Description
Object description
Polish private served with City of Lwów Defence Battalion, Polish Army in Poland, 9/1939; imprisoned in Lwów Prisons, 1939-1940; deportee in Soviet Union, 1940-1942; officer cadet served with Polish Armed Forces in the East in Soviet Union and Polish II Corps in Middle East, 1942-1943; officer served with 18th Lwówski Rifle Bn, 6th Lwów Infantry Bde, 5th Kresowa Infantry Div, Polish II Corps in Italy, 1943-1944
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Lwów, Poland, 1922-1939: family; education; racial composition of Lwów area and degree of Ukrainian nationalism. Aspects of period as private with City of Lwów Defence Battalion, Polish Army in Poland, 9/1939: German Air Force attacks on Lwów, 1/9/1939; anticipation of coming war from 4/1939; attitude towards Polish alliance with French and British; demonstrations at French and British consulates, 3/9/1939; second German Air Force raid on Lwów, /9/1939; volunteering for defence battalion for city; deployment at Holosko; arrival of Soviet Army, 18/9/1939 surrender of Lwów, 22/9/1939; attack by nationalist students on Soviet forces; food shortages; reaction of local Ukrainians to invasion by Soviet Union.
REEL 2 Continues: hopes to get to France. Aspects of period as prisoner in NKVD No1 Prison, Lwów, Poland, 1939-1940: his arrest by the Soviets, 13/10/1939; behaviour of Soviets towards him and his family on arrest; prison companions; transfer to former Polish Army prison in Lwów; Soviet use of drawings depicting torture during interrogation; accusation that he was an 'Enemy of the people of the Soviet Union'; character of his trial at Krakowski Hotel, 3/1940.
REEL 3 Continues: sentencing of Polish prisoners; prison diet; Soviet choice of criminals as trustees over political prisoners. Recollections of period as deportee in Soviet Union, 1940-1942: long wait at Lwów Railway Station prior to deportation; singing of Polish national anthem by deportees on leaving Polish territory; sight of collectivised countryside in Ukraine; arrival at Kharkov Prison; hospitalisation for influenza in prison hospital; contact with Soviet prisoners; journey from Kharkov to Kotlas thence to Uchka Expedition Forced Labour Camp; sight of Polish prisoners of war; reputations of different Soviet labour camps; logging piece work Uchka Expedition Forced Labour Camp.
REEL 4 Continues: contracting pneumonia, 1941; reasons for volunteering to work in iron ore mine at Uchka, 1941; reasons why their were no guards in the mine; bartering amongst miners; receiving news of German attack on Soviet Union, 6/1941; Polish fear of provocation on hearing news; shooting of disguised Polish officer; case of Polish suicide; release from Uchka Expedition Forced Labour Camp; work on collective farm in Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; contact with Polish Legation at Kotlas; escape from collective farm at Kotlas, 4/1942; story of journey to Soviet Central Asia, 4/1942-5/1942. Aspects of period as officer cadet in Polish Armed Forces in the East in Soviet Union and Polish II Corps in Middle East, 1942-1943: joining Polish Forces in the East at Guzar in Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, 12/5/1942.
REEL 5 Continues: allocation to cadet school at Guzar; reaction to receiving uniform and clothing; visit by General Władysław Anders; voyage across Caspian Sea to Persia, 8/1942; reaction to having access to cleaning facilities and food; attitude to being out of Soviet control; move to Iraq for training; impressions of British power made by sight of British Indian Army personnel; formation of 5th Kresova Infantry Div in Middle East, 1943; move to Palestine and reception received from Polish Jews; divisional exercises in Palestine. Recollections of operations as officer with 18th Lwówski Rifle Bn, 6th Lwów Infantry Bde, 5th Kresowa Infantry Div in Italy, 1943-1944: move to Italy, 12/1943; opinion of German position at Monte Cassino.
REEL 6 Continues: wounding in legs by machine gun at Monte Cassino, 18/5/1944; problems of crossing no-man's land; evacuation by jeep ambulance; medical treatment at Casualty Clearing Station; artillery barrage prior to battle, 11/5/1944; rest period, 12/5/1944; in action at Monte Cassino; his wounding by machine gun fire at Monte Cassino, 18/5/1944.
REEL 7 Continues: his attitude towards Germans at Monte Cassino; comparison between Allied and Axis forces at Monte Cassino; nature of his leg wounds and treatment received by surgeon. Aspects of settling in GB, 1945-1948: reasons for not returning to Poland; problems of communicating with parents, 1945-1947; prior recollection of meeting with sister serving with Polish Auxiliary Territorial Service in Palestine, 1943; how her sister moved to GB, then United States of America after 1946; how British people reacted to Polish settlement after Second World War.