Description
Object description
Polish schoolchild and general practitioner's assistant in Bochnia District, Poland, 1939-1943; member of Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) in Poland, 5/1943-10/1944; served as partisan with ODB Chrobry in Poland, 10/1944-1/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Ubrzez, Bochnia District, Poland, 1923-1939: family; education. Recollections of period as general practitioner's assistant in Bochnia District, Poland, 9/1939-5/1943: patriotic reactions of peasantry in district on German invasion, 9/1939; initial sight of German forces; sight of accidental clash between two German Army units, 9/1939; attitude to inactivity of Allies after German invasion; impressions made on populace by German organisation, 1939; reasons for German arrest of academics, 1939; degree of Polish collaboration with Germans.
REEL 2 Continues: question of percentage of collaborators amongst general population; German requisitioning of food; how execution of resisters acted as stimulus to Polish patriotism; question of dilution of Nazi ideology after German military setbacks in 1944; his work as general practitioner's assistant from 11/1942. Aspects of operations as member of Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) in Poland, 5/1943-10/1944: recruitment to Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa), 5/1943; his preference for service with Home Army; arrest of cousin; securing machine gun from crashed Consolidated B-24 Liberator aircraft. Recollections of operations as partisan with ODB Chrobry in Poland, 10/1944-1/1945: joining partisans, 10/1944; leadership, character of and prior actions of partisan group; ambush of Germans in Rybie; change in attitude of Germans when captured by partisans.
REEL 3 Continues: incident of German who retained Nazis loyalties on capture; end of operation in Rybie, 11/1944; partisan operation in Wieuszyce village, 11/1944; German reprisals for killing of German officer in Wieuszyce operation; operation to free 1500 prisoners of Germans in Sobolów village, 1/1945.
REEL 4 Continues: destruction of his unit at Grabina, 1/1945; activities of Soviet Partisans in southern Poland, 1/1945; policy of killing Polish partisans by Soviet Army; sight of Soviet Army on the move during advance into Poland. Aspects of escape from Poland to Germany, 1945: his escape from Soviet occupied Poland, 1945; character of Poles working for new Communist administration; criminal activity of Soviet Army troops in southern Poland; speculation of Soviet soldier on possibilities of conquering the western Allies; how he made his way into American Occupation Zone in Germany. Aspects of period as schoolchild, general practitioner's assistant, member of Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and partisan with ODB Chrobry in Bochnia District, Poland, 9/1939-1/1945: treatment of Polish Jews by German troops.
REEL 5 Continues: examples of treatment of Jewish civilians in Poland; formation of Jewish partisan group; aid given to Jews by Communist administration in Poland; suitability of Bochnia District area for partisan warfare despite lack of forests; German use of Ukrainians for anti-partisan operations in area; his opinion of lack of need for Warsaw Uprising, 8/1944-9/1944.