Bereza, Michał Józef (Oral history)

Polish private served with the Polish Army during the Polish-Soviet War in 1919-1921; officer served as staff officer with Medical Administration, War Department in Warsaw, Poland, 9/1939-10/1939; internee in Romania, 10/1939-3/1940; escaped from Romania to France, 4/1940; served as medical officer with Polish Army in France, Syria and Lebanon, 4/1940-7/1940; served with the Polish Independent Carpathian Bde, 3rd Carpathian Rifles Div and Polish II Corps, Polish Armed Forces in the West in North Africa, Iraq and Italy, 1940-1944

REEL 1 Background in Lublin, Poland, 1903-1920: family; education. Aspects of period as private with the Polish Army during the Polish-Soviet, 1919-1921: volunteering underage; motivation for volunteering and influence of author Henryk Sienkiewicz; character of Bolshevik prisoners of war and their treatment; reaction to treatment of discharged soldiers, 11/1920; attempt to volunteer for the Polish Navy, 1921; confidence that Bolsheviks would be defeated; medical training with Polish Army during 1920s. Aspects of period as staff officer with Medical Administration, War Department in Warsaw, Poland, 9/1939: German attack, 1/9/1939; escape from Warsaw to Romania, 10/1939. REEL 2 Continues: how he missed German bombing of Warsaw, 9/1939. Aspects of escape to and period as internee in Romania, 1939-1940: reception on arrival in Romania, 10/1939; escape from internment camp; capture and imprisonment in Brasov; escape from prison dressed as women. Aspects of period as staff officer with Polish Army in France, Syria and Lebanon, 4/1940-7/1940: escape to France, 4/1940; move to Homs, Syria, 6/1940; crossing into Palestine on French collapse, 7/1940. Aspects of period as medical officer with the Polish Independent Carpathian Bde, 3rd Carpathian Rifles Div and Polish II Corps, Polish Armed Forces in the West in North Africa, Iraq and Italy, 1940-1944: role with brigade in Egypt, 1940-1941; reasons for Polish troops not going to Greece, 1941; stationing in Tobruk, Libya during the siege, 1941; evacuation of wounded during German advance in Libya, 6/1942; garrison duties in Mosul, Iraq, 1942-1943; organising evacuation of wounded at Monte Cassino, Italy, 1944; posting to London, GB, 1944. Aspects of period as civilian doctor in GB, from 1945: work in Whitchurch Cottage Hospital and Dispensary, Whitchurch, GB; medical condition after military service; reasons for not returning to Poland. REEL 3 Continues: work treating Polish refugees in Wrexham, GB, during 1950s; gradual winding down of special hospital facilities for Poles; marriage.