Description
Object description
Polish schoolchild in Brody, Poland, 9/1939-2/1943; forced labourer in Neuberg an der Donau area, Germany, 3/1943-5/1945; displaced person in American Zone of Occupation, Germany, 1945-1948
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Brody, Poland, 1925-1939: family circumstances; education; relations between various communities in Brody; custom of buying on credit; plight of children of unemployed; father's origins; political allegiance of parents; family's reaction to death of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, 12/5/1935; degree of religious observance. Recollections of German and Soviet invasions of Poland, 9/1939: effects of German Air Force bombing of Brody, 4/9/1939; Soviet invasion, 17/9/1939; reaction of some members of Jewish community to arrival of Soviet forces; arrest of uncle.
REEL 2 Continues: appearance of Soviet Army. Recollections of Soviet occupation of Brody, Poland, 9/1939-6/1941: Soviet authorities' attitude towards educated Poles; mass deportations of Poles to Soviet Union, 1940; reaction of pupils to education received in Soviet run schools; covering resistance activity by joining Young Pioneers organisation; poverty induced by occupation; initial reaction of Soviet Army troops to goods available in Polish shops, 9/1939; interrogation by People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and attempt to get him to spy on his parents; German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber attacks on Soviet tanks in Brody, 22/6/1941; bombing of home. Recollections of German occupation of Brody, Poland, 6/1941-2/1943: arrival of German Army and use of Ukrainian auxiliaries; reaction to removal of Jewish neighbours.
REEL 3 Continues: attitude of Germans occupiers; lack of difference between German and Soviet regimes; German reprisals for killing of German soldiers; refusal of father to co-operate with either Soviets or Germans; educational restrictions; food shortages, 1942-1943; arrest for forced labour by Ukrainian militiamen, 2/1943; ethnic cleansing policy of Ukrainians including details of massacre of Poles; question of avoiding round-ups; distributing leaflets for resistance movement. Recollections of period as forced labourer in Neuburg an der Donau area, Germany, 3/1943-5/1945: arrival at Dachau; selection for farm work in Neuburg an der Donau area; coping with farm work.
REEL 4 Continues: feeding himself; identification worn on clothing; relations between Polish workers and German farmers; payment and restrictions on his movements; arrival of United States Army, 4/1945. Recollections of period as displaced person in American Zone of Occupation, Germany, 1945-1948: character of American troops; racial discrimination in United States Army; behaviour of American troops towards Germans; prior recollection of hanging of Polish forced labourer by Germans; life as displaced person near Ulm; resistance to American camp authorities' pressure for Poles to return to Poland; forced repatriation of Poles to Poland by American troops, 1945.
REEL 5 Continues: fate of parents; father's warning not to return to Poland; plans to study in United States of America; encouragement to emigrate to GB. Aspects of period as civilian living in GB, 1948-1963: arrival in GB, 1948; effects of uncle's death; farm work in Scotland, 1948-1951; reasons for becoming chiropodist; taking British nationality, 1963; treatment by British authorities; further details of pressure to return to Poland in 1945; post-war prejudice against Poles from British Communist Party of Great Britain and Scottish Protestants.