Note 08

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.