Preface – Note 00

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.