Description
Object description
Polish civilian living in Wilno and Ignalino, Poland and Lithuania, 1939-1941; member of Polish Resistance in Grodzisk, Poland, 1941-1943; inmate of Pawiak Prison, Warsaw, 1943; inmate in Auschitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 1943-1944 and Gusen I Subcamp, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Warsaw and Wilno, Poland, 1925-1939 family; education. Recollections of period as civilian living in Wilno, Poland and Ignalina, Lithuania, 1939-1941: entry of Soviet Army into Wilno, Poland, 17/9/1939; opinion of Soviet Army equipment; attitude of population in Wilno, Poland towards Soviets; reasons for move to Ignalina, Lithuania; requisitioning of home; bartering with Soviets, winter 1939-1940; acquiring skis; return of Ignalina area to Lithuanian occupation, 1940; Lithuanian removal of Polish population; reoccupation of area by Soviets, 8/1940; historical relations between Lithuanians and Poles; German takeover of Lithuania, 6/1941; contrast between Soviet and German Army troops; accident riding ex-German Army horse; killing of Soviet Army soldier by German Army soldier.
REEL 2 Continues: reaction of Lithuanians to news of massacres of Jewish civilians, 1941; threat to Polish civilians from Lithuanian militants; acquiring pair of socks; attitude to living in Lithuania; decision to move to Grodzisk, Poland. Aspects of period as civilian living in Grodzisk, Poland, 1941: character of journey from Ignalina, Lithuania to Grodzisk; reunion with father; shortage of food; father's role with Polish Resistance; employment; relations between Polish farmer and Germans; job he had dealing with people searching farmer's field. Recollection of period as member of Polish Resistance in Grodzisk, Poland, 1941-1943: joining resistance; supply of money to resistance from GB; role with resistance.
REEL 3 Continues: story of arrest and beating received from German captors, summer 1942; father's reaction to his incautious actions; brother's reasons for joining Organisation Todt in order to gather intelligence; story of arrest with father arrest by Germans, 1943. Recollections of period as inmate in Pawiak Prison, Warsaw, Poland, 1943: transfer to prison; contact with father; conditions in prison.
REEL 4 Continues: rations; casual attitude towards death; story of shooting of fellow inmate; sight of smouldering Warsaw Ghetto; nature of interrogation; interrogation techniques employed by Germans; story of how he persuaded Germans not to separate him from his father. Recollections of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 1943-1944: nature of transport from Pawiak Prison to camp including dropping message to his mother; living conditions in camp.
REEL 5 Continues: boxing match; dispute over possession of shoes; work making flower beds at crematorium; attitude to possibility of being executed; joining queue for draft to another camp; last sight of his father. Aspects of train journey from Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland to Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, 1944: lack of water; attitude of Germans to one man escaping from train. Recollections of period as inmate of Gusen I Subcamp, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, 1944-1945: allocation to subcamp; trek from main camp carrying collapsed man; use of term 'the naked transport'; method Kapo used to kill inmates; work in quarry; character of rations.
REEL 6 Continues: obtaining work uncoupling boogies; character of camp hospital; experiences in hospital; description of term 'bahnhof'; story of inmate taking bread from mouth of dying man; kapo who killed inmates with steel rod; transfer to Deutschen Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH Armaments Factory; beating he received for sharpening spoon into knife; story of kleptomaniac inmate who saved his life; memories of Kapo Hans van Loosen; character of his factory supervisor.
REEL 7 Continues: incident of supervisor blaming Korzeniewski for mistake; accident he had on machine and how his friend Mieczyslaw Paszkiewicz saved his life; character of executions of inmates; psychological consolations of imprisonment; intensification of Allied bombing raids and attitude of inmates to them, 1945; rumours of intended mass execution of inmates; liberation of camp, 5/5/1945, Reflections on Holocaust experience: question of effects of his experiences; question of accuracy of his memories. Aspects of liberation of Gusen I Subcamp, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, 5/ 1945: revenge taken on Kapos by inmates.
REEL 8 Continues: treatment of captured Schutzstaffel (SS) troops; visit to Gusen II Subcamp and physical condition of inmates.