Description
Object description
Polish member of Polish Resistance in Poland, 1939-1943; officer served with the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) in Poland, 1943-1945; escaped from Poland to Germany via Czechoslovakia, 1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Toruń, Poland, 1923-1939: family; education. Aspects of period as member of Polish Resistance in Poland, 1939-1943: German attack on Poland, 9/1939; reaction to Allied inactivity after German attack on Poland; question of collaboration with Germans; arrest by Germans, 3/1943; escape from train transporting him to Germany. Recollections of operations as officer with Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) in Poland, 1943-1945: officer training, 1943-1944; arrests of personnel by Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and Polish Communists from 7/1944; nature of resistance against Communist regime, 1944-1945; types of people who supported Communist regime; rescue of Pole from Communist prison in Sokołów Podlaski, 9/1944.
REEL 2 Continues: attempted attack on secret police headquarters in Sokołów Podlaski, 10/1944; role of Soviet 'politruks'; punishment of Polish militiamen who mistreated civilians in Sokołów Podlaski area, spring 1945; second operation against militiamen, summer 1945; how his unit was forced into swamps during Communist pacification drive, 6/1945-7/1945. Aspects of escape from Poland to Germany via Czechoslovakia, 1945: his decision to escape from Poland, 9/1945; reason for escaping via Czechoslovakia; problems with forged papers in Czechoslovakia; treatment by United States Army and his return to Czechoslovakian Police and Soviets; treatment by Soviets; escape from train.
REEL 3 Continues: story of second successful escape attempt from Czechoslovakia to Allied occupied Germany; reception in Germany; attitude of Czechs towards Soviets; retaliatory measures against Germans taken by Czechs after war. Recollections of operations as officer with Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) in Poland, 1943-1945: taking oath; lack of unity in Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa); behaviour of Germans in Poland; behaviour of Jewish ghetto police; prior recollection of sight of dead bodies of Jewish inmates in Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto, late 1941; his inspection of former Treblinka Extermination Camp, 1945; sight of liquidation of Warsaw Ghetto, 4/1943; problems of aiding Jews under Germans; reaction to sight of Soviet Army on the move, 1944.
REEL 4 Continues: contrast between Soviet Army front line troops and rear echelon troops; work of Soviet Army political officers in Poland, 1944-1945; retrieval of pieces of German V1 Flying Bomb in Bielsk Podlask area, 3/1944-4/1944; preparations for Operation Storm, 6/1944; wiping out of German unit in farm as preliminary to Operation Storm, 6/1944; dealing with German prisoners of war; reasons why Soviet Army defeated Germans; support for Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) by populace; different roles of special units; behaviour of Poles of German origin during Second World War.
REEL 5 Continues: behaviour of Ukrainian and Latvian nationalist units in Poland; lack of problems between Poles and Belorussians; attempts by Soviets to wipe out Polish villages in eastern Poland, 1945.