Description
Object description
Polish civilian member of Polish Resistance in Warsaw, Poland, 1939-1942; inmate of Pawiak Prison in Warsaw, Poland, 7/1942-9/1942; inmate of Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 9/1943-3/1943 and Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 3/1943-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Warsaw, Poland, 1923-1939: family circumstances and origins; education. Recollections of German invasion of Poland, 9/1939: national defence work with Boy Scouts, 8/1939-9/1939; sight of German advance at Mokotów, Warsaw, 9/1939. Recollections of period as member of Polish Resistance in Warsaw, Poland, 11/1939-7/1942: start of resistance group via Boy Scout troop, 11/1939; organisation and intelligence gathering activities of group; daily life under occupation.
REEL 2 Continues: start of arrests of Jewish civilians; treatment of Jews by Germans witnessed during period in prison, 1942; occasional conversations with German Army soldiers; underground news bulletins; morale amongst Polish Resistance and civilians; father's arrest, 7/1942; German attempt to find supporters amongst Polish population. Recollections of arrest and imprisonment in Pawiak Prison, Warsaw, Poland, 7/1942-9/1942: arrest by Gestapo; removal to Pawiak Prison; overcrowding and diet; interrogation at Gestapo Headquarters, Warsaw; protocol signed after interrogation; inmate who was apparently insane.
REEL 3 Continues: inmates' obsession with food; tactics employed by guards; removal to Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, 30/9/1942. Recollections of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 9/1942-3/1943: reception and issue of uniform; re-uniting with father; digging ditches on work party; suffering from climatic conditions, winter 1942-1943; supervision by Kapos and Vorarbeiters; infestation of fleas; Sunday lice parade; punishment for joining food queue twice; contact with Jewish inmates.
REEL 4 Continues: categories of inmates; selection for transport to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany, 3/1943. Recollections of period as inmate of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 3/1943-4/1945: contrast between camp and Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp; how experience as camp inmate benefited him; fate of father in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp; inmate organisation and administration; power of German Communists inmates; hostility of German Communists to Polish Army officers and priest inmates; prostitute service for German inmates; attendance of camp cinema; situation of Polish Communists.
REEL 5 Continues: preparations for resistance to potential liquidation at end of Second World War; securing technical jobs; punishments by hanging and beating; effect of experience on religious beliefs; effect of rail disorganisation on transports and camp administration; question of evacuation at end of Second World War; interruption of planned evacuation, 4/1945; disappearance of German guards, 4/1945. Recollections of liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 4/1945: how inmate organisation deceived Weimar police about intended liquidation; arrival of United States Army troops; liberation of camp; attempt by Soviet inmates to set up control posts in surrounding countryside.
REEL 6 Continues: dissolution of camp; arrangements made by United States Army to take inmates from Buchenwald Concentration Camp out of projected Soviet Zone of Occupation, Germany. Aspects of period as Displaced Person in Germany, 1945: lack of clarity with American intentions for inmates; decision to join Polish Armed Forces in the West; journey across Germany to join Polish II Corps in Italy, 9/1945. Recollections of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland and Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 9/1942-4/1945: reasons for lack of tattooing of inmates in Auschwitz; accuracy of United States Army Air Force bombing of munitions factory at Buchenwald Concentration Camp; casualties caused by incendiaries falling amongst inmates in nearby forest; escape of some inmates of Buchenwald Concentration Camp during United States Army Air Force bombing, 1944; contrast in inmates clothing in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp and Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
