War Years 1939 to 1945 Memoirs Of Bronek Gelibter Contents Personal Note........................................................................................1 Introduction..........................................................................................2 Family....................................................................................................6 End of August 1939..............................................................................8 Friday, 1st of September 1939. .....................................................10 3 September 1939...........................................................................13 4 September 1939...........................................................................14 5 September 1939...........................................................................14 6 September 1939 and next few days. ..........................................15 Lwów 1939 ..........................................................................................24 Deportation.........................................................................................32 The Forest...........................................................................................33 Free again. ..........................................................................................51 Buzuluk. ..............................................................................................53 Journey South. ...................................................................................56 Tashkent. ........................................................................................58 Change of plan. ..............................................................................60 Amu Daria. .........................................................................................63 Uzbekistan ..........................................................................................70 Ukraine................................................................................................81 Appendices..........................................................................................89 Personal Note I realise that my English language is primitive and clumsy, my vocabulary limited and the grammar far from perfect! But I am not attempting to write a literary work. This is a testimony of my war time experience, written by me in the same style as I would narrate it. I think that for those who are interested, reading this provides an advantage, as one can stop reading at any time and later continue or not, without concern for the narrator. I won’t even know and will not feel offended... So, you have been warned! PS The reason why I write this is, that any time I tell stories about me or my Family during the last war, the frequent reaction is: “Why don’t you write it all? Your Grandchildren or even their Children may want to know a little bit more about you?” As it is rather unlikely that they will speak Polish, I am trying my best in English. God, forgive me and help them!! To Sophia, Carl and Max. Enfield, March 1999 Bronek (Bronisław Gelibter) 1 Introduction. Region of Dąbrowa Basin ( Zagłębie Dąbrowskie ) with its main town Sosnowiec and together with adjoining region of Upper Silesia, with its provincial capital Katowice, are regions of Poland, rich in coal deposit. Although both regions exist and develop thanks to the coal mining and steel industry, the history of each is completely different. Upper Silesia, for centuries was changing hands and belonged either to Poland or to Germany. Even when divided between the two countries, Dąbrowa Basin was always Polish, except a period, when as a result of partitioning Poland in eighteen century, it belonged to the Empire of Russia till the end of WW1. The collapse of Russia, Prussia and Austria and the creation of the independent Poland in 1918 set again new national borders. The coal was mined there since the beginning of nineteenth century, but the opening in 1860 of a new railway line Warsaw -Vienna, rapidly accelerated not only the already fast growing mining industry but also steelworks, chemical and textile manufacturing. The industry demanded more service facilities, such as banks, telephone exchanges, and communications. All this required more people, more housing, shops, schools etc. 2 Within 30-40 years, mining villages and some small towns, were transformed into towns with population around, and over 100 000 inhabitants each. The whole area is densely populated. On about 3000 sq. km is at least a dozen large towns and many smaller, some of which almost merged together into one big cluster of industrial urban area. Sosnowiec, where my parents settled shortly after the end of WW1, is one of those towns. There I was born, there I and my two older brothers grew up, went to school, and lived till the 1st of September 1939. House I was born in – ul. Pilsudskiego 48 After the end of the war in year 1918 and following two successive uprisings, the Polish-German frontier in this region was finally established after plebiscite in 1921. Thus part of Upper Silesia, with towns like Gliwice (Gleiwitz), Zabrze (Hindenburg), Bytom (Beuthen) and a number of smaller places, were left on the German side and Katowice, Chorzów and others were allocated to Poland. It was not an ideal solution, but at least acceptable to both sides, until... In 1933 Hitler gained power in Germany and started his dictatorial reign of terror. He broke the rules of the Versailles Treaty forbidding Germans to have an army and a navy beyond certain level of strength. He ignored limits imposed on Germany and started to build a number of modern and mighty battleships, tanks, bomber and fighter planes. 3 In 1938, having already a powerful army, he annexed Austria. Few months later his army invaded neighbouring Czechoslovakia and occupied part of it and after another few month he annexed the whole of that country. The already dark clouds over Europe and Poland in particular looked now ominous. Apart from the Upper Silesia region there was another part of Poland, the so called “corridor”, which Hitler contested more and more frequently and every time more aggressively. This was a comparatively narrow strip of land (about 40km) and Poland’s only access to the Baltic Sea allocated to her by the Versailles Treaty. Unfortunately it divided Germany from its East Prussia and Danzig-Gdansk, (which was then a “Free-Town”), administered jointly by Poles and Germans. Although Germany, subject to some regulations, had unrestricted access to East-Prussia by rail and by road, it was not good enough for them and Hitler openly threatened to retrieve this “corridor” by force! The whole Europe, especially the Poles who were on the front line, was terrified by these prospects. Many people however still hoped that in the end Hitler will withdraw his demands. As it soon became apparent the optimists were completely wrong; the inevitable had materialised! Knowing how inhuman Nazis were towards Jews in Germany, Polish Jews, could not exclude the eventuality of finding themselves in German’s hands and were especially horrified! 4 And this is why, living in Sosnowiec, then just 20 km from the German border, the only move sensible and possible to us was to join tens of thousands of others, Jews and Poles alike, leaving our home town and fleeing away further away, to the eastern part of Poland. 5 Family My family during the last few days of August 1939, preceding the outbreak of the war. where we lived – ul. Malachowskiego 9 Father - Maks, 56, at home in Sosnowiec, at work with a Sanitary Ware Company Mother - Regina, 51, anticipating the imminent war, takes a few suitcases with some essentials and goes to her home town Radom in case the rest of the family will need to join her there. Brothers - Lutek, 26,at home, a volunteer to the Civic Air Defence, waiting to be called up to the army. Adaś, 22, in Paris, studying there. He has been ordered by parents to not come back home, so long as the danger of the war still existed. Myself - (Bronek), 16, for the last 2 weeks on camping holidays in Skawa near Krakow, with a group of Jewish Scouts. 6 Our school – Liceum Staszica Sosnowiec 1939, with my dog Jim 7 End of August 1939 I am having a fantastic, lovely time! The weather is hot, the company is excellent, boys and girls, all good friends since a long ago. We behaved there like young children despite that we all were roughly the same age of 16. I am sure, no one of us was concerned too much with the tense political situation. Not, that we did not know what is going on in the world, but simply, we thought that it was not our problem, let them, the old generation, worry! And then, it appeared that, the problem also affected us all and me too! Suddenly an urgent telegram arrived from my Father, telling me to leave Skawa at once and go to my aunt Edzia in Warsaw! Others also must have received some news from home, because the mood became different, not the same as it was before! Camping with the scouts So, next day, I am on the train to Warsaw. I must say, I did not feel too comfortable, seating in the crowded compartment in my scout uniform, listening to the discussions and answering questions...not every one pleasant to me. It was a lot of talking about possible war, not all quite sensible... In Warsaw aunt Edzia was waiting for me at the platform. She explained the reason, why I was told to break my holidays and come here. Well, facing the eventuality of a war, it would be much safer to all of us to be together