Description
Object description
Polish Jewish civilian in Łódź and Kraków, Poland, 1939-1940; inmate in Warsaw Ghetto, Warsaw, Poland, 1940-1942; in hiding in Poland, 1942-1944; served with Home Army (Armia Krajowa) during Warsaw Uprising, Warsaw, Poland, 8/1944-9/1944; prisoner of war in Stalag X-B, Sandbostel, Germany, 1944-1945.
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Łódź, Poland, 1922-1939: family; education; life in Łódź, late 1930s; interest in international relations. Aspects of period as civilian in Poland, 9/1939: events in Łódź, 1/9/1939; flight of family to Kielce under German Air Force attack; collapse of family car; return of family to Łódź. Recollections of period as civilian in Łódź, Poland, 1939-1940: German treatment of his father; danger of German street round-ups; effect of introduction of anti-Semitic laws; treatment of his brother Michael Lando by Germans, 10/1939.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of deportation of family from Łódź to Kraków, Poland, 1940: removal of family from home by German authorties; fear of being interned in Radogoszcz Transit Camp; arrival at Radogoszcz Transit Camp; reaction of Germans to his Aryan appearance; separation of men and women; journey in cattle truck to Kraków; arrival in Kraków; refuge with family in Kraków; difference in Jewish arm-bands in Kraków and Łódź; his love affair with girl from Viennese refugee family; narrow escape from abduction by Germans. Recollections of period as inmate of Warsaw Ghetto, Poland, 10/1940-9/1942: background to family's move to Warsaw; German authorities setting up of Warsaw Ghetto, 10/1940-11/1940; move of family to Nowolipie Street in ghetto; sealing of ghetto, 15/11/1940.
REEL 3 Continues: loss of contact with girlfriend in Kraków; family's financial position; attending a locksmith's course; conditions in ghetto; obtaining new girlfriend; danger of typhus; confiscation of furs, 12/1941; German demand for six thousand deportees per day from ghetto, 7/1942; his uncle's membership of Jewish Ghetto Police; random nature of German selections for deportation; setting up leather workshop; his plans to commit suicide; rumours and confusion over Treblinka Extermination Camp; belief in personal survival; reasons for suppressing urges to resist; mass selection, 8/1942.
REEL 4 Continues: surviving mass selection, 8/1942; how his policeman uncle saved a relative selected for deportation; allocation of smaller area of ghetto for surviving inmates, 9/1942; method employed by uncle to pass selection with his small daughter; work in German owned factory; narrow escape from selection; question of problems of hiding amongst Catholic Polish population; preparations for him to hide amongst Polish population.
REEL 5 Continues: Recollections of period in hiding in Warsaw, Zokopane and Nowy Sącz, Poland, 9/1942-7/1944: method of escaping from Warsaw Ghetto, 9/1942; arrangements to take refuge with Wołowski family in Praga area; reaction to travelling across Warsaw; new plans to take refuge with Chowil family; blackmail letter received by Chowil family; reasons for moving from Chowil family home; problems of working amongst Poles; move to Zakopane and taking refuge with Mr Kamiński.
REEL 6 Continues: Mr Kaminski's offer of job in quarry at Nowy Sącz; problems encountered during employment in quarry; plans to obtain employment with Organisation Todt and how he was directed to work for Schutzstaffel (SS); leaving quarry; news that his parents had escaped from Warsaw Ghetto; return to Warsaw and re-uniting with his parents; father's reaction to rumours that Jews would be allowed to emigrate to Palestine or Honduras.
REEL 7 Continues: fate of Jewish civilians who fell for these rumours; obtaining new identity papers as Stefan Wojtyła; establishing new life in Warsaw, 1/1943; listening to British Broadcasting Corporation; accommodation with Polish widow; memories of the Warsaw Ghetto Rising, 4/1943; fate of his uncle Edek during Ghetto Rising, 4/1943; sight of his governess being removed on a transport from Warsaw Ghetto; problems for relatives in hiding in Warsaw after liquidation of Warsaw Ghetto.
REEL 8 Continues: narrow escape of relative during Schutzstaffel (SS) search; offer to join the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), 6/1944; realisation that he had to move lodgings, 7/1944. Recollections of operations with Home Army (Armia Krajowa) during the Warsaw Uprising, Warsaw, Poland, 8/1944-9/1944: background to rising; his father's attitude to his involvement with Home Army (Armia Krajowa); start of the rising; joining unit and initial deployment; German use of multi-barrelled mortars; deterioration in rations; wounding by shrapnel; use of basements to cross city; crossing roads to find wounded father; air-supply drops to Home Army (Armia Krajowa) by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force; reasons why Germans never captured the part of his city he was stationed in. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Stalag X-B, Sandbostel in Germany, 10/1944-4/1945: initial removal to Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf; move to Stalag X-B, Sandbostel, 1/1945.
REEL 9 Continues: Aspects of post-war life in Germany and GB: work as interpreter for British Military Government, Germany in Bremen, Germany, 1945; account of mother's experiences in Warsaw, 1944; reasons for return to Poland after Second World War and decision to stay in London, GB after attending brother's funeral; life in GB after 1946 including establishing businesses in Manchester and Leicester.
REEL 10 Continues: family life in GB.