau, a militia officer, Krol, stood, whom I knew in passing – probably to bring me in if I didn’t come myself. I entered into a room indicated to me. Behind a desk sat a man, and on the left side of his desk, there was a folder with Warsaw’s Prosecutor’s Office. I had nothing to say that would incriminate Cpt. Dyszy. He wrote down a protocol from the interrogation and said that we wanted a capitalist Poland, and that’s why I spent time in the concentration camp in Auschwitz. He also told me that I had revealed the secret of my interrogation in the Civil Militia in Bobrowniki, and I am facing two-year imprisonment. I knew already who he had in mind, and if he told me the name of the person I told, I wouldn’t deny it. He told me that it was Cpt. Dyszy. I had to find a way not to get arrested. I pretended I knew nothing about the arrest of Cpt. Dyszy and I informed him about my interrogation at Civil Militia and was proud to have a friend in the Security Bureau – which is not true, and while I trusted Wacław Dysza, I didn’t trust other officers from the Security Bureau. Władysław Węgrzyn returned from prison after a few years. After the regime change of the People’s Republic in 1989, I met the daughter of Mr. Węgrzyn, Mieczysława, who told me that he appealed to a court for compensation for her father’s arrest. And that she and her sister received 18,000 złoty. I used the opportunity to ask her as well if, with the ammo her father kept, there were two boxes of machine gun ammo on white tape. She confirmed. I learned that the two boxes I gave to Lt Kadłubiec made their way to Mr. Węgrzyn and then to the Security Bureau. I was lucky that they didn’t reveal the name of the organisation OZNP and that I also belong to the conspiracy ‘Orzeł Biały’ and what we have there and our means. For having weapons, the punishment was death. There was a prisoner interrogated in my presence for weapons possession, and I am sure he didn’t survive the camp and further interrogations.
5. Writing those notes, I don’t aim to become some hero, as I wasn’t one, and I am not. I don’t seek compassion, either. I had a chance not to be alive, but I still live and can write those notes. I have sworn that I will keep the existence of conspiracy ‘Orzeł Biały’ in secret, and I kept that promise. After a while, I got to know that a trusted Gestapo officer was recruited into the conspiracy OZNP, and it turned out that he reported to the Germans its existence. I was recruited into OZNP, and I was arrested for that, but I didn’t admit to it in the interrogations. I have to stress that a hero for me is older me by four ears, Lt Stanisław Kadłubiec, as he was in the camp, in the hands of the Gestapo, and he didn’t reveal the existence of conspiracy ‘Orzeł Biały’ and my participation in this organisation. My memories are written down somewhere, but I write them down as these are life-worthy events. I lived in Siliesia from my youth; I learned my profession and earned retirement here. Since 25 May 1964, I have lived in Nakło Śląskie, alongside inhabitants born there, and I have to say that those people’s lives weren’t merry and often tragic.
6. I’ll let myself write down about the behaviour of Mr Wilhelm Polak, a citizen of Piekray Śląskie. Mr Polak had a wife from the pre-war German territories, and on these grounds, he was granted 1st category of German citizenship. In 1972, I spoke with Mr Wilhelm Polak, an ex-employee of the Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice, before 1 September 1939. Mr Polak, during the German occupation, worked next to the mayor of Bobrowniki. Mr Wilhelm Polak told me about what passed: after the arrest on 20 December 1941 of citizens of Bobrowniki, an unknown person threw a brick with a letter into the mayor’s room with threats that he’d be killed. For this threat, the mayor decided to call in an execution squad to shoot 100 Polish men in Bobrowniki. The mayor was afraid to leave the building and be on the street. Mr. Polak was convincing the mayor that there was no threat, that it probably came from some young folk, and that he had guaranteed his safety. The mayor has cancelled the execution and normally moved about the Bobrowniki commune. After a while, the situation returned to normal. The above event is actual, as my friend in conspiracy ‘Orzeł Biały’ planned to throw in the prick with the letter, but I didn’t know who and when he was supposed to do it. After a few years, I was visited by a friend, Józef Kowalik, who belongs to my triade in this conspiracy, and he told me he threw the brick with threats in. Presently, I think that thanks to Mr Wilhelm Polan, the execution of 100 Polish men was avoided. For me, this would have been a painful memory as they could have killed my father and brothers.
7. We were afraid of informants. A Polish woman who spent time with the German gendarmerie was a threat because she knew all inhabitants of Bobrowniki and even officers of the Polish Army in reserve. In conspiracy, we planned to eliminate this threat, but she survived as she fled together with the German gendarmerie ahead of Russian soldiers entering Bobrowniki. She never returned, and there was never any trace of her.