Borzyszkowski, Wacław (Oral history)

Polish schoolchild in Danzig, Germany, 1939-1942; member of German Labour Service in Germany, 1942-1943; private served with German Army in Germany and North West Europe, 1943-1944; radio operator served with Polish I Corps, Polish Armed Forces in the West in GB, 1944-1945; served with Polish Resettlement Corps in GB, 1945-1948

REEL 1 Background in Free City of Danzig, 1925-1939: family; education; sense of impending crisis in Danzig Corridor, 1938-1939. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Danzig, Germany, 1939-1942: start of German attack on city, 1/9/1939; attitude towards German invasion; attempts to avoid call-up to German Army, 1939-1942; measures taken by German authorities and conditions in Danzig Corridor, 1939-1942; question of resistance against Germans; arrests of relatives; hopes of liberation by British; illegal listening to British Broadcasting Corporation; German use of Roman Catholic Church to dissemination of orders to population; interruption to his education; settling of Volksdeutsch in Danzig Corridor, 1939-1940; German demand that population choose their nationality in Danzig Corridor, 1942. REEL 2 Continues: plan to be called up to German Army and abscond with arms; period as forced labourer in Gdynia area, Poland, 1942. Aspects of period as worker with German Labour Service in Germany, 1942-1943: conscription into German Labour Service; work in building reservoir in Pomerania, 1942; sight of Royal Air Force bombing Peenemünde, 17/8/1943-18/8/1943. Recollections of period as private with German Army in Germany and North West Europe, 1943-1944: sight of destroyed military equipment and Jews wearing stars, 1943; swearing allegiance to Adolf Hitler in Germany, 1943; duties on Western Wall; story of nearly shooting Field Marshal Erwin Rommel; question of sabotaging Western Wall; spoof Allied parachute drop on Pas de Calais, France, 1944; announcement of July Plot, 7/1944; German precautions against suspect loyalty of Poles in German Army, summer 1944; Allied aircraft shot down near Ostend, Belgium, 1944; start of German V1 Flying Bomb campaign. REEL 3 Continues: move from Ostend, Belgium to Saint Quentin, France, 8/1944; sabotage of German vehicle movements on French roads, 8/1944; how he was given a German NCO to act as 'minder' on River Seine, France, 8/1944; night spent in positions on River Seine, France, 8/1944; German failure to mine bridges over River Seine, France, 8/1944; German counter-attack against American forces, 25/8/1944; desertion to American forces, 25/8/1944; treatment by Americans on desertion, 25/8/1944; giving information to American captors, 25/8/1944; fear of retaliation against his mother in Danzig, Germany, 8/1944; transfer through France to Southampton, GB. REEL 4 Continues: brief period in No 23 Prisoner of War Camp, Le Marchant Camp, Devizes, GB, 1944. Aspects of period as radio operator with Polish I Corps, Polish Armed Forces in the West in GB, 1944-1945: joining Polish Armed Forces in the West in GB, 1944; volunteering to become radio operator with Home Army (Armia Krajowa); pattern of service in Scotland, 1944-1945. Aspects of period as private with Polish Resettlement Corps in GB, 1945-1948: reasons for joining Polish Resettlement Corps; fate of comrades who returned to Poland in 1945; settling in GB after 1945; pattern of civilian employment after demobilisation from Polish Resettlement Corps, 1948; fate of family in Poland after 1945; problems he had sending food parcels and transferring money to his mother in Poland. REEL 5 Continues: reasons for decision to stay in GB after 1945. Aspects of period as private with German Army in North West Europe, 1944: German attempt to test political opinions of Poles in Belgium, 1944; occasion he was threatened with court martial; prior recollections of narrow escapes smuggling food in Danzig Corridor, 1939-1943; experiences with German Army at Ostend, Belgium, 1944.