Description
Object description
Polish civilian member of Wawer Group, Polish Resistance in Warsaw, Poland, 1940-1943; officer served with Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) in Warsaw, Poland, 1943-1944 including Warsaw Uprising, 8/1944-10/1944; prisoner of war in Ozarów Transit Camp, Poland, 10/1944-11/1944 and Stalag XI-C, Bergen-Belsen and Oflag II-D, Gross Born, Germany, 11/1944-1/1945; civilian in Poland, 1/1945-2/1945; officer served with Polish Army in GB, 4/1945-9/1948
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Poland, 1927-1939: family's aristocratic origins; family; education; degree of awareness of coming war. Aspects of period as schoolchild during German invasion of Poland, 9/1939: reaction to German invasion, 1/9/1939; family's evacuation to eastern Poland; decision to return to home after Soviet invasion of eastern Poland; initial impressions of German Army troops; belief in Royal Air Force; Polish reaction to Soviet Union's invasion of eastern Poland; reasons for attitude towards Soviets.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of period as schoolchild in Poland, 1939-1940: return to family home outside Warsaw, 10/1939; disruption to education; billeting of German troops in home; relations with German troops. Recollections of period as member of Wawer Group, Polish Resistance in Warsaw, Poland, 1940-1943: decision to go to Warsaw, autumn 1940; enrolment in technical school; obligation to do shift work in German factory; acting as courier for Polish Resistance; aims of 'small sabotage'; realisation of strength of German forces; witnessing German round-up of civilian hostages and their subsequent execution; reasons why older people disliked resistance; murder of German working in factory and reprisals; leaving technical school and factory; importance of timber to German economy; work for uncle in timber business, 1942-1944.
REEL 3 Continues: further involvement with resistance group; reasons for presence of Polish Army paratrooper at first meeting; acquiring code name; frequency and character of group meetings; slogan writing campaign; recovery of buried arms; awareness of treatment of Jews in Warsaw Ghetto; story of German policeman bartering weapons for gold; variety of resistance groups in Warsaw and amalgamation into Home Army (Armia Krajowa), 1943; reaction to German invasion of Soviet Union, 6/1941; Polish Resistance's contact with Soviet Partisans.
REEL 4 Continues: German propaganda use of Katyn Massacre, 4/1943; his attitude towards Soviets; lack of contact with leadership of group; contact with Warsaw Ghetto, 1942-1943; learning details of Sobibor Extermination Camp from captured Ukrainian troops serving with German Army; effects of learning of Nazi extermination methods on attitude towards Germans; German view of Poles; story of having to remain neutral after witnessing clash between group member and German in street; living conditions in Warsaw, 1940-1943 including overcrowding, food shortages and social life; opinion of Polish Government-in-Exile in London, GB.
REEL 5 Continues: Recollections of operations as officer of Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) in Warsaw, Poland, 1943-1944: involvement in assassination of Schutzstaffel (SS) and Police Leader for the Warsaw District of General Government, Franz Kutschera, 1/2/1944; role in assassination of minor German official; how he was caught escaping from site of assassination, 4/1944; aid given to Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) by Polish police and occasions when it saved him; release from incarceration and being sent to rest in countryside, 4/1944; father's involvement in experimental agricultural work and presence of Jewish workers from ghetto; second hand story of German Army officer saving Jewish girl from extermination and her ultimate fate, 10/1943.
REEL 6 Continues: father's involvement with peasant resistance organisations; treatment by Soviet Partisans whilst billeted with farmer in countryside, 6/1944-7/1944; family's preparations for Soviet Army arrival in eastern Poland. Recollections of operations as officer with Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) during Warsaw Uprising, Poland, 8/1944-10/1944: outbreak of uprising, 1/8/1944; background to uprising; degree of prior knowledge of outbreak of uprising; reaction of Polish civilians and confusion of Germans; journey across city to join family; decision to return to uncle's house and join his unit; role as adjutant; crossing disputed street and encounter with German Army troops.
REEL 7 Continues: how he kept rifle acquired from German; shortage of arms in Home Army (Armia Krajowa); initial duties as detachment adjutant; Polish expectation of Soviet intervention during uprising; construction of tunnels to aid movement; effects of Germans cutting of water supply to city; purpose and strategy of uprising; morale of city's inhabitants; journey through no-man's-land and discovery that family members had been taken hostages by Germans; transfer to front line detachment; attempt to capture of German telephone exchange.
REEL 8 Continues: scarcity of food; state of dead German bodies lying in street; failure of attempt by Germans to break-out of telephone exchange; importance of barricades; capture of telephone exchange and taking Germans prisoner; contrast in treatment of German Army prisoners and German police; acquiring camera and 9mm Pistols; insurgents attempt to acquire boots off dead body of German; abiding by Geneva Convention; type of uniform worn by insurgents; German recognising military status of Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa); German prisoner of war camp in cinema and its subsequent bombing by German forces; increase in size of Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and role of unarmed personnel including women and children; use of tunnels.
REEL 9 Continues: importance of network of tunnels; use of sewers and German attacks on them; description of 'surface' tunnels; maintenance groups; German attack on Old Town; effects of Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) evacuation of Old Town; story of how sister saved mother and brother from bombed building; sister's role as sewer messenger; German treatment of civilians and killing of hospital patients; sister's wounding; reasons for changing detachment.
REEL 10 Continues: comparison between Soviet Air Force and Royal Air Force air supply drops, quantities and usefulness; Royal Air Force night air supply drops; degree of support received from Soviets; distribution of supplies; scarce food supplies; story of eating dog meat in soup; concentration of population in city; burial of bodies; communal kitchen; composition of German forces in Warsaw; behaviour of Russians serving with Kaminski Brigade, Waffen-SS RONA (Russian National Liberation Army) and German Waffen-SS Dirlewanger Brigade penal unit.
REEL 11 Continues: opinion of German Army front line troops; effect on morale of large American air supply drop; awareness of cease-fire negotiations; incident of fraternisation with German Army troops; German poisoning of food supplies; character of last days of uprising; strength of his detachment towards end of uprising; question of unruly behaviour of insurgents due to inactivity; incident illustrating difficulties of imposing discipline; sources of news during uprising; humour, poetry and songs during uprising; reaction to General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski surrender negotiations, insurgents receiving military prisoner of war status and possibility of prisoner of war exchange, 10/1944. Aspects of surrender and period as prisoner of war in Ozarów Transit Camp, Poland, 10/1944-11/1944: surrender of his detachment, 2/10/1944.
REEL 12 Continues: reasons for capitulation; reaction to captivity; march to Ozarów Transit Camp; conditions and prisoners of war being stained with dye. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag XI-C, Bergen-Belsen, Germany, 10/1944-1/1945: journey to camp and arrival, 11/1944; accommodation and treatment; how prospect of prisoner of war exchange faded; separation of prisoner of war camp from concentration camp; comfortable appointment as Red Cross orderly; provision of rations; arrival of female Home Army (Armia Krajowa) personnel including sister.
REEL 13 Continues: sight of V2 Rockets launching from near camp; escape from wood gathering party in forest, 1/1945; decision to go to Netherlands; arrival in Netherlands; recapture on goods train; treatment by German police; return to camp and leaving within two days. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Oflag II-D, Gross Born, Germany, 1/1945: sight of movements of prisoner of war; arrival in camp; other prisoner of war nationalities in camp and learning war news; hiding on German evacuation of camp.
REEL 14 Continues: breaking out of camp; obtaining food from farm near Gross Born; return to camp; encountering German Army troops who allowed them to take supplies; shelling of camp. Aspects of period as civilian in Poland, 1/1945-4/1945: meeting with Polish troops of Polish First Army; reasons for claiming to be forced labourer rather than ex-Home Army personnel; assignment as driver with Polish transport company in order to return to Warsaw; reaction to devastated nature of Warsaw; finding family members in Łódź, 2/1945.
REEL 15 Continues: encounter with Soviet Army military policemen; loss of bicycle; train journey to Lublin including being forced to help Soviet Army troops unload ammunition from train; reunion with family; property lost by family. Reflections on period as officer with Home Army (Armia Krajowa) during Warsaw Uprising, 8/1944-10/1944: question of usefulness of uprising; sense of how Home Army are perceived as patriots; awards received; question of how inhabitants view Warsaw view uprising; how Polish officers made prisoner of war in 1939 viewed Warsaw Uprising; treatment of collaborators; participation in head shaving of collaborator; opinion of behaviour of Soviet Army towards Polish and German populations.
REEL 16 Continues: Recollections of period as officer with Polish Army in GB, 4/1945-9/1948: arrival in Greenock, 4/1945; amusing story of confusion with language during train journey; initial impressions of countryside and Edinburgh; contact with Polish Army; uncle's career with Polish Air Force and Royal Air Force; move to London for debriefing; sister's enlistment in Polish Air Force in GB; maintaining contact with prisoners of war met in Germany; duties as technical officer with Polish Army in Cupar; accommodation and kindness received; attitude towards term refugee; question of staying in GB; decision to remain in GB; language course and training as motor mechanic; demobilisation, 9/1948.
REEL 17 Continues: personal financial arrangements; receiving gratuity on leaving army; methods employed to learn English language; wish to continue with higher education; employment choices on demobilisation. Aspects of period as refugee in GB, 1948-1960: story of experience of partnership in garage business after leaving army; attitude towards life in GB and contrast with Polish life; attitude towards British food.
REEL 18 Continues: attitude towards British lodgings on demobilisation; marriage in Croydon, 1958; lodgings in Croydon; integration in British life on marriage; employment on leaving garage partnership and decision to move to Brighton; joining engineering marketing consultancy; return visits to Poland during Communist era; reasons for not conversing in Polish during visits to Poland; belief that GB is home; naturalisation, 1960; question of remnants of Polish nationality; question of assimilation into British life; reaction to possibility of returning to Poland after 1945; question of lack of Polish presence during Victory Parade in London, 8/6/1946.
REEL 19 Continues: Aspects of period as civilian in Poland, 1/1945-2/1945: behaviour of Soviet Army troops; story illustrating Soviet treatment of German women; background to decision to leave Poland for GB; chance encounter with former British prisoners of war in Lublin. Aspects of journey from Poland to GB via, Odessa, Soviet Union, 2/1945-4/1945: leaving Poland with group of Allied prisoners of war, 4/1945; train journey from Lublin, Poland to Odessa, Soviet Union; rations; problems of identity on eve of departure from Odessa, Soviet Union.
REEL 20 Continues: story of appearing before prisoner of war commission disguised as South Africa at Odessa, Soviet Union; embarkation aboard HMT Duchess of Richmond, 28/2/1945; reaction to purchasing chocolate; stopping at Naples, Italy and Gibraltar; joining group of officers from Polish II Corps on board HMT Duchess of Richmond; arrival in GB, 4/1945; sister's joining Auxiliary Territorial Service in Manchester; story of how he was denounced to authorities after leaving Poland; murder of his father and threats to mother to divulge his whereabouts; attitude to Soviet presence in Poland.
REEL 21 Continues: Aspects of period as officer with Polish Army in GB, 4/1945-9/1948: story of abortive attempt to return to Poland to visit mother, 8/1945; reporting to Headquarter, Polish Army in Edinburgh; de-briefing by Polish authorities in London, 4/1945; appearances at lectures for Polish Army; question of request to return to Poland and maintaining contact with Polish Government-in-Exile in London, 9/1945; morale of Polish forces in GB; reaction to lack of Polish presence during Victory Parade in London, 8/6/1946; question of treatment of Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) by Soviet Union.