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.
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