Krakow - Lwow 1939 - 1942

What-did you -do in the war daddy? Nobody asked us this question,
but for years, after lunch or dinner with our famUies, my friend Nolek
and I volunteered, uninvited, the answer to this question. A remark by
some-body spar-ked a memory of some epis-ode and once we started our
stories it we-nt ona~nd on without realising how boring our repetitions
must have b-e-en to tllosearound the tab:le.
Ana, he-re they go again. Of course for you born in this lucky
country, "Australia, O:W'---adventures seem as remote as a trip to the
moon. You l1s-ten as we tell our-stories as one would watch a film,
things that re-ally didn't happen:... And I don't blame you. Even to me
as the years pass, -all these -adventures seem unreal, but believe me it
aU trap-pened all rrght.So, before I forget everythjng, I thought it will
be- a~ good idea to p:ut it all d'own on paper. Lots of books were written,
fi1ms were rna-de on this subj--e-ct, articles written, war criminals
prosecutions but I-think yott still find it hard to comprehend it all.
Yes, you know-it has happened" you believe it is true, but I think that
only we who have been through it can really- feel what all the writings
and fthnsc:an't de-scrib-e.
My story carr-be divided ion two p~rts. The first part is the story
of a yourrg Jew trying N> survive, always onry one step ahead of
capture and death- and the eventual transformation into Adam Oko
whictl, by the way means "the eye" in Porish, a labourer working for
the O-rgani-sation Todt. In the second part Adam Oko becomes N.S.K.K.
Sturmann [Nazi Transport Corps private] and a subJe-ct of the German
R-ei-ch and, as such gets involved in situations which were dangerous
everr for reat Germ-ans.
The memories of the first period, when I was together with my
frieoo Nolek are, for some reason vague, and many facts are missing,
ma-yb-e bec3us-'e of living inconstant fear and runnillg away from the
every day-'s danger. Of the secGlld perio-d, I rememlrer most of the
detaHs, pro-b-abry because I was more relaxed and- sure of myself and
sometimes, maybe I should be ashamed to admit it, I even managed to
enjo-¥-m 'jsel f~
I don't want to bore you with the detaits of my childhood and
teenage years butl have to mention a few facts which are relevant to
my story. I was born in Krakow, Poland and lived there for the first

1
1 8 years of my life. My father's family comes from a small town
amed Wieticzka, 12 km. from Krakow. This town is famous for one of
the oldest crystal salt -mines in Europe. My grandfather owned there a
ardware store and a large house surrounded by a garden full of fruit
rees, bushes of berries and vegetables. I was the only child but I had
-everal cousins and this. garden was our playground. My parents,
ke many others were struggting in the depression years but managed
to send me to the Hebrew Gymnasium[High school] in Krakow where I
ceived my leaving certificate. My parents couldn't afford to pay for
y university education but 1 had an unde who was involved in coal
"1lning and was exporting coal to Italy. There were some
omplications with currency exchange and he had always some money
in Italy which he couldn't bring back to Poland. He decided than to
end me there to study so at least some of this m-oney would be
tilised. Just as well because I wanted to study civil engineering and
s a Jew I couldn't get admittance to any Polish technical university.
had a very good friend from my class, Lolek Rubinstein whose
brother was studyi,ng medicine in Florence and he was also going
ere, so not to be atone I went there too. That~how I landed .in Italy
d all my life was in one way or other, influenced by this occurrence.
The two years[ 1937 to 1939 ] which f spent there were for me a
al eye-opener. Coming from comparat'i,vel,y provincial Krakow to
Florence, one of the most beautifull' cities in Europe with its art
-easures, musical performances by the then best virtuosos, the thert
smopolitan population, o-ot t-o mention the Italian way of life
changed my entire outlook on IHe. After all I was only 1 8 and very
uch an innocent abroad. In July 193911 returned home for the summer
'acation against the adviCe of my friend Lolek who tried to convince
e not to, because the talk of war was getting more and more
~rsistent. I wanted to see my parents and- couldn't believe that the
war was possible. Well, I was wrong but at least my coming back
3ved my parents from the sufferings and death which was the fate of
ost of our people indud~ng my famify.
I read somewhere that there is a Chinese curse which says ~ You
10 Id I i ve in the i nt er est in 9 tim es ~. Li k e m i If, ion s 0 f 0 the r s I
e erienced the wisdom of tills saying. 1 st September 1939 was a
ea iful day. The rad'io played martial music, interrupted by some
oded messages. Suddenly the sirens announced an air attack. I
~~o ght it wouJd be another exercis-e. In the last few days there had
~en quite few of them. Then the explosions came and at the same

2
time the radio announc~d that the Germans had crossed the Polish
border at several point-s. Poland was no match for the overwhelming
superiority of the ~erman forces an-d all the heroic efforts on the part
of the Poles couldn;'t st-op the German advance.
On the third day-of war I convrneed- my p-a,rents, against the
advi6e of other members o-f our fam:Hy to join the stream of refugees
and head east. We- waelk-ed, carrying with us only the minimum
essentials. The days were hot, from time to tim-e we were attacked by
dive bombers} but Iu.ekily we survived without a scratch. After three
days of marching we succeeded in- acquiring a h-orse and cart which
was much better ttfdr:1 walking but nQt that much if you consider the
state of the Polish- r-o:ads. Because -of the consta:nt attacks by dive
bombers, it beco.me imposs-ible to travel- by day so we slept by day and
travelled by night, a"l-w:ays a day or 50- ahead of the Germans. The
nights were alight with fire-s, and the constant rumble of the cannons
followed us all the time. We prayed for rain so the planes wou'ld get
grounded and the tanks get bogged, but to no avail. It was the most
beautifull summer for years. Our original idea was to turn south
towards Hungary or Romania, b-ut the- Germans wen~ quicker and our
way south was already blocked. So there was nothing else to do but to
keep going east without having a clear idea where to. One night we
slept in a-n Ukrainian vi'llage near the border with the Soviet Union.
Early in the mornin-g we were awakened by noises of revving engines. r
looked out and there in front -of the house was standing a Soviet tank.
In a way we were relieved. We were save from tne Germans and
anyhow it was the end of our running. This was it! There was nowhere
to go.
Aft era few, d -a ys the coo m mu n i cat ion s we r ere stor e dan d we
travelled by train to Ta-rnopol where my father had some friends who
accommodated us in their home. Later, the Lwow Polytechnic
[Technical University] was opened and I went there to continue my
course of civil engineering. In Lwow II met my school friends from
Krakow [Lole-k and Nolek] who later will playa g:re-at pa,rt in my
survival adve-nture. Th:e Russians left the university unchanged for the
time being and eve-fy student received a monthly subsidy depending on
the year of study. In my case-i:t -was 1 50 ru bles wh ich saved me from
starvation but nothing- else. Cf'a-ss:es in Marxism and Leninism were
introduced and atso a shorth+sttory of the communist party aUeged1y
written by Stal in himself becQ.me compu Isory reading.

3
 At the b-e gin n i n 9 wet f eat e d aIII t h i-s as a j 0 k e k now in g lit tie 0 f
life in the Soviet Unio-nfbut S01)n we learned better and all the joking
stopped veery abruptly.llived in a student hostel where I shared a
room with a Ukrain+an-p-o.:o/ ~whose paren-ts were farmers. He was a
good-natured fellowa'Ait'-shared wi"thme the g-oods his family would
send him from the vilta§~. 1 also becQ,me friendly with other Polish
and- Ukrain~an stud-ents:-which later proved to be of great help to me.
Lolek was living with n-tS famHy who had the- foresight to get a flat
and move a lot o-f their belongings before the war started. I hadn't
seen much of Nolek at this ti'm-e. He was working and earning money
and my li6e was enclosed betw-een university and the student hostel.
Also, us as bein:g-the future of the Soviet inteUigentsia we were
ob'liged to take part in such activities as ideological ear bashings,
Russ"an language lessons, ski marathons and- part time basic infantry
training. To top aU this, a continuous exaltation of Stalin our great
an d wise fat her. To us, the new c,itize ns of th e Soviet Union, th is was
a sickening experience.
One of the activities was called 'subotnik'. Any Sunday, as
required by the authorities we were obliged to work free of charge on
some project. The winter of 19'39 was very severe. The coal supply to
Lwow was coming from the Don basin in the Ukraine and there was a
shortage of Ilabor to unload-tl1e railway wagons, so we were sent do
the job, four students to wag~o-n shovelling approximately 1 5 tons. of
coal. The only com'pensatio-nwe received was a bottle of vodka for
eacn gang. After the first Sun-day the station master offered us a
d-eal" good pay and vodka to ::k-ee p unloadi ng the coa I trains. We were
young and strong and the vodka kept us warm in the freezing weather.
Thi-s business lasted fo'r about three weeks and we earned several
hundred ru-bles which was a~g-r-eat boost to our meagre finances.
'-n the a meantime a German military commissIon arrived in Lwow
and you could seethe eleg,ant~ermans parad,ing in the hotel
Europejski in the c-entre of town. Rumour had it that they came to
negotiate the return of refu-g-ees to the west. The legal position of
refugees was,as far as the "R-tJs-sians were concerned, not very clear.
To them, because we came from Wester-n Poland to this part, which to
us- was still Poland, we were refugees in our own land. Local people
became automatically Sovi-et citizens but the so called refugees had
to ap-ply for citizenship. Natura-II)' people were reluctant to do so
be-cause they still hop'e-d togo ho:me one day. Many people, even Jews
who had left families behind them registered for return. Of course it

4
 as all a trick because the Germans didn't have the sl,ightest
intention t"O repatriate anybody and specially the Jews.
At thjs time many :people stc:a1"~ed to disappear. Important
embers of the Polisn=gGVernment,--p-olice, army- officers, members of
e Polish communist -p-aTty, who, -aftc-er being released from the Pollish
risons we-re re-arre-s=t~by the NKVD as Ttotzkyists, members of the
Zionists organisaUons -etc. But then t-he deportations had become
assive. The only c-rHe-ria was a person who ca:me from the West.
ousands of people were rotl-nded up- one night and loaded on to the
ains to transport them to the interior of Soviet Union. As a student,
ad a temporary pass called G-usiewka named after major Gusiew the
D[KGB] boss in Lwow. Early in the morning 'I received a call from
e people in Tarnop-ot -with whom my parents were staying, that my
a ents also were taJ(~n and loa-ded on to the train, awaiting
e ortatio-n. 1-was desperate. I w-anted to join them, but it was
rmDossib~e to-leavei::w-ow witho-ut a special document.
I knew somebotly--who knew some-body who knew some high
a ing officer in N:KV-o who was a Jew. ~ got to him and he advised me
t if I lea-ve Lwo-w -w--ithout any papers the NKVD will grab me
s e here and al1 -my -plea~ng to be together with my parents would
"g-nored. 'Moskva -ro-zbierjot', "M-o'scow will decide was the standard
a er. It w:ouid be- better for me to stay in Lwow and wait till they
eached the~r destinat+on and II woul-d- be able to send them food
a cels and maybe even later join them. litHe did we know that this
eportati-on would serve thejr liv-es. My friend- Lolek was not so
kyo A day aft.:er my parents -deportation his elder brother Wolf, who
.as a doctor and was then draf-ted to the army, told me that all his
family, i-ncluding L-o~ek; wa-s taken and were o-n the train awaiting
ep-ortaUon. We ran to the d-ean of the university who was a Russialn
a fhrough him we got Lolek released. I'n consequence he was the only
one of h-rs family who later peri-stH~-"d.
Nole-k and his fa-mjly w-ere (f-o--d-ging the NKVD till things quietened
clown- and eventually everybody got a passport. tn due course my
.parents wrote to me. They we-rc-e in a camp near a town named Tawda.
It was the end station of the ~r-ailway in the South Ural mountains,
practically at the border of Eurcopean Russia. fhe conditions were
pr1mitive, -but at least nobody:threatened them. T-tlan I was able to
s-end them some food parcels and other things which they required. My
father died there in 1942 of a stroke and my mother returned to

5
 a aft-er the war. Later she joined me in Australia and lived long
enough to see my chH~ren, that -is you.
June 1940 theun~versity hoHdays started and to earn some
ey I applled to the -state railways for a job. I was accepted and
as old to presentmys-eif at 7. 3D at certain address. When I got
e e ther-e was a tru:ck waiting, loaded with picks and shovels. I,
as given a small sket-eh of the project and or-dered to go to one small
. ay station betwe-en Lwow and Przemysl which was the border
between the USSR and Germany. The Soviet railway tracks are of
,. erent gauge to the European so the Polish tracks had to be
a . sted ..There was a very heavy traffic on this line since the
ssians exchanged lot of goods with Germany. Day and night trains
ed in both dir-ections, the Russian loaded with oil, grain and
. era Is, the German ones wit-h all kin-ds of machinery and
.....,Hllfactured
­ products. As you know this was part of the German
sian infamous deal which actuatly started this war. As this was
a single track line- to increase the traffi-c capacity, they decided
enlarge the intermediate s-tations to facilitate the interchange of
e trains. I was put in charge- of this work a1: one of these stations. I
't have any idea hl)w to 9'0 about it as I had completed onl,y two

ars universl1ty and had no practical exper.ence whatsoever. I hoped

at somebody would be there but when we arrived the driver dropped

there with my plcks and sh'ovels and left me at the mercy of the
cal station-master who knew nothing as to my arrival. That's how I
s arted to learn how things are done in the Soviet Union.
I spent the first n-ight ste:eping on the desk in the
s tionmaster's office, think-ing most of the night what am I doing
e. In the morning somebodyfinal'ly showed up and helped me to
ganise a few local peasants to dig and cart the fill to the job for
.5 ruble-s per cubic meter.ft was a very slow progress and in the
eantime I watched the big oil tankers rolling to the west to fuel the
erman war machine. Eventually two tractors appeared, quite small by
ay standards but to me t-hey I'ooked enormous. They were the first
actors I saw in my life. The drivers didn't waste much time to
orm me that they were paid according to production and that I
etter sign the figures they submltted or else. And who was I to keep
e Soviet Union honest. Everytrody was ripping the system off,
enever and wherever they could. I was learning fast.
On top of thi,s the chief engineer of the Hne was travelling in his
ail car up and down the line and each time he stopped at my job, he

6
 ragged me into the station buffet where the only things available
ere vodka and some dry smoked fish. As we were getti'ng slowly
nk he kept repeating always the same refrain 'Its a I the same, we
anyhow finish in Siberja, you and me and everybody else'. I think
as right because the amount of fil'l was supposed to be 50, 000
·c meters but I am sure the accounts at the end showed at least
000 m. fortunately I was not there to see the end because after
month I had to go back to the university.
Still the extra money allowed me to send more parcels to my
e ts and buy myself, on the blackmarket a few items of clothing
I was lacking badly. The winter of 1 940 brought us the Finnish
. n the university we weTe subject to a barrage of propaganda by
olitruks try"ng to justify the attack on such a small country and
trying to explain the inability to overcome such a minute
OD,Do:nent. Being new to the Soviet Union we were not yet as
COIM1J-ltioned to this kind of propaganda as the natives and to us all
ad the opposite effect.
the west the situation was also grim. The Germans overrun
all of Europe and our hopes were fading very quickly. In the
~"",... ii·~g of 1 941 the Russians occupied a part of Romania and relations
Germany started to deteriorate rapidly. The Russians brought to
<_I~" anti-aircraft artillery and planes were f<lying over all the time.
<
............ ght that maybe this time the Germans will meet their match.

7
 The Germans arrive.

For the second time, one ear y Sunday morning, and beautiful
ay it was, the German bombers struck. The radio played the
ernationale' and Molotov, who was then the foreign minister, his
. e breaking with emotion announced that Germany had
acherously attacked th-e Soviet Union thus breaking the pact of non
ession. Suddenly, the old propaganda against fascism which had
':u~."" .. conveniently put aside, revived again. For all the show of
o ary might, the Russians, at the beginning of this war didn't fare
better than di-d the Poles. They started to retreat i.mmediate1ly
e midst of incredible chaos and panic. Lolek and I presented
selves to the military district to join up but in a few hours alII the
cOals ran away and there was nothing else to do but go back home.
trains were b-ombed, the Ukrainians were shooting from the roofs
e retreating Russians, there was no where for us to run. We spent
ight in the cellar with other people from the block of flats,
ing to all the rattle of -machine guns and the noise of the
. es and the distant cannon rumble. In the morning everything was
The bombing and shooting, had stopped, the streets were empty.
e the first German troops appeared, marching in singing, looking
sh as if they wouldn't have been in a battle.
At first we were afraid t-o go out, but eventually we had to go to
some food. Soon the civiHan authority arrived and the terror
arted with the enthusiastic h-elp of the Ukrainian police. Every day
regulations regarding the Jews appeared plastered on the walls.
ere getting an accelerat-ed course to catch up with western
a d. Nol-ek's father had a cart drawn by two horses and was
racting for the removal of garbage from the blocks of flats
nd certain districts. To help us earn some money, he hired me and
e as garbos. The rubbish bin were made of heavy steel and were
e flowing with rotten rubbish since they were not emptied for at
t two weeks. To make matters worse, some of the backyards were
ated one or two floors below the street level. We must have looked
funny Lolek over 1.80m. and me onl,y 1.66m tall, dragging the
"_~vy bins and because of -his height most of the load shifted on to
But the real fun was to lift them over the boards of the cart.

8
 LuckHy thed-ri-ver,Joseph, -wh-:o wets- a- p.rofessionall used to help us in
. l'redi:c-ament.-A:t:reast sittingm- ttre-cart hEll of rubbish we
acwe1Jed acFO:SS Lwew--unnroJes:t-ed ..c"My apf}ettrane:e was fitting to the
job. J-- wOre aflannet-shirt -torn-m -se-verat::ptaces" my pants hanging on
uneVEffi, b:Ut my--shoes'·.weretife~~f:ealrnast~rpielce. To fix the soles I
d cut -pieces of discarded ·tyres-.and naHett-thel1l to the shoes. As
e tr~ed=to"returrt:-to--tttetr natu~al-shapel-my walk become a kind of
Ii"g -m-ove-rrre n t:- t-~ crl-so -had the- tffi'-e. Nate k 's- m 0 t:ge r 9 avern e ash i r t
desp-it-e- --atl- th e-~a:sh m-g- th e--4iae=;-rem-ai netf.Wh i Ie working as 9 arbo
--e'}l:-eerien-ce-d:a gr-e--a-t=-k:indn:ess ·fronr---sf-mille pe:6'JJlle., For example, a
Metsker-of one of rhee block of flats:where we-w~rked used to feed
eeteh t+me -we worked there.:Anot:ne-r:one w.ft:owas dealing in various
dtJce 9~-ve--me a rucksack furl of a:pp:~es to s-etr-cand earn some extra
rrey. Unfortum:rtely-thisv--enture was not s·U:l&cessful. While I walked
-.Tt-h--+his nrc..ksack--a n SS man g:rabbecdm-e and-tafter finding out the
,.--nr'Te:nT,-t -h-aU to go wFth h"i'm:and carr.ythe apples to his home for
'ch I was rewarded with a kick in the behind. So much for my
s i rt:eSS'Veft"tu r e.
For r-easons I'-e-an'tnow re-c-att·ttri-s -job ftn~ished and we had to
or something:--et;sewhe-n help came from unexpected quarters.
's fatolierwas pa wrne merch·ant-:trefore tt:l-e war and had
.....-nDctions with agre-at U:kraifTfalF..~coo:perative s;wstem which existed
,1r .....

e-asternP'oland.--Oneof the managers-was his ffjiend and when, under

e Germans t-hey -to-o-k -over the--dtstr1btttion ~()f food to the population
.gave l:.6:te-kone·O'f thes-e shops tc:-=ma-n-age.-~utthis business didn't
st l-onq.--Life forus-wa-s -getting h-3r-der·:andha:r~r. There was yet no
etto- but-the SS ~Foulrded up Jews atralldom. QIle day I was caught by
e 55 in the- street and loaded ·on to a truck~ At .a,n intersection the
ck- slow:ed-down- amt- I ju-mped off..I-a-osing o-ne-$ my tyre-soled
oes. Ir happened- -in- the middle of the tbwn bttt:--siomehow nobody took
-n-oti--ce. I was caught on-ce more'-a:n-d-marcheQ down the street with

o:tl~ capetives surrounded -by SS and-the: Jewish! police to a big

'h:ttrt-nin g. --At the -gat'e -I'j ust--side:stepped and si m ply walked away. It

all sp+it s.e£ond decisi o-n-5-- wh i ch-co:uld mak-~h th e difference

e ween Hf"eanddeattL
tt- was November or D-ecemb-erl 941-am1~ it was getting very cold.
ad- nowhere-to sleepc.and-I justd-():n't ~member how I survived.
~N1M-f!l.-i('S fatner dre-d at -this-time, and we-went -to his funeral. It was a
mome-lJt-,-daT-k~winter sk~, fr-eezi-ng cold a-mlsrow. What can you
say in such circumstances. I am a very optimisfic person and always
I

9
believed, -even in the most desperate moments, that someth"ng w'll
happen to change the situation.
And it happened again. I received a big package from my uncle
from Wie.liczka containing some food and clothing. It contained
between other things a loaf of bread which I devoured on the spot.
Attached was a letter telling me that everything there was all right
and that I should try to get there. But how can a Jew travel so far
when we couldn't move from one street to the other. One day I met in
the st reet a Pol ish colleague of mine from the un ive rsity, a certa in
, arian Czastkiew,icz who was working for the railways. I told him my
story and he offered to help me. He obtained for me some papers as a
Polish railway worker being transferred to the railway depot in
rakow. I spent my last couple of days in Lwow in his fIIat and when
e finally departed I was very tense because all the stations were
control ed by the police and S5 looking ior escaping Jews. It was
anuary 1942. The train trip which normally took about 6 hrs. lasted
or two days. We got off at Krakow- Plaszow, a stop before Krakow
central station which we wanted to avoid. From there we walked in
eavy snow approx. 1 2 km. to Wieliczka. We arrived late in the
a ernoon and it was already dark. My sudd~n app:earance caused great
citement in my fami y. Before I had a chance to tell my story I had
strip and all my clothes were thrown out. Than I enjoyed the luxury
a hot bath, the first for at least three month. FinaUy after dinner
ey gave me a chan,ce to tell my story. As long as I will l'ive I shall
e ember these moments of happiness finding myself there in the lap
luxury after my miserab1e existence in Lwow. We talked and talked
a e into night and we aU agree-d that at least my parents were
asonable safe in the depth of the Soviet Union. Marian spent the
t with us and we parted never to meet again. He told me once that
e ad a brot-her who was an officer in the Polish army and went with
em to Romania. Later when, I was with the Polish army in Italy, I
a-rd that there was a lieutenant Czastkiewicz but I never had a
ance to meet him to tell him about Marian and what he did for me.
Anyhow to my surprise the life in Wieliczka went on relatively
"sturbed. I was told that when the Germans came in 1939 the SS
a rounded some 30 Jews and shot them. Later things settled down

W'ieliczka became sort of open ghetto not that the Jews were

arated from the Poles but because they couldn't ~eave the town

out a special permit. Th-er-e was a Jewish cooncil and Jewish

'ce whose duty was simp y to convey and execute German's orders.

10
Everybody had to wear a band with the star of David and being caught
without it could even cost one's life. For most of the offences the
Germans had only one .penalty, death.
There was a great d'ivision in the economic situation amongst the
Jews fn Wieliczka. Th-e -local Jews, even the poorest, had houses or
avels and some means -of support. But there were a few thousand
efugees who had to -be accommodat-ed- and fed. Yet somehow as far as
now, at thi's stage nobody was starving. My uncte run my
andfatl1e-r's shops and the peasants e~changed goods for produce. The
arge ga-rdell behind the house provid-ed vegetables and fruit, so for
e time being we were surviving quite we"'. I got a job with a
nstruction company in Krakow which was doing work for the army
d I received a pass which allowed me to travel to Krakow. The house
as 'large but apart from my unc-Ie, my aunt and my cousin Cesia, it

ommodat-ed als-o- my uncle's two sisters, ea{;h with a son, two

erly lad1es, refugees from Krakow and, most important, my aunt

uncle's -maid Marysia who had been with them so long that she was
si<Je-red a m:e-mner o-f the family.
And indeed sile was more than that, because later she saved their
s. Apart from Krakow, we had ~ittle contact with the other
'nrlnmunities and we had no idea of what was going on in the biggest

rsh ghetto in Warsaw. In the-evenings the men gathered in our

s.e to play cards and talk p:oiitics. Being young and stupid I soon
tuun"d myself anot-her occupation. Next door to us lived a young
v·'.......sdeutsche [German natives in Poland]couple. The man was a doctor
an alcoholic. The woman-'s father managed the local liquor factory
e doctor and his father in raw spend most of their time trying
actory products. The y-oung wife professed to be my aunt's friend
spend a lot of tilme in oUf.:place. One thing led to another and with
oung and the temptation weat, I soon found a way to relieve her
.hIl~-rtom... A fringe benefit of""tnis was a possibility to listen to the
',r~~Mn and as the Jews were for.hidden to have one, I became a news
·butor. Unfortunately the news was not good. The Germans
e- deep in Russia, the U boat-s were sinking big tonnage and it
ed as if the war was 901-o9 -to last still for a long time. Before the
y father had been and agent fOT a factory producing hardware

""'~rllI'cts in Bielsko[Silesia] owned by a German who was his good

.fortc-nd. I wrote to- him and within a few days I re-ceived a letter

aining several hundred marks wrapped in a sheet of paper with his

. ials on ilt. Of course, he was afraid to write.

11
 The 1942 spring came and we work-ed hard in the garden carrying
manure, p-Ianting vegetab-l-es bu-t I had I~ttle hope that we would last
ong enough to collect the fruit of our labour. The summer started and
ith it came terrifying rumours of the total liquidations of small
ewish communities,part-ly by them being shifted to Krakow ghetto,
artly to a big camp in 'Plaszowne-ar Krakow and some, as ourselves
e-r--e t01ld we would be -resettled s9'm-ewhere in the east. Little was
own at this stage what this 'resettlement' meant. There were long
·scussions around the table, statements were made like 'they can't
us all', rumours of the al1i-ed landings, Russian victories and
empts on Hider's Ufe. Tile -eapa'city for self-delusi'on of people in
-~U,,"II circumstances is unlimited. Bu-t -what else could have been done.
re was a general feeling ofhe,lplessn-ess. W-e were compretely
a doned by the world. Personally, I didn't harbour any illusions as
he fut-ure.
Even -not -k-nowtng -of the gas chambers I was not prepared to rot
ly in concentratio:n camps, -Iwc()uld rather die. Of course the
' C . r t __

Deonle here, b-ecause of two ye-ars conditioning accepted this

ation more easily and most of the people helieved that somehow
would survive. In August 1942 our turn came. The i,nfamous 55
erheHs Dienst from Krakow under the command of 55 officers
e and -Heinrich arr-ived jon Wieliczka to liquidate our communlity.
avellin-g -passe-s were su-sp-ended and nobody, under any
mstances, was allowed 'to leave town under threat of death
I"Y...'"... . .

oerta1ty. When I thin-k of it now I have to laugh. What death penalty, we

e already dead but we d,idn't know it. Lithuanians and Ukrainians in
Df':fCK uniformspa-trolled the -s--t-reets :pushing people around. Orders
e issued for the Jewish --pO;ptJlation to present themselves at the
ay siding with th-eir po-rtable belongings on the 27th August. The
exem-pted were th-e Jewish :poli-cee who had to help round up the
lDe'ODIe and were lat-er 'transported to various labour camps. People
Wil n6ered around aim1-ess Iy, tne doors w-ere left wide open and
1 1

cases and bundfe-s were laying everywhere. Finally harsh reality

ed on .:peop-Ie---tha-t this was the end, but still' not knowing that for
!ID()'St of them it was t-o be the real end.

Then and there I ma-de -my decision, I would go, my staying here
_",,,-uld not help my relatives anyhow. I dressed in my best su.it, pulled
my Jewistl armband and with a' file und-er my arm, which I took
-e iously from the office, l-m-arched trough town to the market
e. The German bus taking employees of the saltmines and other

12
Germans made a stop th-er-e to take them t<> Krakow. I boarded the bus
hich was alrea,dy fu11 and the -Germ·an driver gave me a cushion to sit
in the passage at the front {)f the bus. I -paid my fare and the bus
moved on. Police and the 55 were everywhere but they didn't bother to
check a German bus and within haif an hour I found myself in front of
the central railway stati:on in KraKow where the bus had its terminal'.
I got off and started to walk,wher-e I didn't know. I had no
papers and very Ii,ttle money. In a t-own where I was born and had lived
18 years, there was nobody to-whom I could turn for help, I was on my
n. Peopf,e around me in th·e-i'r summer clothing were enjoying the
shine and here I was a deserter from the dead. Nobody took much
tice of me although 1 don't lo'ok ve'ry Polish, quite the opposite.
ile I was walkingd-eep in thought som-ebody called me and I saw
o girls from my -t>ld highschool. What a surprise' I told them my
5 ory and t-hey took me to an electri-c goods store where another
assmate of mine, Arthur Rab1"ler was employed as an electrician. He
rviv'ed and lives now in Brazil. The two girls also survived and I had
appy reunion w-it'h tnem i'n'P.irael ill r968.
But back to my story. T-he'y arranged for me to spend a night in
e ster-e. Next day I went to my office to work as if noth1ing had
awened. My German boss and the others didn't know what had
appened inWieliczka so at least I had somewhere to be during
ridng hours. The night was anothe-r problem. My boss had a young
ish maid working fOT his family whom I befriended. With her help
ent f.ew nights in the cellars of this building, sleeping on bundles
rawings an-d having the c'Ompany of mice. Later I found
commodation with a 'wom-a-n ~who rented rooms for single nights.
As r walked in there, sitting at the table was a known Jewish
- inal, stripped to the waist, a large gold cross hanging around his
ck, I knew him from my infrequent visits to our synagogue of which
as also a member. We looked at each other without saying a word.
Iy aft-er our landiady left wee start---ed to talk. He said that this place
as unsafe because the police ca-rrre to check it. I told him my story
d -he said that with some Polisn frien-ds he is involved in procuring
-m 0 n ey fa s e i dent i ft cat ion pap e rs soc aII ed Ken nk art e. Its eerne d
at in his circles there was no racial discrimination and there was a
aln solidarity in the profession He off-ered to provide me with the
nkarte f<>r 3 00-0 Zloty, the offer I had to refuse because I didn't
e anywhere near this kind of money.

13
 The foHowingmorning ~ went to my office and there, waiting for
me was Marysia, our maid from Wieticzka. She to~d me the shocking
news, how everybody was taken away and those who tried to hide and
some old people were shot on the spot In anticipation of this, my
uncle prepared a hidden room under the roof and there were hiding my
uncle, my aunt my c-()~us~n Cesia and the tWO elderly ladies who were
staying with them. My "uncle's sisters with their sons left before for
rakow and saved them'selves. My und'e Olek, .and son Romek were by
ow in the Pbrszow c·amp and only R&me-k survived. My aunt Dziunia
as taken to.gethe-r w1th the other Jews of Wi-eliczka to the
e teTminati-ofl camp in Belzec. My other uncle Oscar with his wife and
son Richard were in Krakow Ghetto and later 1n the camp in Plaszow
ere Oscar was killed but the aunt and Richard survived. The family
my mother's side who were in the gtTetto in Krakow all perished.
The weather was very warm and for the people hiding under the
f in it Wieliczka was a great ordeal. Marysia was at great risk to
self bringing them water and some food. Next step was to provide
m with false documents so that they cou,ld get out from their
. ing and f1nd somewhere to live. I told her about my acquaintance
she said ttlat money can be found. I got in touch with my
~ ....nl1aintance and in two days the papers were ready. They got out of
. hiding and the next time I saw them was in February, 1944. In
e mea,ntime I read a kind of Gipsy existence sleeping every night in
erent p~aces anlJ coming to work in the morning as usual. It is
d to believe that people knew so little or nothing of what was
- 9 on or maybe they pretended. After work I spent lot of time in
e as. Sitting in darkness gave me some sense of security. My main
was that I di-dn't have any papers. But one day I received
pect-ed heip. A Polish draughtsman who worked with me offered
a 'Kennkarte of somebody of simi~ar agce. We changed the
'OI'ltenograph, adjusted the stamp and so I be-c--:ame Adam Oko. It gave me
. of confidence but it wouldn't have been much good if I was
gllt.
One day a women came to-my office and whispered that a
friend of mine from WieHczka survived and is hiding with her A
eting was arranged for ttre-followin9 day on a bridge over the river
- 1a in fuH daylight with people walking around us. She told me that
er family was taken but she managed to escape and Polish friends
the family took -her in .. It was too risky for her and for her friends
be there and she had friends in Lwow who may be wming' to help.

14
 is se-emed to me a good idea as I had no one in Krakow and hoped
at some people f.rom' the lwow university may be willing to help.
yhow, what I had to loose? I couldn't stay much longer in Krakow
i out money, place to live and with a document of dubious value. So
s back to Lwow.
This was a very ris-1<oy business. The police and 55 were

erywhere on the :Io-ok-,o'ut for the -escaping Jews. The girl was very

ad looking in a Po ish way but a-s I said before it was not the case

me. Luck was with us and we arrived in Lwow undisturbed just

or-e curfew. We -got a room n'ear the station from a railway man who
renting accommo-dation to travell-ers and didn't ask any questions.
morning we went to the girl's friends who lived in the centre of
town. They greeted us in a friend1ymanner, but it was obvious
they cou1dn't keep both of us so I left t-O see one of my university
'e ds. I didn't get very far. A Ukrainian pol'icemen accosted me
anding -papers. " have shown him my document but this didn't
·sfy him: he was to experienced in catching Jews. What is the
est method to prove tha,t somebody is a Jew? He pushed me to
earest entranc-e to some flats a,nd demanded to show him my
·s. You have to know that unHke in Austra1ia, in Poland only Jews
e circum-c1sed. The game was up, it was useless to deny. I don't
where I got the strength of p-ersuasion Probab,ly in moments like
·5 one is able to achieve the im-possibi,e. After two hours of arguing
giving -him my last few hundre-d l1o-tys, he let me go. I must be
eful to him because he could have still taken the money and taken
n.
I kept going to these fr1-ends of mine, wandering what kind of
eption I will get. They didn't disappoint me. We sat tiU late at
,~.nl~t drinking vodka till we collapsed. In the-morning we had a long
ossian what wHI be the best thtng for me to do. When I got in
ch with my girlfriend she tol-d me that she can-not stay with the
pte she was with. A re1ative of my friends was a janitor in a large
c of flats and he let us stay ina small f1at below the street
el. After short time the relationship between-my girlfriend and
self soured, she got herself a job and we parted company. After the
I heard that she aiso s\Jrvlived.
On,e night I went to a sma" restaurant for dinner. The place was
dark and there was only one person there, an officer of the
ganisation Todt; a semi military unit engaged in various
struction activities for the army like building roads, bridges,

15
bunkers etc. They wore brown uniforms and red armband with the Nazi
swastika. I sat in the far corner trying not to a.ttract a"ny attention
and ordered a meal. After a few mi'nutes the German called me and
invited me to sit with him at his table. He said he doesn't like to eat
alone. A bottle of indispensable vo-dka was on the ta,ble and it looked
like he needed somebody to help him to empty it. After a few drinks
he became talkative and asked me what was my trade. I said I am a
bUilding technician. Ah, he sa,id, we need people like this and he
proceeded to tell me that he is in charge of recruiting peoplle to go to
the newly occupied territories of the Ukraine to work on the
econstruction projects of the war damaged builldings. At this time
t e Germans were planning to settle there for good. He gave me his
usiness card and asked me to visit him as soon as possible.
Than a most important thing happened. I found my friend Nolek,
on't remember how, it must have been by some coincidence but the
. portant thing was, that I was no longer alone. He worked as
echanic in a workshop for the repair of military vehicles. I arrived
. st in time for lunch [good timing] and after enthusiastic greeting,
c eaned up all his dinner without leaving him a crumb. It was very
se fish of me but probably I haven't eaten for couple of days. He told
e, amongst other things, that our dear friend Lolek was killed by the
ermans. And to think that we saved him from the transport to Siberia
die miserably in Lwow!
At the same time I met another person from Krakow a certain
tterer. This Hutter-er was older than me and he had a university
egree from the technical univers"ty of BerBn Charlottenburg. He
established a small laboratory which was producing surgical thread
d because of this he was allowed to live outside the Ghetto i,n a
tie flat on top of his laboratory. He aU owed me to stay with him
th-e time being.
At this time t had no idea what to do. I just lived from day to day
scrounging a meal here and there, li-miting my walking around to the
ecessary minimum. It was September, 1942 and I realised that there
5 0 chance of surviva,1 hanging around Lwow. A desperate i'dea
ccurred to me that "f I could get into some German uniform all the
3-e k m ai Ii n g Poles a ndU k r ai n ian s w 0 u ~I d n't dar e to both er me. So I
eC'ded to visit my acquaintance from the restaurant, the O.T. officer
is headquarters.
Wandering around Lwow was very dangerous, but' had to take a
ance. He remembered me and I told him that I want to volunteer to

16
go to work for the O.T. in the east. t hoped that they will take me
right away and issuem-e with the O.T. uniform, but it was not to be so.
AlI they gave me for time being was a document with my
photograph stating that I am a member of the O.T. I had to wait for
s fficient number of w-orkers to organis-e a transport to the east.
Still, this document saved me twice from being caught. Once I was
stopped by a German poHcemen in company of a Ukrainian and of all
. e bad luck the Ukrainian was the same one who caught me on my
rst day in Lwow! I gave my document to the German and while he was
eading it the Ukrainian whispered in Polish' you better leave Lwow it
's not heafthy for you to be here' and they let me go. The second time
as in a tram and suddenly the 55 blocked aU the streets around. We
ere forced to get off the tram with kicks and bllows and were herded
o nearby standing' trucks. They were rounding peop~e to go to work in
ermany. Here again my O.T. document saved me; they let me go again.
I went to Nolek, told him of my scheme and asked him to joint
e. He agreed that my scheme got some chance. Unfortunately for him
i was not so simp-Ie. To join the O.T. one needed referral form the
e ployment office which was run by the Ukrainians. By dealing
-rectly with this O.T. officer 1 avoided this requirement without
e en knowing that i,t eXisted. Nolek performed heroic deeds to get it,
t this is anoth-er story. In the last moment Hutterer decided to come
ith us because the Germans told him that they cannot shelter him
a y longer and he must join other Jews in the Ghetto.

17
 The Ukraine with the Germans.

Finally, the day of departure arrived. We met at the raHway

'on, 'Six of us going to work for the glory of the Reich in the east.
eader was a young O.T. officer and our destinat~on was
lI'I""A.,.,.ropetrovsk, a large town in the Ukraine. W-e sniffed each other
~u~uecting that there are more types like us. As it later transpired
the six the're was only one g,enuine Pole, the other five w'ith
papers. Apart of three of us there were two brothers from
Konrad and Mieczyslaw. But this came out onl,y much later.
The trip to Dnepropetrovsk was uneventful, but a shock expected
arrival. We were going to be attached to a group of polish
ers and a rumours had reach them, .1 don't know how, that some
s ere in the transport. The man in charg,e of our group there was
ech by the name of Biela. Here it happened one of the many
I""n'lnridences which salved our life. Nolek overheard Biela telling' the
9 officer who J:>rought us that there may be some Jews in his
sport. The officer than called Nolek who was hovering nearby and
ed him whether there are some Jews in the transport. Nolek, with
at presence of mind replied that it is not possible as all of us
e vetted by the emproyment office in Lwow. Than the officer added
ething which till today makes me wonder of the German logic. Of
rse he said and further the Jews are not al'lowed to be drivers as
is was the only thing we were not allowed to do, It was a very
ow escape. Nolek and the other two Konrad and Mieczyslaw were
igned as interpreters to N.S.K.K. [Nazi Transport Corps] .They had
ssian prisoners of war who volunteered to work for the Germans as
echanics in the workshops. They were called Hilfswillige or
nteers.
I was left with Hutterer to stay and work with the Poles. Luckily
us none of them cou'ld speak German with the exception of one who
as at the moment in hospitaL I was told by some of them, that there
as a group of three or four who were having discussions with this
ole at his hospita'i bed on how to deal with us. They hoped to fix us
as soon as he would come back.
One day our overseer Biela t-o<>k me with him to an address in
nepropetrovsk to search the place. It came out that this German

18
speaking Pole disappeared from the hospital and this was his fast
I nown address. But our troubles didn't finish with his disappearance.

he three Poles decided to make the b-est of the situation and started
to blackmail us, specially Hutterer who was known to come from a
ell to do family. I must say that apart these three, the other Poles
ehaved quite decently.
Stili, we lived very uneasily expecting something to happen
eery day. We worke-d very hard at various jobs as bricklayer's
abourers, blacksmith's helpers, plu-mber's labourers breaking the
zen content of the toilets which accumulated for months.
It was the end of November 1942, and since I was reasonably
ell fe d, so th e h ar d w 0 r k did n 't both er me u nd u ~ y. 1st i II had tim e to
eet some Russian girls, go to parties with Nolek and drink lot of
e made vodka. We were dressed in discarded German army uniforms
d had shoes with wooden so'les. The soles had a magic effect. I was
etting taller with every step. The snow stuck to the sole and every

e steps I had to ki-ck the snow off. One night I walked from some

arty, half drunk as usua,l, and bounced into somebody. I.apologised

d only as h-e swung back at me I' realised that this person was

anging from the tree just few centimetres above the ground. There

as a notice stuck to his chest that he was a partisan. The Germans

ng people and left them there for days for everybody to see.
Also, we used to go to the soldie-rs' club where one could get
some imitation cakes and watery beer. There I met some Italians who
ere -manning the communication centre of the Italian army in the
krafne. My Italian experience helped me and I could converse with
them freely. They were not a happy lot and had few unkind words to
say about II Duce.
It was getting very cold and the temperatures reached sometimes
-30 degrees C. The great river Dnepr was frozen and tanks and trucks
ere crossing it freely in all directions. We were lodged in a school,
about 20 of us in a large classroom. Opposite -our room there was
another room occupied by German army radio unit. Hutterer became
rie.ndly with them and used to p,lay cards with them [rummy] every
evening. He walked in their room and said in Jiddish 'machmo a
r.amino' [Lets p1ay rummy].They probably thought that this is a German
dialect. One day we were unloading goods for the army canteens. There
ere cigarettes, wine, chocolates, canned food and leather soles. I
pinched some leather soles too exchange my wooden one and on the way
home ,I left them with my Russian g,irlfriend. In the middle of the

19
night we were awakened by the yells and barks of the 55. Everybody
had to stay next to his bunk as they searched for stolen goods. Lots of
go~ds were found under the mattresses of our four biggest enemies
and they were dragged out to an unknown destination. It was a great
eHef for us but still was no reason for comp'lacency as we never
ew where the next threat will come from.
At the same time Nolek, Konrad and Mieczyslaw had some trouble
,ecause the Russians started to have suspicions as to their real
..entity. In the evenings we met in the soldiers dub to discuss, over
beer or two our next move. One of the ideas was to hide till the
ssians come, the other to contact the partisans and join them but
ne of this proved to be feasible. Mainly because the Russians
uldn't trust us and for a start would have shoved us in the camp
- h the Germans saying the usual: 'Moscow wHI deci'de'.
And so arrived the end of December 1942. Working with me was a
cal man Peter, a very friendly fellow and together with Nolek we
ere often guests at his home so it was decided to celebrate the New
ear in his home. The food was scarce so we had to look around to get
ething special in addition to our rations. In the compound where
e worked, there were some chickens kept for the officers' mess.
er had an admirah e aim and with a couple of stones, hit couple of
·ckens which with quick action we shoved under our coats and left
e compound before anybody noticed. The party lasted for 24 hrs. and
s ill have the memory of the terrible taste of the' samogon' [home

ade vodka] .The Russians contributed to the celebrations by their

anes illuminating the town with yellow flares foUowed by few

bs.

At this time the Russians mounted a big offensive in the

. ection of Dnepropetrovsk which finished with the disintegration of

e Italian and Romanian armies. The Russians got within 30kms. from
epropetrovsk before they were stopped by the German
. forcements. As this is not the war history only my private story I
telling this only because it provided an answer to our problem. The
erman retreat caused a great chaos. The town was full of the
e reating armies. ­ The poor Italians in their short coats, freezing in
temperatures, Romanians, Hungarians and all the riff raff from the
ccupied Europe who joined the Germans to enjoy the spoils of victory
ot their dues and naturally it wa,s a great j,oy for us to watch this
apoleonic retreat. Retreating wi,th the army were afso formations of
D.T. and a group of them was accommodated in our quarters. Their

20
 eader was an elderly offi-cer named Franz. He came from Alsatia
hich is a region often contested between France and Germany. The
oyalties of the populatte,n swings between one and the other, probably
epending~who ,is wmmng. They are cHso famous for good wines and
sausages. In any case this Franz was not at afl happy to leave his
ine and sausages to be send to the-Ukraine to build roads for the
erman army. As he was telling me aH this over a bott'le of vodka I
ided to confide in Franz, naturally not everything, just that we are
ish workers very badly treated and if he could include us in his
which was being send somewhere else, I didn't know where, just
get away from Dnepropetrovsk.
The Russians were pushed back, the front was reorganised and
z's unit was being prepared for the new task and to my great joy
greed- to take us with him. The si"tuation in the N.S.K.K. for Nolek
he ottTe-r two chaps who as it transpired were also Jews, became
gerous atl'6 they had to disappear .Ttley were hid,ing at a woman who
eing- increas,in-gJy un-happy about their presence. I brought them
'toOd and W-3S thei,r contact with the outside world so Franz's
acceptance- to take- us came just in time. The time was dragging,
Franr received the order to as-semble his troops for the
aetP-arture in certain building in the town. Nolek and the two other
s went to the assembly place a ni-g,ht before and I joined them
e last mO"fftent.
hat happened then couid provide a material for a good comedy,
ugh at the time there was nothing for us to laugh about. It was
morning, freezing and dark. We were assembled in the courtyard
s~ few hundred men altogether. Facing us was a group of O.T .
.,r-.... rers including our Franz with I'ist of names. They started to call
e names and everybody answered the call. Off course we were
called- because -we were not on any list. Franz was taking us
'IDeoally hoping tole'9alise our status later on. Than a count was
,~+-red Naturally there were four more than on the list. A recount
rdered two or three more times and they still didn't realise
w-rong. The time was pressing and after~certain amount of
amifl1J and barking of orders they gave up and we were loaded on
e trucks to be taken to the railway station. I got separated from
'ends and went with the first truck. The train to take us away
composed of one passenger ca-rriage for the officers and goods
'ages for the troops. The Iast carriage was for the train glua rd and
contained an unused postal' compartment fuU of lockers which

21
 provided cosy accommodation just for four people. I n the compartment
there also was a 'luxury item, a stove. Soon my frjends arrived, we lit
the fire a-nd settled feeling warm and cosy. Sudd-enly a shocking
stench filled our compartment. After detailed search we found in one
of the lo-ckers disinfectant powder wh1ch issued forth the stench. It
took quite a bit of cleaning till we got rid of it and sett'led aga'in/
happy to get away from Dne-p-ropetrovsk.
Franz managed to put us on $-ome list so we were able to receive
rations. Our destinat,ion was Kertch, a small port in the eastern
Crimea from there we were going to be shipped across to Kuban and
eventually to Caucasus. But it was not goilng to be that easy. After 2
ew days of travel across the southern Ukraine and Crimea, we
eached Kertch. On the arrival Franz told us that he can't take us with
im. I don't remember' how and why we were issued marching order for
r eeO. T .m e n to g 0 to a unit in Ya It a. 0 ur first s-t 0 p was in
imferopol the capital' of Crimea. We were accommodated i,n a transit
-amp to wait for the opportunity for a transport to Yalta. Simferopol
as a very pleasant town. The climate was Mediterranean and there
ere beautiful parks futl of flowers. In one of the parks we ran into
e German speakjng Pole and after a bit of hesitation he admitted
at he also was a Jew. This was a surprise, another one of ours and
was the one for whom the Poles in Dneprop-etrovsk were waiting to
us. Simferopol had also opera and ballet full of lovely girls and
e soon became gr-eat ballet lovers. The commandant of the transit
p was getting impatient with us and tried his best to send us to
a a. In the meantime he tried to get us to earn our keep and do some
k. One of this ventures fin1shed near'ly in a disaster. We were sent
a truck to a nearby sand quarry to get some sand. The sand was very
d pac-ked and formed a vertical wall of about ten or more meters.
e driver backed the truck to the wall and Nolek and I started to dig
hardly any result. Than somebody had a bright idea to dig couple
all holes in the sand wall, i-nsert hand grenades and explode
to shake the sand. The explosion didn't show any effect so we
back on the truck and with picks started to chip the sand. But the
,-·a;.nad-es did have effect because after couple of hits I saw the
'...··_ocT··cal sand wall coming on us. Luckily for us the driver didn't put
rake on and left the truck out of gear so the falling sand pushed
ruck away and we were 9n1y partially buried.

22
 The Tourists.

Whi1e hangingaro-und Simf-e-ro~p'ol we cl+scovered the magic of the

iece of paper ca liIedm-archjng orde-rf Marschbefe hi] .It was a document
entitling a person or .pers(}ns to travel from and to places named in
he document and receive rations at raHway stations or other special
-entres. It was a printed form with a stamp bea.ring the German eagle
a d fieldpost numbe'r of the unit issuing it. If we could get a hold of
some it would be ~ike-a-magic carpet, we could go anywhere we
·shed and we would- be provided with food and a-ccommodation.
mebody had an ide-a that maybee a typewritten note will do. We kept
cactJing the counter where the soldier were presenting their travel
apers and eventuaily we noticed one typewritten. So it was possible
- to execute the idea in deta~~, was a-nother story.
Everything was very difficult. First we had to Ilocate a
pewriter with Latin alpha-bet. The Russian letters are similar to
eek. Eventually we found one probably the onfy one in civilian hands
the whole of Simferopol. Than some suitable paper. There was a
rtage of everything, and most important: the stamp. One of the
others, K-onrad was a gifted artist and succeeded to sculpture an
gle +n a -piece of lead, the letters came from the local army
spa:p:er, the Crimean Zeitung- and all wa,s mounted in a piece of
pper pipe the exact size of the official stamp. We were ready now
ravel.
We filled up two marching orders, one for Nolek and for me and
e other one for the two brothers. We were not satisfied to provide
selves with the-minimum of SiJ-p,p-f-ies, we became greedy and
kless. The papers wel"e issued m-ttle name of Szumiak[Nolek's
adopted surname] tra-veUing with ten C.T. men to Krakow and the

and, similar one in the name of one of the brothers. The supplies

e issued for thr-ee days and we l-eft the supp~y office dragging

kets loaded w-tth loaves of -bread, ca-ns of butter, beef, marmalade

cigarettes. Suddenly we were rich. We had rations for three days
30- men!
We were not in hurry as we travelled slowly by trains, stopping
e and there- for a day or two -andcoll-ecting, more rations every
ee days. It was the beginning of spring and around Melitopol in the

23
1~1'I," • • hern Ukraine masses of che'rry trees were in blossom. I don't
~,p'mf~mber our feelings then, but one thing is sure we were not afraid
are, anyhow not for the time being. Eventually we arrived to
opo-1, a town in the eastern P'ofand where everybody had to have
"r:nL,"'--er and be disinfected to get rid of lice which were the natural
a rtants in this part of the world. Nolek decided that we need more
a t uniforms anct-accessori es and set out to Q.o something about
the station rrext to our tra-in dstood a trai-n with lightly wounded
;soloJ"ers fro-m the Russian front. Nolek bartered some of our supplies
aps, beHs etc. so we looked like proper German soldiers.
e t stop was Lwow. On the train we met some Polish women
ered us a place to stay overnight. At night Nolek overheard

iscussing what to do with us, as they recognised us as being

I_.ic~h. He woke us up we qu'ckly dressed, collected our belongings

ery, very silently disappeared into the night. This was our
wt!~JCI()mre back to Poland. After that we went each his own way, making
3rlranloement to meet for the return trip before we parted. Nolek went
ch for his relatives and I went to see my university friends
elped me on my first a-rrival to Lwow. Everybody was stunned
·t;iI!o.@fno me in the German uniform and my a-rrival was an excuse for a

e ebration. I tried to find out what is happening to our people but

an the deportations to the camps nobody knew a thing. Now
a the facts are known it seem incredible that everything could
een kept so secret. But that how it was then.
e-r few days I met Nolek and he toid me that he found some
re:la1t,"ves hiding in various p1aces. Than we went to Krakow which
X'C(l~r(Jing to our tra-ve1 document was our final destination. We
'S'tIODped in the travelling soldiers quarters in the centre of the town
o a well known nightclub Phoenix which was now for Germans
- ,......'. It was a strange fee'ling walking around the town I knew so well
although the buildings -were the same the people I knew, my
es and friends were gone and this made me feel as through I
_'V.,· ... been here before. N101ek has again shown initiative in advancing
pea-rance to look like the very real O.T.men. By a subterfuge he
DOfUQnt in one of the shQPs speciaJising in uniforms the red armbands
e Nazi swastika worn by the O.T. men.
o equipped, I started the search for my relatives who I hoped

_ e r a still around. Through some acquaintances II found out that my

Oscar, his wife and son Richard were in a camp near Krakow and
orking in an army motor repair workshop in Krakow. We had

24
 ith us some spare German uniforms just in case we could help
Somebody. I hoped that I can save at I'east Richard. I went to this
orkshop and told the guard on duty that the truck I had travelled in
roke down and was towe-d away to a workshop, but I didn't know
hil:h one and I was gotng from one to another looking for it. The
a-rd wouldn't let me go tn on my own and another soldier went in
ith me. As we wal'k-ed around I suddenly spotted Richard He's grown
si-nce ttTelast tim'e I have see-n h"tm, his face pare, looking very
·serable. I couldn't see uncle Oscar anywhere. The Jews working
nd us didn't even look at us. I said to th-e soldier I will ask this
if such and such truck was here for repair. I approached Richard
r asked him the question in German. He looked at me and
. . .A~~gnised me at once but he had a great presence of mind and didn't
e a sig'n of recognition. It was a tragic encounter as we couldn't
ange a word because of the sohwer by m¥ side. Only when I went
realised that this was a silly thing to do because he
,·~:"""t-nctively -could have reacted differently or some of the people
ing there could have recognised me. Next time I saw Richard was
949 in Paris. He and his mother were saved by Schindler, a German
saved hundreds of Jews by keeping them working in his factory.
As I mentioned before, uncle Oscar W3"S shot by the Germans in
szow. Here we were wa-~king 'freely in Krakow and there was
..."', ..... ing we could do to he-Ip our p:eople. Going somewhere with Nolek
n into a girl who was our classmate, in company with some
·s people. We passed each other without a sign of recognition but
·s got us very wOTri~-d because-at ..ttrts time the Gestapo used some
s to walk freely ab-'O-ut the town "to I:ook for other Jews in hiding.
There was no purpose for us to stay in Krakow any 'longer and we
back to Lwow. There Nolek found a cousin, Bunek hiding with
sOtrne Poles. Bunek had a degree in chemi'stry and was able to put
er chemicals to produce a proper German stamp on our travel

To make sume money we bought several kilograms of bicarbonate

a which because the lack of yeast was used in the Ukraine for
I 9 of bread. The profit in this business was supposed to be 500 %.
'Each of us carried 20 k-g. of soda. Bunek was dressed in German
.._ .....,.-m and was p-rovided wi-th the necessary travel documents and we
off back to Simferopot where we had some base. Poor Bunek,
e hiding I don't know for 'how lon'g, found himself on the Lwow
ay station in the German uniform in the middle of hundreds of

25
 ass-orte-d soJdiers, 55 man, O.T. men, pushing, yelling and barking
orders. Wee were used to it and behaved simUarly.
Now we were f1ve after meeting as agreed beforehand with the
brothers, Mieczyslaw and Konrad. Our first stop was Dneprostroy a
town on the river Onep-r famous for the largest dam in Europe wh'ich by
the way was build under American supervision in the 30' s. There we
sold our soda and spilt the-profits. There a'iso we parted company
with the two brothers and the th-ree of us proceeded to Simferopol.
On the arrival we still d,idn't intend to go to Yalta and to collect
rations we had to produce our well worn travel d'Ocument to the girl
at the station -office. She took the document and disappeared into the
. ner office. After a while an officer came out and ca,lIed one of us to
come in. We pushed in the blue- eyed Nolek who was the best in this
pe of confrontaticons and waited in suspense for what is going to
appen. After a few minutes No ek came out smH-i-ng, nothing has
a-ppened only the station commandant was enraged about the state of
r marching order and issued us a new one to Yalta.
Now we had to make so-me decisions. r didn't wanted to go to
ta and furthermore I didn't get along wi,th Bunek. I had a plan to go
Romanian- occupied Odessa-o'n the Black sea and from there to the
manian Black Sea port, Co-stanza and somehow to get out from there.
as all very vague as I didn't hav-e any detail information about the
aces I wanted togo to. We parted company and I was very sad to
ave Nollek after we have been t-hrough so much together. They gave
one blank marching order and we said goodbye. I thought then, that
rs the last time I will see No+ek.
They went to Yalta and I to the Romanian border. Unfortunately or
unate-Iy th-e fa-t-e decided t'he other way. To pass the border, the
Tching ord-er was insufficient. One also needed a special pass which
unable to procure. So back to Simferopol where for the time
. 9 I h~d a place to stay, but- 'I ha:-d no marching order blanks left and
olek and Bu-nek could -have supplied me wit-h some.
I had an id-ea where they were in Yalta so I decided to go there to
them a visit. Th-e only way to get there was to hitchhike. That's
sometimes small occurr-ences can change our Ilife. A bus full of
• . . K. men was on the road to Yalta getting ready for the departure.
s ed the sergeant in charge for the lift and he agreed to take me
them. It was spring an-d the weather was very pleasant. The road
''';-n-rl::a:rd throuyh vineyards and fru'it orchards which reminded me very
ch of Italy. Yalta was beautifurly located between the sea and

26
wooded mountains and had lovely promenade along the pebbled beach,
but I had neither time nor inclina-Han to admire the beauty of the
place.
I found Nolek and Bunek settied up in the hiJls, employed I think
in a timber yard. Bunek was not too happy to see me but they gave me
few bl'anks of the m-archi-ng orders aoo f, went :back to the road to
Simferopol to catch a lift. lit was a coincidence that the same bus
hich brought me here was standing ready for departure with the
same people. By than they knew me and I had not-rouble to get the lift
ack. On th·e way back the sergeant in charge told me that they have a
bile workshop which is attached to the Luftwaffe and they emplloy
out a hundred of Russian war prisoners who volunteered to work for
Germans. They badly needed an interpreter and since I was a
ole', I could speak a bit of Russian and of course I spoke German,
Id be help to them.
This offer couldn't have come at a better time. I was
's eartened by my failure to reach Odessa and tired to float around
knowing where to get my next meal and bed from. I accepted his
er but I had to pretend that I belong to an-ather unit and asked him
a letter so the proper transfer can be arranged and this may take
days. After a few days 1 presented myself to this N.S.K.K. unit
ending that I was released to join them. Nobody asked for any
ails,. who I was, where I came from and how it is possi'ble in the
Ie of the war to change a job from one unit to another as in the
. . ian life.
The workshop was in the centre of the town, a big yard full of
'I'rT·r-.,s and cars, a barrack for the Russians and separate quarters for
e Germans. I was issued new uniform, Luftwaffe - blue with N.S.K.K.
-gnia. My job was in the company office to ffll up the job cards for
rivers who came for repairs, to answer the field telephone and
a message boy for the commandant.
At the beginning I had trouhle ·with technical nomenclature for
arts but eventually I picked it up.. My social standing was a bit
ween: , was not a prisoner of war so they didn't put me with the
s'ans and although I shared the quarters with the Germans I was
a German. I had very little to do with the Russians as they knew
. job and didn't really need an interpreter. So I stuck to the
.,-rr·p'-'''e, as I said filling forms, taking around visiting big shots and
een other things Hlling up the ,arching orders, yes, the real

27
 marching orders. I had a treasure, a book of marching orders on my
desk and a real compcrny stamp.
A propos marching orders. In "S-imf-eropol the-r~ was one picture
theatre which was showing Germ-an f~lms for th-esoJdiers. There were
big queues t-o get in and the priOT'tty was for so-Idiers comin,g from or
going to the front. Of cours-ea-s a-'-pronf they h-ad to show the papers at
e entrance. Any time some'b-ody of our -peopt.e wanted to go to the
ictures I had to fill up a travel order showing that they had just
crrrived or were gorTrg -to the -front.
Our commandant was a man named Theo Zelle and when we

ecame gooo friends he tol,d me his story: At the age of 1 7 he

olunteered to the army during' the first world war. After that war,

e p treaty allowe-d Germany a1 00000- -mall army and he was

afred to it as a sergeant. This army 'became later the kernel of the
erman rearmament and these "men we Fe- very important Theo got fed
with the army and in 1921 Of so he deserted and went to South
ica where he made himself a successful career in bridge building
1938 he came to Germany to visa his family hoping that after all
se years his crime wHl be forgotten. But it was not the case. He
s seized and given alternatives to go to jajl o-r join again the army.
not very enthusiastically he joined and found himself in Russia in
arge of our unit.
Summer of 1943 was passing the Germans were still occupying
f European Russia and most of Europe andon~y- my strong belief of
eir final defeat kept me sane. Little I -had known what's going on in
!P-.obnd, nothing about Ghetto up-rising, not even about Stalingrad apart
some vague rumours. I kept busy all the time in order not to think
o much. Work and in the -evening out with girls, theatre and mainly
dka. I felt quite sa-fe, but always at th-eback of my mind was this
31' of the unexpected. There is .a Polisb proverb which translates 'on
e thief the cap --i-s burning' and my- cap -was always burning.
Tu give an 'eXample, one day ah.igh ranking SS officer came in to
e ·office asking for our commander. I said since he is not in, whether
help him. Looking at me--or through me w4th his policemen's
are he said that the matter is confi-dential. After he left r sat there
. agining th-e-worst.Next day during the conversation with the
mandant I mentioned innocently the visit. Oh that, he said, he was
. g to give us few kegs of beer from the local brewery in exchange
petrol.

28
 T ere were about 20 Germans in our unit all from Rheinland, the
nr~n.V1·.nce around th river Rhein with th exception of three who's
as Polish S1les1a. The Germa-ns spoke their dialect but with
",~&~~e Si~sia men som:ettm-es we sp-ok-e Pollish.
ame -October or November and:the Russians started to advance to
est. The orderscam:e to with-dr-a-w from-=Crimea. All the
ClIQfUl,l~lIent was 10adeUon to big trucks, the buses were adapted to
sI.~el:Ji·ing quarters, the Russians afsow~re Iload-ed on to the trucks and
- ed the exodus of the army n{;rollp-sudJ ' heading west toward
iNllk:Ollae . t considered to escape but as-l said before you couldn't
much with the Russians and 'the idea to finish in the prisoners
camp with t-he Germans didn't:quite appeal to me.
e peninsula of Cr~mea is connected to the mainlland by a narrow
land, wide enough to accommodate a rait track and a road. The
as packed wi-rtl-retreating troops, artiller.y, tanks, civilians
e e collaborating with the Germans and now were running away
e Russians. The Russians obviously didn't have much of air
'fQI"ce a the Hme because we were not attacked once. We drove all the
in the evening' we reached the river Bug. -IN'ikolaev wals on the
otI'ler s'dre of the river. The front-must have been no more than 30 km.
o the north parallel to thee fine of our retreat. One could hear
ble of theh-eavy artillery and th·e sk:y was alight with fires.
proaches to the river wer-e -sandy an-cl the sappers put steel
'acks for the vehicles to drive on .Who got off the track was
....~e aside and tile v-ehrcle left there. Thee river was at least a
&l~ometre wtde-here and to cross it we had to ge't over very shaky
''-''~'non b-rid-ge. The progress was very slow and with lot of swearing,
lDU~m'lng ba-rking of commands we fina~-Iyg-ot to the other side of the
rflll~r ea rly 1ft the morni n g.
E hau-ste-d I just fell to thegr'Ound a-nd promptly went to sleep
..Altt~~ a few hours which seemed"t'O -mea few minutes we were on our
a d ordcered to drive past Nicolaev to Odessa, the big port on the
~tck Sea. Over night our circus move-d at the side of the main road to
ganised andto sleep. At night-it rained heavily and the vehicles
the clay and couldn't -Ire moved. t·t·--k-ept raining for few days
gfound wa-s so waterlogged that onecoul:dn't even wa k. We
o put planks -between the vehicles to move from one place to the
. B-efore we l:eft Simferopolone truck was fully loaded with all
S ofdri-nks, champagne, cointreau, cognacs all brought from
ce and while sitting there bogged down with nothing to do we

29

-- - - - - -- - - -
 ere busy em-ptying the cases of various drinks till everybody was
ractical1y off his- feet. Finally it stopped raining and tractors puUed'
s on to -the rOead'.
On arrival in Odessa we occupied a half ruin-ed villa in the middle
a large park where the field worKshop was estabHshed. I lived in a
5 with the three poHsh speaki-ng -Germans from Silesia. Odessa at
e Ume was under the- Romanian occupation which was quite easy
"ng and many restaurants and bar-s -operated freely with plenty of
piles. The port was dead, no ships were coming or going. There was
rac-e from-:'{)dessa's once large Jewi-sh po.p-ulation and I didn't dare
ask a~th()ugh I had a good guess.
Becaus-e we spoke Polish which is similar to Ukrainian we easily
ierrdedthe loca1 girls. This made other Germans in our unit
us. The comm-am:tant c~Uedthe fOUT of us to the office and
ed to harangue us for spea4<ing Polish. You are Germans he
ed[he meant m'e to although offi,cially II was still a Po~e], we, he
merant the other Germans in the unitcol:J+d speak the 'ganovim'
age which apparendy was a kind of their dialect. What struck me
' he usedthe Jiddish word 'ganiv' which means a thief, a word
_r·n " somehow got into German. 'I was very sensitive to any allusion
e- ishn-ess andto'Ok a remark like this as veTy personal.
Once there was an air raid alarm and the anti-aircraft gun was
SUJek in the mud and everyone was pulling and pushing in different
~ ..·-,..tions, the officer in chargeyeUe-d 'ohne Judische hast' which in
an mea-ns without Jewish haste, the words I immediately took as
t-lrnn d ir e-cte--d to m-e.
Such was my state of mind, always, on alert. Otherwise 'I have
e heard anybody saying anything about the Jews in my presence or
is-e. I can't understand til'! today whether they really didn't
~_,""YiII what was going on or that there -was some gigantic conspiracy
si ence. It was January 1944 and wi,nter was in full swing. I
my office and sudd'enly looking throug-h the window I saw my
ate Nol-ek march,ing- into OUT compound. l-coElldn't beHeve my
Pll·~C;. Of all the th-ousands of people marching up and down the Ukraine
as able to find mein Odessa! -How its happened was, that one of
ucks bearing- N.S.K.K. insignias b-roke down in a village where
e was stationed with his troop. As he walked past the truck he
. ed -the markings and on an off- :chance asked the driver if he

kn,ew me. Naturally-ne did and told him where we were and so NOllek

. s O.T. man Szumirk came to visit me.

30
 Till today I have nev~·rstop.ped·wanderingab-out all these
coincidences. He told me about ttreiT adventures, bow they had trouble
on the arrival-in Yalta to .. explain1ny absenc-e and some narrow escapes
hife bein-g suspected for being Jews specially Bunek. Now they were
own to Crimea tO'build bunkers.
It was another one of those ~deas born in some mad military
. d's.
Crimea was cut of from th-e marniand and most of it was a1lready
errun by the Russians and th-ey are being sent 'toO Sevastopol whil'e
rest of the army was being ·evacuated! But who can fathom out the
. "tary mind. Again, we said'goodbye and this time for very long,
ec.ause next time, again through ashee-rcoillcidence we met in
stralia, in 1950. At this juncture in Odess-a my commandant decided
t I should -become a proper G,erman and-have my status legalised. I
5 issued a-marchmgord-er too-ur home base in Berlin to arrange
rything and also be to -property -indocted into N.S.K.K.-Luftwaffe.
OJ I gotten days ' leave-to spendwn-erever , wanted. As I had
ft,I"\'''here to go, one of the Germans fr-om Silesia who was going on
e at the same time, invited me tosp-end a week at his place which
s in a t-own called Ko-nigshutte 'orin Polish, Krolewska Huta which
. tile m-i'dcHe of 'tn-ecoall mining and steel making district of
- sia. I must havebee-o, at tha't time very adv-,enturous when I

epted this trip. What the heck, lets go and see Berlin, what had

oose?

31
 Adam Oko, the "German".

On the 1 4/2/44 I departed for Germany as they say to the lions'

den. Not only did I survive, but there was I, a free man, travelling all
over Europe with all the privileges of the Germans. Before I left, as a
precaution I, took with me a packet of blank marching orders all
properly stamped. Tenere were so many lying around in our office that
obody could have-notice any difference.
It was a long trip, this time enjoying the luxury of the passenger
carriage. I was clean, free from lice but the train was full of soldiers
going on leave straight from the front, dirty and full of lice. Pretty
soon everybody was scratching and the !fce took over in earnest. As an
entertainment, apart of cards, there were lice races and people put
ets on them.
In Tarnopol everybody had to get of and =have showers, and our
elongings were sprayed with disinfectants. I ma=Oe a habit under
shower to soap heavily my tower parts, but I dEm't think anybody took
any notice. After the clean-up,everybody was issued with so called
uhrers Packete. This a was 8 kg. packet c-o-ntaining various foodstuff,
so-af) and a hottle of champagne which was a gift from Adolf to his
faithful defenders of the fatherland.
Clean and refreshed f boarded the train which took me to
Krolewska Huta where I had to spend my leave. The man, I still
remember his rrame Heinrich Marcy, and his wife picked me from the
station and I spend few peaceful days in their place. At night one
could see the glow from the steelworks and I wandered why the place
as not bombed. The locals said that it was probably because there
ere French and English shareholder inter-esting the steelworks. I was
looking for some signs of Jewish population, but there was none. I
later found out the place was only about 30 km. away from the death
camp Auschwitz[Oswiecim].Of course at this time I didn't know of its
existence~
My leave completed, I continued to -Berlin where I arrived on the
25/2/43 and reported to the N.S.K.K. bas-e camp in Staaken a suburb of
S-erlin. For few days nothing happened. The authorities were busy with
new recruits and as I cam:e from the Russian front they left me in
peace. Every day I went to the city, which although it had been heavily

32
 b-on,bed -i:t-stfft -wa5·"lUlt«ioning. rtre~restaurants~ cafe- houses,
'theatr-es-·amt--C'i ne:ma s were-Tuft- -of-::p:en pre m atn I y' worn en, eIde r Iy men
and party~big=-shat:s~GrivingaHRffut-i-fl-ttleir Merce=deses. I recaU one
sp-eci-al-t:reeftfo:use- mmre-d 'Der S,tief--eF{The B(){)t]where beer was served
in th-egtass ion -'the-S!h~ape of"the:·ooot. The main f~ture of the place
weretcHH~s -witht:af:~'-n-ttmbers-on- t:h-e:m and stacks of airmail letters
on- e:ad1 tabf:e.-i-t-·was- s-imfrl;y a ptcl<--.-up:-p4aC€. The letters were used to
currespo:mt::w-fthottrer:::t:ab1:es arro-:w-ere c-a:r::ried by the waiters. The
ptac-e--wasftrtt--uf \Nunren of-allages-:a-nd-·shap.:es and as there was a
s-e a-reity- -of -yotffl g--ffl°efl-Q neror'm e d fr-te-mis hip sq ui c k Iy and all what
en--twith-- it.- ene-has to remember the mood of the time when
ever.-ybody-, in~tu-ding the Ger-m~ns, Iw-ed- for t-tlte day.
lexpf-ored-th--e:sl1rroumt-i--ngs of--lretHn, Wannsee with its lake,
ots---ctam -wttir-Fts "p~laGe ohkilrg -Fr-ederik the- Gre.at, the Berliner Zoo
erc. I '-eveTF w:ent to- t tre~t-f:re:a t r e-:wf:rere the rewa s --::B n 0 per et t a c a1'1 ed
Ber~Jin remains Bedin--' full- of Aos-tal.9ic songs from before the world
ar t.
Then-the- daycame,- and I was caHed to the Qffice, given some

papers -and ordered to.:go with two-recruits not yet in uniform, to the

ice--hea:tt-qllaTte-rs-in-Alexande,'Ptatz where we were to obtain the

German cit-Tzen5hfp7-My---two--::::companr,oTlsh:a~d--German
names but were
om=a pf-uviOCe iA-nOf'thern--P-eland and_couldn't speak German, so I
as. .sup--p-osed~t-(Fspe-a1< f Of :t"hem .
-:We were-driv-e'n to thisdT~adedc-plac:e whi-ch ,I had heard so much
of b:e-fore-the---war-.:fromthe-d-ewish refugees from Germany. The place
was-ful1-ofpoHcemen :and S'S;-tfrrs wa-s really THE lions' den. I had to
tifl -out smne-:.papers cm:d s ign:c~:~-a::t:e merrt ttt8t n.obody in my fa mi Iy,
bac--:k·"to 3cr-d ge-neraHon, was:~jewistJ>As-1 si: t4llis statement I
ClRI"kin'ts:t6fFttlink-i-ftg--of mY~-Jl&()f par-ents afld grandparents. 'Everybody
as t-r-ea-t:mg--mewl't'h respee 'here, dtJeto anybody coming from the
'Rbss+an -ff-ontand~ating ea:r:npaign--rfhb:ons which I awarded myself
-simpIJLimyrng-:the ri:bbons-irr-t·he-stlop. The f':)~lice serg'eant
CU#ectecrvur-furms-and we~s,at-:on-th:e b-ench-waiting. I thought that
may:tre I fHFs:tred -m;yluc.;k a bit·tEro-fa:r and al'I-s.a:rts of thoughts were
atmg--tM-Ougll--my-mifnl wh-e-n·dre-- s-er~.eant came back, made us rise
=and swear on allegiance to the Fuhrer and the to Deutsches
-RetCnfGe:r-man-sct=3'te:] .
"cFro'm-nowu-orr, Adam ako lJ-e-cam-e a fully fledged citizen of

~rmany- .Thi-s-:t:oUklesstime thaniater-to--trecome a citizen of

Australia! We were driven back to the camp and now came the second

33
 part -of -tlt~s episode- which"was 'mu:ch- more difficult for me to sneak

ltrrougil'~--rram-e1y I·tr-ad~to gC7~':t:trrougtFme:dlcal'--examinationand I didn't

-k-now:fmw··:t:(F-fJet outcc:of· this: one>lav-eided betnQ=Called for couple of

d.ays=:but;-ftrra:l)ly I jug~-had to·go'. I went, hop'ing my luck will held and

the +nere'dible·happ-ene-d. There--f :was,'starkers in .front of the military
commisstQn-,I-was--rn-easured, wetghe(l-" 3 youn:g doctor captain pressed
me~trere and the-re--orH:f:"de-clared-~me~K.V.whichare the initials of a
long-'G'erman wo:r-d'Kri~-gsverwemtungs:fahig'implying that I was O.K.
,as caunun fomter: -None--of,:these,mi'tiTar:y- doct-urs took any notice of my
~ttalcpaF-t~. 01wiou-s-ly they--were not as smart as the Ukrainian
p-ofiee-metl-ifl-l::wow"o:r . they:&ida-'t care.
-"Naturcd.l:yc, after'p-assing':th+s ob.stacl'e t started to believe that
-nothirtg'ever-:can'happen to·'-nte-; I was- gtve'nnew Luftwaffe blue
uniforms wittr:tfI~ :NLS~'K.K. -ola-ck and silver shout:der pads, belt with
"btf€:kf:e inscri1red·· u Goo: is with-us"" boots:a-Frd all the accessories and
1

nre-5"t'. im P-OTt:9'fft ot-aft~a p r.a.pers-o Idie r ' sp ay· b o~ k which confirmed

ey-o-n-d--any'd'Out>-tmy -flew id.centfty. Furth:ef,l-was gliven back pay for
e -sefvice"w+t'h the-unit s+ftce·:1 j oi-ned'+n.:si m feropol and to collect
_Oct ",y-=Ieav-e-was e'x-t·en'a-ed by:o-ne day as tn-e -paymaster's office was
sO'T1'tewnel"e-in tl-,e---i'russ'ian 'woOOs irr-:a ptace -called TangerhOtte. The
-cJa:t:e-=was'2I3~:l44'as snown-nR,tne trav After completion
the- fo'rffi.af.hties-I was giv-en march+.ng order _to go back to Odessa to
- rfte--:tt-n--tt :I:::c:ame f r &ffl'-.'
The .. tr~a=incdepar::t-i-ng eastfrom---th-eSi1esia st~tion was full of
s01d+e-rs'retuM1ing -from leave-b'ut I cH-:r1lb-ed on to-the luggage rack and
-pass-e-cl trre-n-j;g-ht slee-pi-ng. Tmr tra i n~st'Gpl>e<t::in ~Fa kow and so did I, as
f-wanted t'O K:rrow'wh'at:"'happen:e'd to-:m-y,::uncle,-Meilech, aunt Bertha and
my C'EHfsin Cest-a·of· whom I--ktrew· that-th saved-:::themselves. It was
",at: easy to find-"ttlem -and peopJe didn'ttrust-me seeing me in German
nirorm, but ever'fttJaHy I fotlud:-them. They livecfcf10t very far from
r4Kow central raifway-statoiofl in: a suburb named Lubicz. In order not
to---=-scare 'ttl-em, - my-';-ntermernari-es notified them and the peopre they
i'Vett=-wittrof"my CU1'1l-fn-g. TFre--ffat wlTer'e"they were living belonged to
~ wi-uowerrP'ofe wrtiryoung-da'-ughter. Th:ey paid h..im a lot of money but
consfderirrg ttre risk-o+ hidiffg J:ews he must have-b',een nevertheless
ery de-eent tn-dividua·l-to keep them and he nev.:.er bl'ackmaiJed them for
any additionalpaym:ents. H-e--~Iet' them stay tiU the liberation. In any
case I went th'ere-a.nd"there-they were, Meilech,Bertha, Cesia and the
tw~rotd I~s·s:ave'-·and san:e,; They couidn't believe their eyes seeing
me like this in the Luftwaffe un~form with all the paraphernafia that

34
 went w-i,thit. My j-oy was ullimaginahle, cat least SGme of my family
was safe. I teft with trremail my -ba=ckpay wnich they badly needed and
ha<tthe-sa:ttsfaction th'a:t~the Ge-r-mans c'Ontribut~ to their survivaL
T-hey ~told-~m-e- of a~1 th=etri-l)ulaUnfls, sitting uruJer the roof in hot July
w-hHe-th~police was-'se-afc:hing ~the-bu-i"la:jng with the help of my ex
girlfr-ien-d,f--rau D01>tOT, who hop:e-dt-o-mfin:d some buried treasure
b-elong-tng~-t:o:my famtly. A'1ld~ shewa-s ffte one claiming to be aunt
Bertha-'s-gemf friend! It was a wonderful day and it passed very
qu-Fe-k I-y, as Ih-ad t e;:clt-e-ep going -e-a:st.
B-efofErthe deJ}-aft-1:Jre ~-w-ent to a restaurant--ffequented only by
Ge-rmaflS. The-table--oext tomme was occupied by two German officers
and a young-Polish gi-rL A well~-dress-~ woma:n walked on to her,
sapped-her face and yellea-' come imme-diatety home, you German
fe' anddragge-d' her out. There was silence in the place and nobody
ve-d. This-was -a,;very courage-ous woman.
Nex·t- stop WCFS- again l-wQw. Th-ere I vi-sited -my Polish friends and
'th -ttfeir hetp I did a· very stupid thing-.which could have had a fatal
esuft. I-was p·lann-in-ga-nott'ter-e-scape to-Romaniaand in case of
success I :needed a-document t-o-estabhs-h my true identity. The Lwow
iVlrr-sitywas c1ose'd -but t~' secre-t-aria:t wa:s ora,en and through my
ish friend-s 1- got---out an Ij-d-entity rr-ocumen t-- wit=h photograph whi·ch
a-ted all my aata'-; I folded th-i:s .paper and kepti-t- hidden between my
ot-h-tfl-g .

i At -the raHwaya-rmy t>ffice I was told th-at t-o get to Odessa I had
go trough Romania as the direct ro-ut-e to the east was already cut
the Russians and such transport-was -ready to depart. I installed
ys:elf with -few attreTS ina·-ca:rriage 'with a -dies:el eng,ine driving a
e erator for theJ}'CJWe-r on the-train. Atthough it-was the beginning of
- ar-ch it was still ve·r-y cold---and heavy snow -kept falling but thanks to
dies'el tns+de the-train i-:t-was warm 3n-dcos-y.. I fel' asleep and
t I don't :knowc-h-():w~~ong':forfhansuddenly something woke me up
I re-a-Hsed~hat I can barely move. I dragged myself to the door and
nT:arrrag€u--somehowto -open i:t. The fresh air -helped me to regain
sciousrre-ss. The-others sTarted to m-eve and we alii got very sick.
e werepo'isoned-·by the dfes~1 :fumes. T-he nearest stop was
ohobyczwh-ere-we got of Land wer::e.:given some medication.
-T--he -wa+ting room was fLiH-of-sotcHers frQm various units
iting transport. Suddenly the"stat+on was surrounded by military
tee and it was announced that--:t:he Russians broke through nearby
a d everybody has to join to form a def~nce line as infantry,
i

35
 egardtess whether they were cooks, d-erks,-pHo-ts, officers etc. ,I
efriem:.re-d an-'-eld-erly s-o-tdi:er wt«rmust-have -be-e;n very experienced in
ese matters arrdhe lrec-koned~'me=·t:<J follow him' to the toilet where
e jumped through the-·windowand, disappeared into the snow storm.
e returned to th-e station the morning and everything seemed normal
ain. I didn't know whether this was a false alarm or the Russians
aily broke-through. In any cas·e I was- not there to be killed for the
,,,,,",""~" 0 f tne'GT eat &e'rm an Re ien.
Anot'he,r train was form-e-d-, ·this --tim·e composed from cattletrucks.
re was -st-raw spread on ttTe'floor and in t-he m,iddle stood an iron
e with ch·imney sticking through a hole cu:t in the wall of the
iage. We were about 20 men per carriagea,nd one could stretch
. e comfortably. I was exhausted aft'er two sfeepless nights and
like a lo-gl till next mo-rning. Wh:en I woke up we were already in
ania onttle southern side -of the K:arpathi-an mountain range arnd
climate changed-completely: It was spring. The doors were rolled
ODell and I sat there·,watchingthe passing Romanian countryside.
y we reached a town named GaJatz wher~ a reception committee
e form- o'fmiHtary:pollice awa,ited'·us. We w.ere marched to an
transit camp- where they sorted us out and we were given new
',_~r?""'"i n 9 -u.fue r s .
After ttral we' w·e·-reatlowed teo go to town. I went lin company of
atr-forcemenand for the first tim:e I saw Jews with their
hands walking freely in town; Jewish shops were open and
e yth+n-g was functioning normaHy. It ·was the =beginning of April
. fA fter the w·ar I- found out that they destruction came not much
ta:tl~rJ.
e went into one shop to buy some food, and:,othere part of the
as covered with brown p-aper.lt was PassQver. The older one of
Germans I was with started-to explain to me~how the Jews keep
',..t-H·n-rlS separate for this holiday and that's why all was covered with
oa1~f. I nearly. cried but II had- to keep straight face. We went out and
e a while l-excuse'd mys·eHand w:entback,~o the shop. I had the
~.I:Il.W"~helmingurgetotalk to'somebody, to unburden myself. I was
" 9 te-rribly 10-Re1y an d t'h-lrs:e were the first Jews I came in
act with after nearly two years. I entered the shop and started to
ain to -the women who 1- reaBy was. The poor women were
"fred, I didn't think t hey'r:eally belreved me. You can imagine my
a e of mind, but than what~ I wanted to archive? I couldn't help them
I didn't want to join th~m in their suffering,.

36
 The Deserter.

r-trate\1enin~a--tr-a:i:n:::wasformed, we were lo:aded on to it and

cted- tuWa=Hts WesseL "'F1re ni g:h:t-~wa:s ci e ar=a:s::w epa sse d the v iII age s
-.--,.....-........ e fi elds ·0 f g'es'a:ra b i CE [ as ~ms-'-p:art 0 f R~&fml ni a is c aII ed] .We
'OUJn-t get vefY far when the skywasli=t:by flaf-:e5. The train stopped
e. ery.bod-y start:ed-tofun in- ::rhe-=oiff.erent directions. The field was
dt!~ an d- ~h-er--e was---n-ownere t o---h-+de--so'1 prete r red to Iay un d er the

~'9"ri·~ge. T-he-noise-:m:-ttte·:planes::wa-s:~ing:::.nearer
and nearer but
-~'AV passed--'over cmct--dr'O:Pp:ed the' bornbs' furttrer up the line. We were
~-~ielirrm-e-d -a:m:ftohtlrnrt=ttIe line was-bumbed=·and broken but a few
ttes:· fUFt-her ttre~-e was afloth:e; train a-n-d we had to walk with
.-..,...,n.alongifl§Sto j-ein-·'it. By·than I h-ad---h:ad en-t>tAgh, maybe meeting the
.J.e*s in ~Iatz gave m·e a shock so- ~ decided to .eJxecute myoid plan
y to-- rUII:away to-Turlrey.
went to:::th:e--necrrestrua:d-:ancrgot :a-Iift back to Galatz. There I
'fill e(roJre -0 f my - bhrn k: mar ctring 0 r d-e:r:s wTth-=d est ina t ion Con s tan z a
MItch is a-=-R-om-ania-n pent offt:h-e- BJae:f<-Se-e heping-~o get on a ship
~u:<'u~ to T u-r1<~y. l'h e tr-ai-n:"was'fu II and -for t-h--e f-:-i rs t time I saw people
~i+~Ao.c4"lI on-t-tte-roms of-t'h-e-carri:ages.-I had no~i~ how they managed
e up. there and wha-t-!s--more, how could they stay there while the
1"r'2D''''- was- "FO vfn g !
CUf'FStafrZ-a was-a-,'gre-at-Ui:s:a-1JPofntm-ent~ The port was badly
da1m-a::gerr--and-=t'here w-e:r-e no:stfrps going W· TUf:key or anywhere else.
'WtEJt-nex-'-t?:1 already deser-te-d-myHltflit so-t-h--eonty thing to do was to
.eep---going. Whilesittlng in--tff-e-sold-iers'c-rut> reaeding a newspaper an
~-+f---I-e a r-o-s e my- int-ere st. ~t _. de-a:lt~-w-i t hth-e- in t e-r nat ion aI situation in
lfa:1.k-ans It--a-:pp:eare'd from thts artrcle that BlJlgaria although was a
Ic.rrnT'2J't---atl y, was"no t at war w F'ttrTh:e---S-ev i et (jTlien 0 n Iy wit hEn 9 Iand
~.A.- and paradoxically aSov-~e-lc:--ensul..ate was still open in Sofia
capit-al of Bulg::ari:a"~ -lmagine·-t1Tec 's-ituatiofl-;:-- German soldiers
":::11'''''-1''9 around Sof1a---passfng infr-ont of the $-Ovtet consulate. This
ft2'~p-me a:new· ide<i:: Wny-:not to~-g--o--to--S-Ofia and present myself to the
cons-ttl. It 'W()u-~d have'l:re-en-iess -danger than to run across the front
"'Wtrer--e-' -rrohodyhacrtime orfnclina:tto-n'to- listen to Iiong stories. After
as a Soviet citizen and had a document to prove it, the

37
 document I obtained from the secretary of the Lwow university during
.my -tast .vfs:i:t:-th ere.
T=tle- flrststep was-to go t-e-&u€~a-rest ttre capital of Romania. This
.as -easy, aJt -I -had-t-,a d&:wa-s te-·-fttl:u:p -one of my:~ blank marching
ders and-transfer- mys-ell-to Buea-rest. On the arrival I was directed
th:e milit-ar.·y po+-i:ee~to- the Gerfl"ta:n:army compOll11d. We had limited
eOOmof movement:·3=-sR-omania--was-·trot an ottu:pied country but an
y. Fn-#t-e~:-barrac ks _: I---:snuo-pe d crFUtffiU-=-an d d i SCOVE red tom y rei i eft hat
T-e=-weFe:-sume {t.r .cmd·--N.S.K~K. Uffffs:jn S<>fH;J. The next step was to
rtFf'1H':-Uf-e-a..:be-rder eros-slngr:;>ass. l fiHe-d':-yet another marching order
aftSierfing--myself t-oSoHa anti on-th-is--basts I was issued the
essary·-pass. I d+dnJ-t see--much ():f--Bucarest a~ I had other things on
min-d=-th:a:n-":bein:g::a---tourist. Afte-rcompletin9--,all the formarities I
out -on':a-~rain'Qotng sol1ttt-'t'O Romanian borGer which was on the
s-o b~a-e- Fiver IJanube. A=ferry took m-e across~he river to Bulgaria.
Up te--no-w--eYefything went smoothfy, nobody queried my papers. I
aftied dre-t-rain-and ·settled i-n- an com.p:artment occupied by a young
'MH+t'HH"ian- off+cer;::w:no -was--go-tng hom-e "011 leave f;or Easter holidays.
'~F"'T nigttt--w+th ,th-ehelp of:thebottfeol rak~, a kind of plum brandy
-e-came :fr:i:e-ndtyand on--near4ng tila:t:1 com-e from Poland he said

hts mottrer:is-alsG"Polishand strewQuld 'be gl'ad to meet me. I't

OTt1'lfrdo)f·£as·ter and I WaS f'nvit:ed for Easter dinner. This was a

handy in:v-ita-tk>n -for I rr-eededa=plaee to--staf:l: as I had no clue

atsoever ab-om:Sofi:a. A-h:or-se---ca-rriag-e expected him at the stat'ion

·-.p:roc-e-e:ded-to n-i-s~::ptace Which wa-s-a beautifully located villa

...-.-..... t:R sfrortdi-st:ance ff:G:m the Town. I was well received by
fa:'ttrer-wfro,~wasa=c:uiOll-e1iIT~-Bulgarian army and the mother
:.s Polish w..a.s~a-l>H Lusty, was very moved by meeting a
ti'-Yflfao.
fter -mag-nrffcent·:lun-ch--w.e -se-YUed -on the -terrace sipping cognac
adm+ring­ th-e--vtew--~'In front -ofus:'wCtS Sofia Stt;rrounded by snow
ca.ooe-d mountams.lt·was all very qtriet:when.:the~eacewas disturbed
im:Teasjng--nuj:se--of p-tane- engtnes;,~·-So:on we could see big planes
lR!'a"dj-rng t'owafd--us.-My ,host sai'd no·t--'to W"'6r:ry, this are the aWed
·bu:mbers hea-d-ing- to:.ward Rcrmania ta b6fflb the oil-fields in PI'oesti,
a ia. -B-ut-nefe--'we--wefeJn for-a-s-urp-fis~. This time they decided to
nft-Ina th-e·i-rbo-mbs onSofta and"~fro-m wh:ere-we were, the safe
ance h1-::the-nttts, ---we--c:ould watcl1 theH,sp~tacle of the bombs
and' tlresrn-Oke':'and-fires-tffir:l'-f-oW:owed wave after wave of
ers came unloading they b mbs on the ci,ty. My hosts were

38
 naturally "stro:ckedbut 'atttr-ough ·tf-elt sorry for the people in the town
-'-considered ~t as··~ price-:they tralt-:t:o pay for joining with the devil.
--A fter-~at1·-qu+ete ned~Uown ttr-ere-wasno more-reason for me to
stay·there~--I. thaffk-ed tttem·..for ttlEr- husp-ftalityand:-1headed down to the
rown. Here-:a-grea-'tconfusio'n reig;ned, :atthough the damage didn't look
-as bad as l-imagined i-t "to be. I -pr-:es:ented mySell1 with my marching
order- to--the-transpo-rt -offtcer at:the:·:r-a1Iway:::st~tion which was also
't by"a-<bomb. He sai:d-~ilat-evePything . ,:Fs in a=:chaos and for tonight I
-sh 0u r:tFffn:d::-my· 0w n-.a--G:cGlJJm 0 d a t1un.:..a:n:d~£ 0 me b ac k tom 0 r r ow. T his
10m tIifl'g:was:_~tt e rally -1re=ave n- scent hee-B:u s e it ~ v e met imea nd
h an·c:e- to--lo6k ar Ot:tftd ·f-o r t--h e S()viet-~ sui at-:e. -;;
-It was::g:etting:=dark and I joine-a::ot'n-er pe9ple on the road out of
:ofra"proLnb-fy Iike-orne looki ng for a-pta-ce t o=-sle:ep in the adjoini ng
:e s. ~:-:w-asa C co-st'ed by a Ioc-a I·a=n'(f:,:~"e c 0'nver sed in some mixture
JTo:Hsh, 'Russian arrdBufgarian, tnlFtM-ee I,anguages having similar
igiflS. He -w:as a farmer in then-e-a-rDy- villag:e-~d offered me
accOfffffi-odati-on fOfHr€ ni·g-ht. We watR-e:d for co.t;lple of hours till we
eacne:d· hish-omestead and I went to ste-ep in.. th-~barn in company of
If a-~ cows. ltwas-warmand--thesteady b-r-§athing of the cows
t nre-quicldy=to:s.f.e-ep. Early in tne--m:Gining II was awakened by a cow
w,ing ttre--b:ottonr~of my·-'trousers,a5 ottley were made from some
ersatz [seros'titute]matceria:l the cew-ffiltS-t have f04Jnd it to her taste.
-B-y t-ften everybody -was up artd-I-was invi:t:e-d . ~ the house for
ea:k-Rtst and-ther-e I met the family. "Fhere W:a:$-: my host, his wife and
ttree-daughters,,,the-}tc);ungest":s-name -was Luba or as they caUed her
- -dtminutrve ttibt:ch-e-. The bre:akfast c.:gnsiste-d-of boiled eggs,
yogtrtJrt;-~s,picy gtnriash in··a farge b-owf c. into everybody was dipping
nark -peas-ant e-r-ead. Bla:ck T-urkis-h ca=fe and couple of g'lasses of
'v6vitz ·c~mllietedth:e mea~, -after-whtcn-I felt ,like I could take on
e-world. A-ft-er we all wentto-:work in the field. The farmer needed
.and t-ri:e:d-t-o'convince me·-t'O stay. There-wer:e plenty of
t:'raCtion-ssp:e-ctaliy the youn:g-'uLuba butsoo:ne r or later a stranger in
S'H3·U villa:ge-woutd arise-sU'sp·ctorrs-andin any case I had my
..........~ set on see,ing ttFe Sovier-consufto try fina~ly to get away from
Germ-afFS. three=-orfourtTappy days passed and I had to tell my host
at t-t is .:.ttm-e-forme--t-o le-ave- and t-o lot>k for my unit.
+n th-e-mo-rrti-rtg I'left f-or S-o:f+a--not wear.jng my uniform jacket.
y-~Ie wore-seco:nd..;-hand:~ormpants and shirts so nobody
ok any notke of me. I didn't want to ask whereabouts of the Soviet

39
 consulate s~t-speRtnmost-o-f the day wandering_around the centre of
-tire town~:am:t-fin a tty ,~ J:a:-t eaft e rFroOil ~ . f (:HInd:it .
-I

ttwas- a-:twos-1::or--e-y--v-i4Ia,a+t-w~nd=ewsc-+e-se-d., with shutters. The

grounds cH-Elfl:gS id e-we-re-sur-ro u nd:edb:)' ,-ta II fenc-e--:w it h gate, everything
was locke-<t-up~ I watk-ed-:afOund trying----not to arise suspicion and after
whHe--thega-te opened t-o let in--two-la-:r:g-e Russian Ilimousines. I
grab:bed thiso-pportuntty-~andsrreak-ed--m-'-betwee~thetwo cars. Once
instdethe--guard s~~-nre aski:Ry-:me-what odo I want. I demanded to
see' ttl e C1HTsul. He--:to-ok--Rre"i nside -to- a=--S-ln a II room:.a nd tel ep h 0 ned
sa m eb 0 dy.A--you n-ff-i'1HHT ap:pe ared-and oint ro d u-c-ed:ifj ms elf as the
COftSulate secretary.. I told. him my stO-~ in broken Russian and showed
him my Lwo=w---d0 cumettt.
:H-e went -cou-t'-an d aft er·-few--m in ute s:-ea--me bac k and too k me
r-aiTs-tome-etthe consuL The consul-:.sp:oke perfect polish and I
~ate<tmyst:uTY agajn. -H-e li-st-ened-at-teAtfvely., asked me various
stions 1>ut -theA., to mygreat"dts=a:ppomt-ment he said that he can't
me
tte-l-p- --m e. --H::e----e-xpl d-ttfa-t- the irpos i t ion in --Safi a was precarious,
ey~wer-e only a 11:owed· 'to go oU:tto:---m,:y:-suppt"-a.es-and the ptace was
rottnded:~by the-'potain clothedc-:p:ofi:c-e. In matter of fact he wondered
+n-na-r-:t-:wa:s:abmto -get:tfi· without -being noticed by~them. The consul
-e.J:Jeu-ted--B-ulyarFcr=to d-ecla r-e war o FF::th e--=-S'Bvi et Union any day now. His
CHtvice was fOf-flfe"~t-O -join t'tre::'f}:artis-a-ns, :tHfr--flOW and where he
Ctild-n't -he Ip-rn e-; ,'-0b vi-ou sIy;:-tre-d i d n't-tfus t me 00 m pie tel y, a man
b-a-fg-ing ion, dressed in"partGe--r-man -u-n+form, -t:e!H~g him unbelievable
or-yo Than-h-e'-satd th~t I n-3--\te-to Ie-a-ve~ -I ple;<l4ed with him that if as
says the-¢-ace:is surrou-nded-by :tfre-p-olice' ttle;y will arrest me as
suun'as I le-av-e arrd-wHI harnf-m-e ove:Fto~theGerm:ans and this will be
~ errd-o-f nre~ He:-tlfrrn' relented, I was given som.e food and when it got
a-f-k--ene---ofth-em -t--oet<- me (Jut throlfgh adjacent r~ins resulting from
he last bombing. I marched back to the vil'lage, aU my hopes crushed.

40
 The Capture.

Here I was rn the strange country, .not .. kn~wing the language, my

ravet -ducument rrogo'o-d- anymore--asmyj:our-ll-ey was completed, my
errTfan 6onnectionss-evered as I WaS now-a--deserter. After sleepless
t I bt-d-good by to -my host an d-we nt- bae:k ag~in to Sofia. I studied
a map torn from a·-school atlas to·-find the·best way to Turkey. In the
man army dub in Sofia-' met-=-som-e -German navy men who told me
at they were statron-ed"rn'a sma-H'pon on the Aegean Sea named
deagach-. Apparentfythere Wa5'-=-a::German s-ubmarine base.
To -ge-ttnereurre- h'ad::.to tak:e train tow:ard Turkish border which
an turn-edsouth·ttfFd·r-un ·along the -border to the .'.sea. )1 imagined that
. I will t ak e t his t ra tfl, s om e w he re- 0 n the way I.:W i II b e a bII e to j u m p
-Hnd my way across to Turkey. Of co:urse 1 must have been feverish
-the ti~-tothin-k-th.at such a-scneme-may have a chance of success.
-troardect ttre- first -train going rnthis dtre-ct=ion but after few hours
-e 1:-rain "Stop'ped .:j:n p~ace -namettPtuv-mv and lit wasn't going any
th-er. I haa-to get offl~-e everyhody els-e right into the arms of two
rm-an militarypoliceme-n-.I presen-ted my travel document and was
""'-'-f"ed '-by them to a hotel occupied~~by the GerfTl:iJ,n army. In the hotel
ave the-desk sergeant my travel docum-ent-and requested a room for
-night. He asked me for"m:y,'soidrers p:aybo-{)k.-a-nd it was the first
. e-m my travels-:that such ac::d-emcmdwas made. The place seamed to
e unusaal.:M-ostofthe other ·guestwOfe civilia-fl clothing and were
dHSSed as ~capt'ain,-majof e't.:c. I went -to my f(Xffl1 very worried. Are
ey-go-tng to-·eheck- my ma-rehtng ofder,"will they--1iind out that my unit
s ot tn~Hulgar-ia:-:but s-omewttel'e in--:the Ukraine, why did they keep my
bo:ok. All th'ese---que:stions.to wlrit:;h I-had rro:-answer were going
ugh my tread. I-'was ;getting-moreafldmore~anicky and decided to
ave everyttling ami disapJYe3-Tas qu-ickly as -JYOS:S!ible. I locked my
Ofll, went -downstairs, !eft the key at the desk and told the sergeant
-am-g:oingto·:town t-o-get som·e-dln-ner.
Gutside wa'S :dark-because o:fair-ra+d,: precautions which allowed
to -sneak in-the station unobserved and -boarded the nearest
tonary train. Tire train--started-~:o fitl'up--w-lth people and than I
urrd out-that it is going back -to Sofia. This time the trip took all
"ght which I spent considering my new situation. If before the

41
 situatton-wa5 i>ad:, '1lOW··it--~came: really~:d:es-p:erate. I lost my paybook
whicirgave rrre~some---senseofse:c-ur-tty -and the people in the hotel

ay-be- are a:~Feady-look~R-g for me. ~n my- ima~gJnation ~ became a

Cl-ffted pe1=son.

On the·--(tf,f1val I ~weflt--to nearby -ca-f.e-house to have some breakfast

-consi-der-t-h:e--next-move. Nex:t--t-o=--me- was sitting a girl and we
~-t-ed to converse, sh-e in- Bufgarian~,-m.e in~ombination Polish,
iT"~i:an cmd"-rew gmg.a;nan w:o:rds whicll-r-:managed to pick up here and
. Shewor-keEtin a-Iocat--ctg~aret~ faut'l}T-¥, a kind of Bulgarian
men a.neth-ad a-day-eff. Havfn-!J no-t:hing-b-ett:er t-D do I spent a day
. h -her th:eft- aHntghtthen a-no:ther n-ight. At least I had somewhere to
::w it h:Ottt ~b-e in g asked f(}r~the docu.m en t s;t4a t er , under
..-I-rogation I us.ed this adventure as an excu_se for not returning
tJ:;;JGf(-:t-o m:yUllit on--t im-e .
gut-the roe-a::tug:et·ct"U Turk-:ey wasf~--in my mind and I had to
~ . This -Nme I s-tu-dte d ttre--'ti-me t-abte- -t-o see w hie h t r ains go
t through-to- the bOfdef; AIs.-ecfr-o-m t.:Jw timetable I learned that
rex. 3:o---km~:from -th-e -Tttrkish-bO:fder--there is a town named
-S"tMmgrad. +-planne-d:-t-o getoff-:tller-e-=-and see:.-wttat can be done. I
. Ired the -suitatJ-te-train and went off. -The tTai'n:=passed Plovdiv, the
e J ran away-.::fFonrand 1refJt-:goin~F SEf' far so good I thought. Than a
gCJf~an~·policemttrr-ap-peared--deman'din!r d-ocumemt. The only
uflfelfts I head J:eft'was ttle---border crOS5:ing pass issued in Buca rest
a .marching order-is-sued-~-bym-e.~he poHeeman became very
. ate-d-, J-c-otildnttun-derst-an-d-what---he wasc:s-aying and adopted the
usual- Gelnral+.:.arr~n:t--attr-tu:de--:tow~a:r:tt--thea-llies. He left and the
'0' k-e-pt-:gumg htt rt--stop:Jred-:i:n SvitelT-grad. I got off and there on
-- ptatform:~wa st=h=e :-8 u Ig a=ri=.alF~P 0 It-e-eman talking to two men in
. rlta-n clot h ftl-gand -poi nti fl:!J::-a-t- m e~--I-C:6u'l,d do :flot hi n g but wait.

The two metl-~appr-oached:;:m:ean-d

-b:efore~bey: opened the mouth I

I"'_~ :whothey-w-e-re, the bracl' -I-ecrth-er--coats, -the:~typical hats, just

. e YQu-see th-em:-in the movles. ~Th:eyintrodoceQ:-::1themselvesusing the

f"title ~ Geheimni:sctre Staa=ts-::P-uliz-ei' ill srrort t:h~ dreaded Gestapo.
ey-a:skeu--meto-fUlfuw ttrem -wft-fl:eout causing any commotion. I didn't
tOOy-the-srtuati£fffnwe:f1 en-eu-"-g-h-and-nowl was bearing the
nsequences.For da dstart, -S-vH=e:flgr~a:d-was th-e efld station in Bulgaria
lter-e- the-passpor-tcontrol ~nd--custom -checks we,re done. The second
mg:ges t mrs ta:ke-~s, 1·:drcm"J-t-=know·that b:e caus e 0 f T u r key's
eu t raitt y crH---th e Ge rma n ~t -s OlFi Fe t-=w as:::ou t ~t-n lJl"l if 0 r msin a z 0 ne 3 0
. wide from the border and here I was, the only man in uniform for

42
-ki-Iom~tre-s. -Little wonder that tften-~ulga-rrarr-polt£emangot so
a:g:it·ated.-My :knee's-::fett -·Iike-jelly~-f·=th-ougtlt tR~S is the end of me. The
tw<rmen tuuk:·me ct(Ft1te:-~-atioFl-:;tmth:Hngand'"tfl:erein a room was a
,man--whom:t1rey addres-sett<as 'HeFf-Kommisar'. He:.asked me my name
anti how o-Id-I was and: thanrematke:d 'Yo:ur pare~s will be very happy
wnenthey:will find: ott:t--wttat y():u:'~have~one , was searched and all my
bf-ank marchtng orde-rs-·wer:e laid::-Q"lT:tne--t-able. Somehow I had the
presence 'M-mind b-e-f(rre-·tlrey stcrrt-e1i-ro search my bread bag where my
W(JW do GU11Tent I' a:y: fofde1:f:; to stnwe-my han din it, 'a nd pull the

c-ument: ·beetweerr my-ftaffEl·a ttfe b-f'e"ad loaf an!J stIow it to them

saying th-at is all tn-at it· is in the·-hag. Th.ey st~p:ped searching me and
t me in:n3flother--r-oom wffh a B:u-1gafi'a-n: poHc-eman on guard. I slowly
~e-pieces-():f-·the-::1f()eumentan-d-tog:et~r with pieces of bread I ate
e rot. A:t~·re-ast I~gotrfd vf the-mo:s:t--:rncrimrmrtmg evidence.
·AltIlOtJg:frat tfris --s:t-:a:§e it ctrdn',t--m:ake much d!fference to die as a
-ew e r be: sJrot as =-aGefflF.an de S:eft-e-f ~ Lu-c ki Iyo-fa r -B1 e the correct
o c ed ures ·were ve'ryi mpor-t antfor-tile-n-G e r m'ans, -=be ca use the Gestapo
ided that·-f was' not under th:eir-:j:tn+sdictio:n and therefore I was to
-han d e et :o;ve:t' t 0- tn-e '-mifita r y p-o l+c-e--in-.pI 0 v div. T=h ey put me 0 nth e
t-tram--nandcl1ffed''',wttn a gu:aro;--Q:nethe arrival in the morning the
TTTY"TrTf took :m-e to the s-cmre-hotell disappea re{jl from three nights

efo Fe , where:1 w-as gre-ete-'d: with tire-words 'h-er-e:is our bird'. For
est of t:he day I wassubje£ted toi-n-te-nse i-nt.-errogation by a civili'an
o was addressed as 'Herr Major' and the stenographer took every
l"'d-I sa+cL
l-mainta1ned that r:n:ever tnt-errded t'o'Gesert, I was always in
oniform. tnwas-'on ~eave and'my tTorrrewas:-destroyed by bombing and
trerrlca-me~t:o Butg-aFia- I -met a--girland:<t-etayed for few days only my
eporting~to -the unit. Theree-were fetir-f-{)olsc~p pages of the details
() -and where- andwttat ab:-out -the me:ney. All this statement was
te-r attaeh--edtotheverdiet-·(tf-thecou:r.t ma-rsh-«I (Feld Kriegs
e,rtc-ht) whi'chtook' pl:a-ce ~~in Vienna. The mos,t important for me
-that they::--n-ever, nut irt-:any stage of~e proce:edings suspected
I·was notC-S£ffJPose-d to:-M in Bulgaria at all. Lt was accepted that I
s-end:t{}-S&fra---and--failed~tu'fe:p:ert to . m~ unit-.
For the night I was th-roWfl---into a s:mall cell in the Bulgarian jail.
e cet=tttad-a :smalt'g:rflled -W:iftdowand a bare W1iloden bench. In the
'rm4tl~-~o-f·the-niglrt I woke -~'i:tehy -like=-ilefl. The place was crawling
~.....,.- .b-ed-'bu-g:s- and I spent :tfte·-restof tile night brushing off the
s inking insects. In the morning I was taken back to the hotel,

43
aUowed a'shower andth-e tnterr:o:g:atron s-tarted again. I had to be very
c-a:r-eful to-r-e1J~at mys-~ory-:in e~ry:-:detaii aSs they were giving me very
tric;ky que:muns leading to-the-sarn_e facts. They were definitely
J}ffrfess i on-afs--b utl~s-tlrek -to my-s-t-o-r-y- -ifl -evef'y detail.
Here-ag.ain tne'-Ge'fman passto-nf()rcorre-ct~oceduresturned to
rn:y-a-dvant'a'g:e-; Becatl:Sec-my--unit-was-attached t~ the Luftwaffe it was
cte-ci-d-ed t·o:-send me:'to: S-ofi.a to tn-e-l.trft:-waff:e liaison officer to deal
wtt-h-me.Offc again:--o-n-r-h-el1ight tr=ai-rr:t-oSofia, handcuffed with a
guard; InS0fi-a myguar-d-took me to a:saburban vi:tla housing a
ilit--ary jaH. There-.:we:re only do-zen-(7f -so inmat--es, mainly some minor
offen-ders~ !--was ttfe--b-ig fi-sh, the maj-or crim.inal.:Under the suspicion
Cfesertit>'O. The sergeant rn cha-rge b:egged me not to escape because
~sai-d he---h-a-d -wif-e-ccmd' chHdren=a:n-d-:wa-s afrai d to be posted to the
ssian fronti-f I dk:!- escape. He neve,; took my handcuffs off and
watched me-"ccHf th:e--t-rme 'like a-hawk-.
After a--day'swaft I was told tnat-the Luftw.-a,ffe officer was on
ave and they have to send me-to B'u-ca-r-est. tn But;arest nobody wanted
take me itt, -the-army jails-were ftttl-s-'O they sent me to Vienna. The
y:s.sey c-o-nttnued, -st-i-U ham.c-uffed-wit-h my-:guard we arrived in
~rn-na wh~efefinar~y I'was a-cce:pted---to--"Wehrmacht Untersuchung
" a r n:ry i nt err G-g:a-ti 0 n c e n t reG e-f i-€-h t s 9 a 55 e 6, Flo rid s d 0 r f w h i chi s
i nd u s t FFai su b u rfJ-:of Vie flRa ;
The af-my jaB-was -a part (}·f-a-~omplex ~taining a civilian jail
d a-c·ettr-tno-use.Ottr -wing:consts-t-ed of'grou-nd and two floors. Each
oor -h-a:d a·;+ong cO"f"rid:or wtth do-o-rs -le-ading to th_e cells. The place
ouse-d'=a:Dotft 1 OO-pri:s:one-rs coming -fr-om allso:rts of units, army, navy
d ai-rmcEL Iwas--ptrtinto a c-eHw-rtlr-ten man.-! The ceU was quite
I rge w~th two no-rma-l- s-ize windows- naturally with bars, table with
;-au pt:e-o-f'irenches.
Th-e--j-atl--was or~-a-nised-oflarmy"!-i-n-es. Everey::lfloor was a platoon
. h- a- s e1'9 e ant in-charg e , -every cell a-:h ad a-7'D-os-s res p 0 n sib Ie for a II
t -was -going-on-in --:the cetr:-and ah;-o-for the-distribution of food and
ig:a:t e tt--e-s. A s- we: -were s t itl urrd e r fnV€st i 9 a tron 0 n fy, we r e c ei ve d
mHi:tary r-atmllS. The ptacewas futt of weird characters. To start
1IRJHl---my--cell boss--ama-rine --~F.g-eant,-wh=o not only succeeded to
ert for t-wo -and-hgtf years b-ut at---th-esame tirne he build up a major
kmarket orgamsat+on stre-tchingfrom NorwaY=jto Neaples. Other
i'-er was infor:kiffing arr-Officer -011 the front:;!His excuse was that
'Pra-S wOtJlTd-ed-in1::h-e-heacfdnthe P-oHs=h camp:aig,n and as a result of
·s he was not responsible for his deeds. Privately he admitted to me

44
 at t-his officer wa-safa-natical Nazi, specralistllg in frontal attacks
-tire Rus~-an positFonS.Aso~d:Fertn ttre bunk abeve me was in for a
,e-atroutH:it-ler. -t--Stlt~ remember h:i-s n:ame,~--=Mmhael Latschbacher .He
as a Caf p:eflte r by tfCnie--:afId c am-e-: -fr-o:m a p Igee: ca III ed Lu nz am See,
d

ewher:e--i-n Austrtaj:.wh-e:re he-had ~-c:ouple of s,mall hotels. His sister

a-ffted a German sch-o-ol-,teacher'who-came to Alt$tria after the
man occupation-'-w+th,a-s Michirei-said, cOltple of carton boxes under
. -=arms. The- Austriarrs'us~d to-'call,th~se Ger foans 'Marmaladen
. en'. t-dun-'t krrow-l:fre-e:xactme-anflJg,-:of th-is but it has something to
w+t.:h the--G~rman'.'s---I-tktffg of ma-fma+aae. M+CJrael was wounded in
ssia an-dcame h:e-me-for convaleseettee leave. ~-While sitting in the
age har wit-h some'peasafl.t-s~he told'-som~ jokes and was promptly
",'_n-nrt:ee-d-'-b-y his brother in lawc_.to the a-uthor,itie.:.s: the latter was
i'tUomFC t o:-:ge--t -il 0 I de -of-fTi s pro--pert i es ;
Tharrtn--er-e-:-was-Motze:f -afI-,:elderly Vrennese,a real bush layer who
teach:mg:everybody wha:t-t{) sayand--ftQ-t eto say in court and how to
ak aro'und "the taw. 'He ha.d-::-a-:pleasant--v01ce ana used to sing the
OLlS- Viennese folksongs F some of whi-ch remained stuck in my mind
tQ-da-y-.
arre-·-elder+y-m-an was-in for -so called paragraph 175 which meant
as a-ilom-us-e:xual', -an offence punist:Fable by Jail at that time. A
unpfffiffiant incident oc€urr-e'd one day. It was a peaceful'
e:fflOOn,I was s-i'tting at 't=tTe-end of a -to-ffQ table playing cards with
50lme -men--a-nd this aH-eged~hom-o-sex-tJal was s1tting at the other end
eading 'a-,newspaper. Suddenl-y-:threeor -four of-the prisoners threw a
rrket over--his head'and be:at:--tlrm"t1P, it all 'Icasted a minute or so. II
·rreepfysRocke-ct, :oobody--:matte--'a-nrove or:-:said anything. This action
-mst i ga t ea-'::ff&f1l 0 B-'t,s i dE-, arrd-:-wa5--&riJ ani s:e d-:B you r cell b 0 ss .
The- a-ut h-oFrt-tes k e'ffttJS busy 'wft h va rio tJ s ftl nc t ion s. 0 u r
tre5ses-weremade-of-straw.'-Every mernin:g tl;ley had to be pushed
d- patted-Un -they formed a perfect re:ctanguta-rbox shape. Then
n and 'b~anke:ts --were'~puton and trrewhole :th:mg had to be ready for
irrspech'on'-at 9:a~-rTr~ If the b:e-d wacs not madeiup to the cell boss's
, 9 't:re-s'tripped it -aRd one- ba:d to s:tart alloveF again. The wooden
90r was-scrubbed-every mo-rniflg and SQ was the::wash basin and the
'Jet. -Each m-or-n+ng-we were taken-to th:e yard for one hour exercise .
. On-e-of·the-sel"-g:eants :wasa fa:naticarN'azi, wearer of the so
a ~edb~o-od'order'int:lk-atin:g th-e-m:embe+ship to the pre-occupation
st ria n ., N-a-zi'p:aTty, 'mst-ead e )(eTcj:si=rrg~ ca:Fr-i-e-d out pol it i cal
seminars and discussions on articl~s from the newspapers like Das
i

45
 Reich and:-tn-e part.y rag Vofldsetrer ·lreob:a:chter. From time to time we
went LO WOT-tcoutside,-:to ch~ar ttJedamag-e caused by bombing.
Senre1:i me-s·Michaers-wi:fe:~c:a me: :frumti1:e cOUfltry to the site where we
ere supposed towor:k; :bcr1f1ging~ with-her wine, peasant bread and
'speck' [ham] and we-UHed to spent th~ day between the ruins eating
~ri--f1-rink i1t~ bu t t htsdkffi-' t 11 ap pen. t'tY-O\)ft en.
The aHres w e-r~~b~n g V+e-n·mr::da:fl y. wt:re n a II i e d p Ian es
eared: overhead~we:-were-taken ta-tlre cellars, -ordered to stay in
corner-and a gT-GUJT of-young cons·crfpts wttih a machine gun pointed
s were-guarding-'lf-s. They were a:p66f lot-,-we! could overcame them
-=b are hafl~ s wt -wher e--c 0 u td we-fttn-? The· b-em b s were fa II i ng aII
nd, be-cause Floddsdorf was -a-n--in-dustrial s-JJburb. Luckily we were
hit. StHl, -stay+n-g-tn- this cell-ar and:liste--n:fn:g. first to the heavy
·~__v layirrgbarrag:e·in-frorrt of ti're--b-ombers,-t=h:en the rumble of the
=:YT:IU""n"es and-finally the whi'stleof tire fa-II i ngJ. bombs, explosions, the
s flick-e-ring, the-w:a+l-s shaktng; =t:h-e plas:ter falling from the
W "ng was a--most terrifying e.xperienc-e. I'd lik~ to digress for a
meflt, a thought oecurredt-o--me as -1 was calling some of my
a es' ·elderly' . They have he-en prohably only in their forties but I
remember them as me being only 25 and nQw probably I would
~re ca:fJ:e:d ttrenryoung-!
One-thing o-euurred that ·made me- ·f-eel a-bit uneasy. I contracted a
infecttOfl on my chin CRnt~-for a wh'il-e-: I couldn't shave and had to
nf",~ a beart1.My-frien-d Mieh-ael-=from-the-btl:flk above remarked
rUtJd'ngly ~Men-s1:h·,·-du s-lehst auswi-e·-ein Yidle' [you look like a little
} -but -t-h'rs:w·a:s- tne-onlyt.ime tha-t sorneb-ody made a remark like
- and wasonty-:m~rde as :~;-fFl€ndlyjo:ke. Some joke! One day in July
commo-tf:<rn s-h~o-&k the-jatt. A rumour cir-aJlated that Hitler was
.......,...-d in (f··:tTomb an:a.ek~ Everybody ·r-ejoiced th:a~t·::the war will soon
'sh an d--we.-wi 1I--:aJt-gcet O'utfr-ee. --£-ut our Joy was short -lived when
official news came that he s-urv~ved-andhjJsinesswent on as

Three monttrilad ~ssed -since-lwas broughtc·in here and nothing

Eft -fra:ppen=e'd.f- ofte-n t-hought did they inv anything, check

fictitious h·om-e addrcess? I expected any moment to be dragged out

e- ce~1- a nd-ttfe'tru'th wou I d"b:e- feve at-ed.

In- the m-e-antrme I-was transferred to-work in the kitchen. This
as a-g--rea"t improvement as+·cw-as put in a cell n,ext to the kitchen
~"TlI omy·· o"n e-·utiler -pris 0 n er -in -:t he c'eH.--M y compa n ion was a n arm y
en ant, a Viennese, but he talked very little and never said why he

46
 wa-s i-n th-e-fe.-~We badrs-ome priviJeg.es like the do,or was always open to
tire 'co-r r ioor'~-a:A d clused-:en:fY fo r·tf.re- :mgtrt .
My dt1tte-s wer-e--to wash t tre:::.Jl{ff~ -afl d ute-A s-i:f5, cut her at ion s 0 f
read, sausages and ehees-es alld--doingthis I sta-r-t:ed to put on weight
a- &i-to The-at-mospnefe-in-the kitehert:was very fr.~endly. The cook was a
se-rg:eant from Vien-na:n=ota prison-ercmtf also ttv.e supply officer was
iennese,-who had~ two: sons in the US"A~ -and after work we sat in the
ed . ctren dis me of the
Imes in-Wre-ticzka;:wtTere-:-they w-eT-e-drs:cussin.g :politics and the war.
e kitc:hen was on ·the ground -floora-fTd the ':baFf"~d corridor windows
ere -Ioo-Idng:out on-to -dl'e-yard. Ar·luftchtim~ the girls from the court
ed -to- come'undero-ttrwtndows artd--we threw them lollies which
ere---partoflhe rations and flirte-tf--:wit-tr:them- through the bars.
Finally on the' 3Tst of July:-"my 'day of juligm:ent arrived. Clean
c;n:a.:ve:n, m:y bouts-arnt-belt-potished4 -was tak~to a building in Karls
a:t:z where UTe GOUr-! mars:trg;f of tile XVII a+r flutiilla district was
"ffg to take-.ptace. Never mind being a Jew, here I was in danger of to
ft-'I~i1l g, k iffed-a s- a-·Ge-rm.a n;-:de s ert.::er--'
--{)n the-arrival I w..a=s met by.a -gendema-n in civilian clothing who
rodttCe-d~himself=a:s~-=my:-defende-r--assign-e:d -by the court. He got my

a-se orrtyfew-mirrute-s- :uefore my -arrival- anEf: asked me to tell him

" kl-y my story. wtratwasimp'ort-Cint-th-at h-e had my file and I took

. ht aw.~a-dvantage--ofitand byas-k-ifrg- him t.o let me look through it

whi-ch-he:agreed. TO-'my'--great -r-eHe1-"there-~re no inquires about

at-my.-s·'O :called---home address oniy-a~telex from my unit giving a

a-vourable opiniorr-abo-ut me, SCJ~at~eastnobody suspected my

kground. My -case -was caUe-dand--wew-ent into a large room at the

emt-of--wtrich ttreFe W~ a IOfTtr:t:able, eovered wit-h green cloth,

ftteiHx 0-0 top -artd -b:e:hind"-o-nthe w-aHa life-siz~ portrait of Adolf in
apoteoni-c-pose lookmg at'me-~"With his :beady::b:I~ eyes. Facing the
aftte-was --a-small--desK at whi·c.hmy.(fefender ~tco1< seat, there was no
eat for: me. The judg.es entered, three officers and a corporal taking

A-fLer the usual pr-"(}c-edures ofestabHs-tling my identity the court

as ill sessi-o'n. Anmajof who was acting a-sttle prosecutor got up and
as raving--fo-rhal:·f an -hou-r about th'e bad th1ngs I have done and in
. e·s like 1:h~s I sh-ou;.d be -made an-ex~ple of, in few words he
~""""'-ed m-e-d:ea:d.-:rh:en~-my defendergot~u-p arrd- mumbled few words in
-defen-ce wtr~'Ctr'c-ould have-h=anttymoved the judges. Then it was my
ro. I don't know how, but in moments like this one draws on

47
 esou-rces one--doesn't-icnow one:possesses. I·-toki them of the freezing
gn ttre-R"us&ian:front'-CRTd~n cOfnfH~rhOTRe Oll l-eave I found my home
stroyed-··b-y·bombs .S-u-wtFen I;c-a:nre bad< from ~ea;ve I met this girl

affd. extended my leavecfurfew da:y,:s ~A"~so, I was~lways in uniform and

ad never 'any inte-flti{ln---of- deserti-off; -fl;.Ity great advantage was as I had

fltioned:b-e:fore rtot)ndy-r-ealiseo- ttlatl shoutdn'·t::::have been in

C

..... gar i a a-t-. a~:f! A ft-e..-' to. have -fin tS'ne{f:my- s pee ch, I can't say t hat the r e
~s-not a· dry eye in ttlehouse, but I felt that the judges were
'P'O"O"F'a'. . .-r=s sect:
The- court re:tiredand-·a:f:t:er a while---:t:trey caflle back, I was made
stand- to at:tention and tne·~p.resident-sO+emnlyread the verdict. The
d-cour-t marsha'l ofthecclmmanmng-·.g-eneral of the XVIII air flotilla
fret find S"t-urmann··Adam-6ko th.at'·s me] guilty of being absent
aut ·~eavefrom-hi'S u nit"'m~fi'eld"'oT--st~a:ting military documents
f:a~stfying:m'ilit-a:ry.·docunrentsand condemns him to a total of one
ar jaiLand then··as:ked me·if I~have--:any-thiflg to say.
My friend Mot-ze-l-from·t.he jail t.olcf me that if I want to get out
'"'····..,....·kly I shOttld sa:y-t;hat I want togo_·to thefront-. By than I would
~\:~ gone:anywhere-just't'O get- out; so I stood-t.o attention, puffed my
;t<'''''''CIf'C""t" anct·satd, I asR·:th- ilrgh court to-:b-e send-to-t.t1e front to prove
s"eif befure"'·the ·enemy.This thtny-we-nt down ~II right because after
. of wA~s:p_ering:-the president s·ai-a-·t{lat the decision will be g'iven
t flee eEfm:mafl din §::~g:e;ner al:
T~enttre proeeedingo-an-d scener-yseem:ed to me unreal,
methfn-g-on-e sees ill films, and it···was difficult to believe that I
s tire principal a:ctor. Ment-atl'y exh'·austed, but happy to have
tved tt.rsolae·al I··was tak:en ba:ckto jail. :A'ft-:er a week or so I was
en to the ja:Ft-·eo-mmandarn-wno read t.:o me the~:Yerdict again adding
............. my Jrena~t~yw'as s:usperrd-e-d till-·after-::the war ~nd I was being sent
t-he b ase-+n-Befli n for fu.rt1fer Ei nsa tz ~ E-;ttt:i1 izat ~n]. Than he
marked - ~ man Y011 look Iik:e a:-:K-rapfen ,-=--wnfeh is a ball Ii ke ca ke fi lied
-marm·a=~e. f-t looks Irk'e rny.::·pris0 n··::dieto, while serving in the
chen mus-l~have-iTatt::'5om:ethif1!Ft-G=dow-it-h ·my appearance. Next
'ron-rD"'"T1""i n g 1--was 9 ivet:r:ba:c k aH my· tJ:-e1ungtn-g sin c Iud in g the s t 0 len
ching O:Ht-er~ each invalidated with red ink and under guard
arted to my base camp in Bedin.

48
 Free again.

All this -was napp:e-ning--in August, r-9'4=-~. The· Russians were in

arrd, tlTe-allies i-n France--anct hereof -am traveH:ing allover Germany
an Irs tQ-e worki ngs of-the miffta ry lHH"--e-a ucra:c~y. thi nk I contri buted
ttre defeat of Germany b-)L*eeping-s-evera'l-~opleaway from the
p-ertant m+lt-tary-.du.ties whtte-they were being occupied guarding
judgling-:me etc. I am Sl1re that the-dOCUI1l;ents relating to this
air arestiJlbei;ng--fCept rnsome arcfHve lin~Germany. In Berlin I
~~ted to-t-he cCRllp- office arret there,'in charg:e-~W'as myoid mate
~,.""""" Simfe-ro-p-ol th--e--s-taff sergeant Ttr-eg-· ZeUe.' He took me again under
. -wing and~we staF"ted to have- a goodti'me '"Ofl'·the town'. By then
ti-fl had b-ee-n bombed day an-d night but sti1h.qtfl.te a lot was going
and Theo-knew~t~right people an-d··the right plJaces. You may thlink
at consider'ing W"hat was going on -mybehavi{)ur was thoughtless and
may b-e- rlght, btrt -as thi-ng--s werewtTat el-se could' have done other
ryirrg-·to: save--my I'ive a-mf;have~a=--y:ood t~e while doing i't.
After au-eut cp-week, Theos-aidttra-'t acccrming to the verdict he
dto se-r«t~'me somewhere··a-n-d-that ffe&f Bres:efa l haly, there is an
.S.K:K. un~t suppose-tHy engage.d in a-kind of:m+Ht~ry operations. To go
b':aCk- to Ita+y;'which-l- left in 193-9 sounded lib, a dream I spoke Italian
who knows w~tc:.upportuniti:es-may~presentthemselves there?
-After'CFtteavy:;:btrrge half c ens UFOUS, Theo put me on to the tra'in
d t -we-nt aff via''t4untch, B-renn:er -P:ass, Verena :to Brescia .The
egiment-w-as-statione-d in-;a- viltag.:e-·nam-ed Bovezz_o 7 km. away from
eseia:; The+r--duty~was to·guard:.t-ft-e--transports ~ing south to the
nt -mainty:.again-st the-allied planes a:ttackmg the transports on the
adcmd"gtlal'ding-:varrousfuel de-pot's aTld mU-llition dumps, spread
I~- UTe CGU nt rysi':d-€. T rre he-adqffiH:t'ers we:r.-e ina II ar g epa II az z 0
-:F'I""'I"'1L1

b:e1:mTgrng:to a:n ItaJt:a:rr-count. The gFo'lInds were Hsurrounded by tall

1

·ck walls"afid ins+de-w-ere park-ed -va-ri-ous ve'h~les and armoured

. Thes~'w-ere Frenell made Renault. vehicles which were modified
Ja c e a-n---ant i - air;e raft can n 0 n'~ tn--the- t u r ret.
-Returnm-g from--my· first trrp s:QUtrr, we ~re attacked near

esenZ3flO,--a loca:~i=t:y on tire lake Garda-; by two,low flying English

tel" planes"CJrrd'haEt bare-ty time to jump in th:e nearby ditch.

atching our vehicle being demolished our sergeant remarked 'this is

49
 it, for us ttte- w-ar ts-ove-r'.- Ffom--th:an on I was assigned to a guard unit
wfl OSEFdu:.ty was- t o:-guar-d tfre patt:a-ztOan:d t h--e grounds around it. We
were=- -to-d!re d Fn t he:-fu:u-a-i' -svh 0 0 fJ-'tire- b uiid ftTg w h bC h we s h are d wit h
rtfe-- ro-ca-t -e{}(ff1ci I. ~vEfZZo--was CF'viltag e----sur--rounded by hills, the
jfth-Cf-bltal1~s'-:w:orke:d"'matnly 1n th:e---factor:i:es of Brescia and cultivated
th-e-:-aijjacent l.and.lhere w.ere many.. vin-~yards and we tasted their
~o cfttc-ts: -tn-the 10 c-at-:t-a:vems [ 0 st:e:t:i:as-}:.
There-- t~:sta r t e#'~t()-2A1e:e t t tre--~oc:ats --an d SID w Iy won the i r
fr i e rnfsfri:p:- ~arr-d ,c 0 n-Werrc-e .-1 n t h'e -:vHta:ge there was a, n underground
orga-FFi~a:tj(}nOwhictr'-provjd:edSUffPO:Ftfor the -:BBg~ta Garibaldi, a
parti--s-a-n-gro-up ope-ra:tfflg--in the---hHls.: I-h-elpe-(j--th-em in various ways
and hoped that with their help- I w~1I finally b-e able to get away from
·-Her-moan s.
-In-rne -:meantim~e;a:part from Ure: guard duty 'we were subject to
ery rrg:o:r-ous'trarrring;consta:rrt- exercis:es including storming of some
. and----these aettviti-€s meHle-me very- fit. Our ·big chief ,liked to play
-mel- and us-e-d to tnspecthis t-r-(}{)-ps while star;ldi,ng up in his staff
a-r-we-a-rtng goggtes Off his -'peaked cup. He also insisted that we sing
He -we---march past, so 1 had to -rearn-all the German marching songs.
There~were a~so sumefunny-tn-ci:dents. ~ne day, we went to the
oating range, th-e target :distanee:-::wa:s- 100 -fll. I--am a bit short-
s·gilt-ed but- didn't"weor-gla-sses fHftwan-ting too look more Jewish that
a1fe-ady-was,Lso I"dtdn'ts-ee the- t-ar-g-e-t very well. The shooting
ompleted; my tar-g:e£--snowed the-best -results ~ my neighbours
arg:et was untouched. ffis -sight--musthave be,en even worst than mine
-am:khe put some -o:f-his shO:t$--mto my---tarcg:e-t, and so with his help I
actH-evect:the-b-e-rr resa:lt in-the- -c{)mpany. The prize was three days
leav-e i,,-B res e:ia--whi err- I s poent' -- w'j t h O-tTFe Itca Iian f r i end s .
Our l-eader- deCtde-d one-day -to-:I'fave- a major -exercise for the
tto-lereg-iment. T-h-e -af-ea for -th-ese--manoeuvre-s was enclosed between
escia an-(:P:fa-ke ~s:eo::which: also;incrude-s hig-h mountains, the highest
_"rtg;-Monte Guglielmo-near:-fy 2€tU-o'-m. -high. The trucks brought us up
a certatn-:lTOint:-amf from- there::w-e had to -,marcb carrying all sorts
e qlfrp:m-e rrr-;- Ii keo heavy rna chi fle-- guns,se c t icons e:f mortars each
ef§tring-a:&out 2(}'·kg~, rifte and-: p-erson-~ - equipmcent. We walked up and
-in- the- forest, tt-go-t d-ark and--::it star-ted to -ra,in. We were lead by a
- ,utenant 'from-th-e--mountai-n---t-roops{AIp.enjaeger]whose only load was
shlig-ht -aml·wno-was ju:mping like a ~ from one rock to another
"re--we-:-:were-fatling--aiI ove--r:tile p-i-ace=-no-1: seein-g where to step in
e darkness. I thou~ht, what am I doing here in the middle of all this
l...

50
but the thought of the alternatjve m:ade-me feel strong. Soon we were
e-xtende-d' in a~long--fHe-,· wtli=ch wTt-tr-tlle p:a:ssing of time, was getting
,Jonger -and longer. Finally OlH tre:opreaderg:et fed up and ordered us to
stop. We were- dead-trr-ed and imfl'Fediately collapsed in a heap on the
wet gro-und. Aftef a co-uple'''of-h-ottrs a-funner came looking for us and
e-were' forced--to1}et :up and.-:keepgoing. It ,W~§ morning when we
reachw-:~ village --in the mOUlltains and were allowed to collapse on
h e f~ ().O'T"ln t we IO'cafsc h 0 0:1-.
-But this was cmtythe ·beginning. After all the troops were
5 s embted in the vi Ilage s QtI ar e-OUf 'C(}ffim an dattt c aII e d my t roo p
eader and ordere1i-fllmto get up' th-e--ehtlrch -bet1 t,ower and scan the
ea-; -My·troopleade1"'s nam:e was-Max-.ffe was a small, bandy legged
djvtdua-I-,' dark haired"with'a lo:ng n-ose, loo-fd ng Iike this he wou'l'dn't
e-survivedrn trr€ old university of Krakow wtl6fe beating of Jews
as- a- favourite pas-time of some po-Hsn-·studellts. This Max was a very
ee:n -te-ttow who wa-rft"-ed to dis;tinguisil·himsel·f at'" any cost. He.
ered m~e·tocome'up with--·him to t-he--tower. We climbed the ancient
ety steps: to the-~t-o:p. Th-ere..:he looked at :a mounta,in in some
a-nce and=-g.ot ve-ryexcited sh-o-u-t+ng to me that there are some
~~e with a machine gun on top ~o-f thisftifl, pro:bably the partisans,
grabbe& my- riffe, stuck ~t outlhTough tire window and fired a shot.
a result";::ef-this' shot-, a pcandemonium:br<>*e out, everybody in the
s.Q.I:J:itfe S t art:e-d to ·slnHft a t--t-h e tower. -W--e t hi" ew 0 ur se Ive son tot he
Of as the~-bullets-were ffying--overour'-heads and ricocheting from
·","~·.:n·ells and:- we were praying that th-eyshould stop because there
no wa-y-to'-get"crown while the shooting-:was taking place. Finally,
:~m-ebody mu-s-t- have realised that we were up there and the shooting
stolEJtrel~
. ·We-went-down and"'M'ax--re=f)urtedt-o th-e eommandant what he
"ev-ed h-eha-d-seen. A ~paTto'Lwas fo-rmed and Maxe's troop had the
dUlb1-t-otlS honour to-go.-To cover -us, a-mort,ar -was mounted in the in the
sq:t~e arrd a doz:en---of :shots werefi-red m1iTe· vagu,e direction of the
mtmt1rtain. Than wesm off up the -heavily-w{){)ded and very steep slope
after so,m-e hours of marching w-e reactled the end of the woods and
'f1"JlrJn"d a-c1earmg. In -the--mi-'d-dle of: the clearirl!J stood a peasant
'G1IIt.e:tting which in ·tne~eyes--of Ottf D{)n Kichot-e w~ a camouflaged
!DUn-Kef. Ite-ordered-us -to--tltrow rh:e·ftand· grena@s and attack. Because
e steel>---cl-imb:~-before, we we-re-sottred ·we could move in slow
'iJmJt-i-·on olll-y.-L-uckHy;-in tiTe·-hous·e drere'was only an old man and a boy.
house was not hit but the ground around was churned by the

51
 mor-tar h-i:ts. Theonlyvi'ctim of th-~s- g-kH-i 0 u-s- enterprise was a poor

rai1bj.t wtro-must ITem belm~ssfn:!f~b-y,jEfSt th:en. --1

-Max- or-de:r:ed m-e"t'Elta*e tne--ofd--man and the rabbit to the village,

to report to-the comma-ndant and-:-h-~weflt wit1l-"Others further to
ex-pJore- the-terrain. I"went down-to-t-ne- village- ta,lking in Italian to
e otd-m~-cassuri-ngdHm~at RetlHng-willi happ.en to him. We came to
e care rn-t-he viltage:-:.sqware wh:~--:ttle comm:a-miant was seeping
espres:socwfth the :tacalmayor.Tfre-:o:td man was, freed but the colonel
prOpTfa:t:e-d:~my rab:b:j-tami t his::-wa:s-:tlree nd :of.,ou r rabbit stew.
Tile- rrex-t dayw-e'wereloadffiF-Cfgatfl on to-tM! trucks and headed
own-hitl to- the lake-- is-eo. The r6ad -w-as narrow and winding, coasting
on-g the- stde of ttle-mo-untain. -Th-e--oove-r must have been drunk
cause h'e-p-r-oceedetf::with---terri-fy+n:g spe-ed a-roU1l,d the curves and we
e- save'd'urrly by-the wei-ght of the a-rrtitank:c3rmon attached to the
k- whic-c-h swung:: rrropposrte directro-rr at e:a-ctpcurve pu iii ing us back
t-h-e--road. (}OWrF at the lake- Max de-e+d-ed tha-tis a suitable time for
cIT.-He-got a-,hoat, started fowing---aw-ay from the shore and threw
pl--e-of -nand-:gre-n.ades into the lak-e Soon sorne--fJish appeared
atin-g-withtneir-:b-eHies U--p. ~hese----w-er-e coHectecl and cooked in the
cn:tr-att-oria::.and-tftis- was -foflowe:d- by:a vast quantity of local wine.
·s was: the fast:epfs-e:de o-f-:uur he-ruTcenterprise, and aIthoug h
"A-g b-a-£K- it may- seem ver-y funny. as it happened then, it was
aUty s e-fi-e-us.
1i1anoeu-v-res compt:et-ed-::we---went-baek -tio-our base in Bovezzo. It
ovem'her-19411- ah-d I -wa:s:';;gett~ng more and--more involved with
B-rigata-6:a-ribci-kH.--Finatfy...-th:ey d:e:cid:ed that it is time for me to go
mountal11s.A-s-rt was~-ne:ar Ch-ri:stm-as G.lUr[German] unit
.-".r~ised::a mg:-ffifll to:- whic:lT -also the locals we£e invited. lin the
fIIR:n-nle of 't=hts-batt:1 w-a-s caJf~€Fto the offte:e and ordered to pick my
~I{)ftging-s -and with an-otherma-n dr-+ve to--Jeufstein in Austria to
"'''~re quart-erstn-er-e-:because-a1kl-rt of-th-er-egiment was moving
~"'~e. We-telt-Bovezzu, -in the mrddle of ttre:-nigtrt without me having a
chance to -rsay--goodtJ;ye--1:o~anybody,;-I-:~drove--north tf.lrough Brenner Pass,
f4!mf5'tJr-uck-"to- Kufst-ein. On--arrivafthef-e, late "'-the fJollowing evening, we
_...,.,..-0< direct:eu-~to another ~ocality n-ear a- ski resort Zell am See to the
2ek-s- of th-e---m6unt-ain troops. There we waite.-O for our troops to
e- w-h tC h they.:---di d-~u r i rtg:~he: f 0 Howing day.
-day lat-er~w:e-were loa:de-d on -tocrtta-rn where we celebrated the
31 of:ttre--yearl9'4:S.1 tFtGtrght then -that this blasted war never
The train finaltly moved and after being shoved around Gelrmalny

52
- e landedinWolfell-ne-arBt.eterf.eld:-~n Saxony. The place was a seat
tlTe-fifm produGtng~fact.:ory.A§ain, like in Silesia this place
~ c h ed~:by--:th e bamt>s b e:u-a:use:=-aMe 9 e cl 'A n.g I 0 - A mer i can
'et1otdings.: We-were-:quartered;c.i-tl-t1Te. newbri:ck barracks, four to a
,r--ftf'lft1-,- -p-rop e rbeds, sp f ing-.:-- mat t feS:S-e5--- an d aH -eomf~Ht s. The Russ ian s

1h'2'tHll---n-v,.-now rea-ctted the-b-anks -of the -r-iver Oder __and we were supposed
e-sent there :after receiving:-new:-:equ:ipme-nt. On: the 13th .of
JalmJa-ry--l was sent for -a week's;te-av-e---:te- Vieml.a where I settled in the
5D:kf:i'>:ers 'trot:el in -ZlFKusgasse. I vis=ft:e<t:my jaR Cl:)mpanion Motzel,
-was by- than r-eleased tHmr-the-army. His -.wife just died and after
funeral as custom had it, at! the--mournersadjourned to a little
aurant in -Grin-z+ngTwhere ~-tas1ed for the first time in my life
horse goulash washed down with lots of local young
- e [Heuriger].

53
 End at last.

Afte~r my leave ex:p.lred--I pres.-ented-myself t·g. the transport

ficerat-:tne- rail-way statton am:t-ro~d htm l:had lost my return ticket
o my unft'. Tlf-e leave p:ap:e:r-didn'tstJow-t#-e locality of my unit so
Ren he as-ke:d'me:whefe I·-came·'from I told-him from Bovezzo near
res:cia. tt-.W:a5 qu+tesafe to say it-becausether~ were stilll some
oo-p:s left there. Aft-er: the':usua~ screams:alld abuse he issued me the
. keto Th:e:-tr'CI"in went-as fara:s VeH)n:a=,Uecause the railway line
frer d0w-n:to Brescia was-destroy'eU-:Uy ttT-e bombs. The army
·gcmised-afFautostu-p:-anda-rrangect-~Ffts -foF:people going to Brescia.
efl I gor'there i:t: w-aslate-·~n-the e-veft~fTg-. I weflt to the Italian
a-mHy I was-friendly:with, a:nd they~end-me a sled so I could put my
Oflgings as I still had to-march 1 (}K-m:toBove~zo. It was past
. rtrght when I ftrtaHy reacnetf-Sovezzo,"dra-gging the sled behind me.
o I had to: be very careflll-lO avoi"tt--rtreG-ermans who were still in
villagee-. Eventu·aHy-1 arrived at ttT-e-=plaee- of my friend Giuseppe
:.kn ockedon ttle:-door. At fi rst, my--·app-e-ara nce ~~reated some pa nic,
onder Cl'=persOfl ina the Germ an--unif-orm: shows up in the middle of
rtight,uut soon,. everybody calmed down and over a bottle of
Pll awe-- diose us s-ed--m y f ut u r eo;
They decidea-that for :t-ime---being-I =-ShOlftd stay with them and he
discuss-with tfrEf~Brigat-a Ga:FFb-atdi OTgam-sat~on the next step.
the-n--ex"t:step'wa-s to stay ~ntlle vnlage and use my uni.form, my
llU!'4¥N1e d9 e- of{; e r man "tan 9 uag-eca n d ttte-:-ar my -:p:r--6:C e diu res fo r the
f",~wirementso-f the' ofganisat'ien. I m-oved around mainly at night as
SC1'ft:e"" Germ an-s-- i-ncth e viII age-:eou Id stHf--re cogni-se me.
On the 2srd-of Ap~ril, r~ the~or-der cam:e -from the Committee of
. 9"rrai Li b era:tiu-n i n-M i lan,wf1 ich :-wa-s·co-O'Rtillat i ng the activities
aTF-(}US partisaFfgroups,·"to=come out- in to-~tire open and hinder the
c..:rTI3~ fetreat to-:trre north- and prevent them--=:blowing up important
Dti.f1omgs an-d insta+tat-i-ons.--Our· group-'e-stabl~hed a position on the
f'Catt- leacH:flg-north-from Brescia- with--one machine gun and various
mem-of weap-on=-s,. s:g;me captured from ttm Germans, some
~~ed b:~rtlre allres cmct:-some-h:tmttng :shotgun-s. Several cars were
~~~ed arrd=-s-earched-amtcsome= fa:S€:fst and NazEo-pfficers detained.
er at night a large army column approached We fired a few rounds

54
from-our-macnine -gun--,-and--tltey st.g:p-ped :andanswered the fire. A man
standtng-:next to mefe-tl crown -bt:J;t---'uckiiy it:was onlly a slight f1:esh
wouAd- in-th-e- -thigh-. Im:3-Qine, to-he- killed in the last moments of the
a-r!
-Because- of,the da:rkness, the Germans' couhi-nlt see how strong we
e-te-anckdectded--'t-o--go back-to13rescia. Next day there was still some
actto-n in- cBresci:cr:-wll-ePe Na:z-is and fa-~i:st5 barri~ed themselves in
e --otd~-castle:-rr()t:"w-anting :t'o::surrend'eI::-becatJSe of fea,r of retribution.
_ate-F ~A the I1U)-fn.ng- the Americans-arrived and that was the end of
e ffgtntil g,~
This-n-ight we---ce+ebrat-ed in-t-h:e-viltage the -etld of the war at
eborly-'s-,place, -our Schmeisse-rs-fG-erman ,~chine pistols] and guns
p:ed lleg:l1gentry:~,on-tile--sofa:mix~'up: with-th:e-;coats. Sudden~y
7eie was: banging-'orr--rlre doors~wfircil'was forci~y open and iln came a
~a:rn, of s:otdFers rn-camouf1age uJ'll:toFmS and b~.ack berets. We didn't
who -t1Te-y we'fe:t'here w-ere still' a -lot of biinds of fanatics
'an and Ge-rm-afT-SS -and the-s:e -looked H:k-:e some of them. Couplle of
girls fainte"d,'one-m'an jum-p:ed throug:h-the rear window and we
em't re-ach--our-we:aponsllt all happened so q-U-ickly. But it soon
sp-ire-d-that thes-otdiers were m'emb-ers of~th:e Italian army with
StIT-Amerrca:-rr army, patrofting tire village: ctrecking the curfew and
e attractred by t-h:-e----lightsa:Ad noi-s-e-we were milking'. This was my
fright of·"the-wa-r. It was hoard to-believe, but it was all over and
'r-!'tia-ftJ"nedtt all differently. -N'"at-urally l'-w-as v-ery h 9 Ppy but I didn't
-all thi-s . exhila:rattoh wh-ieh: one-:--n:a:t-urally.: sn01\lld feel at such
. I was btrrnto-ut, I didrt't----know-:h-g:w to tive-::;in the normal world.
lVe-d:~ but--my home; fa mily---:and -frrerrds were all gone. It was like
-..r=""u'u­ rrewtytroF-ff;-sta.s:ing my life from scratch. Well, that is all.

t happened after, hat is another story.

55
 rndex of Irrustrations

PaQ.e No.

-0,,1 .:Upper: Birth Certificate

.-Lo.w.e.r: .. Ei.r~ tiD Car d

02 Jan:u3:f)' 1 94Z: Lwo-w-- W:i eli c z k a

-Be~emter rjf4Z: Wieliczka - Krakow - Lwow
.October 1942: Lwow - Dnepropetrowsk

(}s -Upper: -E}rganisato'R="~dt-:tf) Card

-tUWer: -~Ifmade Travel Document(Marsch Befehl)
F o.rmalLy.­ ' in-va.LW ate d' .

04
­ Ma-rcn - :$71ay 1943: ~pr-QPe.~rowsk - Kertch
Sim:feTopol -.. -Lwow --·'K'Fafrow: -j
- Krakow - Dneprostroy - Simferopol - Yalta -
Simfe.ra:-p.o..L

05 . .KJ;ako.w.. .t.9.4c3: - Vis i tin g Co u sin Ric h a r d

I

0.6 .NQyember 19J4:3: '-Srrrrfe-r opo I - W~ s a

":.M;ax-ch .,Ap[i:J-·V-g:~4:--0des5·a - i<rolewska Huta - Berlin
-B--e=r4in - -KrakG-w- - Lwow -.. Galatz - Gstanza - Bucarest
- S-o:ft-a:­ -- 'PTew d i=w -Sw i I ~~ d
S..w.Hengr.acL- Plowdiw - So.fia - Bucarest - Vienna

07 .opper: -Leave-·Ex:t·ensrcm -for my Pay Arrangements

... -La. w.e..!~- A r my.. RaiLw.3¥- T Lei< e t Q, des s a - Be r lin

08 -Upp-er: Home - made proof of my German Nationality

Lower: Lu~twaffe Paybook, page 1.
I

56
 9­ My Luftwaffe Pa)'book

o Border Pass from Rumania to Bulgaria

iu:Jy- V944:-V4~ - Berlin

-B-e-rJin - B 0 ve z z 0 (B res cia)

Z The. f. i-e1d--Co-lJ-r.L-Ma.rtiaJ Ver:d i ct

3 Stojen Marching Order blanks returned to me after

-l" e1ease_ fr:.o.m AI:'m y-o,j a i I.

Upper: Army Railway Ticket Wien - Wolfen

Lowe r:-Leave D.ocllmegt

5 D§cemb:er 1 ~'-4~4~ B-rescia - -K:u:fstein - Wolfen

January 1945: Wolfen - Berlin - Vienna - Bovezzo
<6rescia)

6 M.y l uft wa:ff eS:oUf·b trth

January.. 1944: W-~th Heinrich M:arcy and Poliwoda in
frent 0 f-:t)-d-es s aGfre=ra
.. Octob.er:.. l..9A4: My..-l?lat.oo.n. in--B·o.vezzo (Brescia) Italy

17 'ert i Hcate"o:f Associa·tiOll with the Partisans in

~rthern Italy fromd l.O/~/1944 to 25/4/1945

18 -·'Upper: -Army ·Railway· T:i-c'k"et Bukarest - Sofia

Lowe r: .Marching.. Order towards Turkish border

19 September1942: Krakow - Russian border - Lwow

57
 .... '.' ..'"":; ,..:"!F':-. .. '
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~""."ua.E1IAt.

Upper:Birth Certificate

Lower:My first LD.Card.

 t~

Sf
BLACK

Jan.1 942: Lwow - Wieliczka

Sept. 1942: Wi eliczka - Krakow - Lwow
Oct.1942: lwow - Dnepropetrowsk
 I' .'.,: •
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- o. U.,
vrganisation Todt

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SLACK

March - May 1943: OnepropetrolJsk - Kertch - Simferopol - Lwow - KrakoU1

Krakow - twow - Oneprostroy - Simfero pol - Yalta - Simferopol
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Krakow 1943 - visiting Cousin Richard_

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Upper:Leave Extension for my Pay Ar,rangements

Lower:Army Railway Ticket Odessa -' Berlin.
 Eing. 2 3 FE! 1944~~~~~t ;~
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B e 80 h e i n i g u'n g.'
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Hiermit wird be8ch~ln1gt,d,a8s de!" OokoAdam

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in Vlerz;y/F~ankre,lQh/ d.e-ut8~he. VolkszugehCirigke1 tiet ":'\Ul4"~}ri,~,;~

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BLACK

July 1944: Uienno - Berlin

Berr in - Bouezzo (Bresci 0)

ganisation Todt
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fehl ist nach Beendigung de~.!:sJ:irl dem am Zielort " Wagenmeister oder Kolol'lnenfiihrer abzugeben•.

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Stolen Marching Order blanks returned to me after release

from Army jail_
 14

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Upper:Army Railway Ticket \Vien - WoHen

Lower:Leave Document_
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 My Luftwaffe Soldbuch

Heinrich Marcy
of Odessa Opera
October 1944: My Platoon in Bovezzo (Brescia) Italy
 '.

GRUPPO NAVE

lIIav., 11~~.. ~.~:.1~.~.~.. ~

TolontArio Lax~l~••• ba .911aborato a~tivamente

""ejS1:ino,( o1o~ dal III) agosto d'~I~l;944 !1~Rr~125/~a9t5..~ .

.
llIIul'tez~one ~~e.tand.1.· 8'nt.·, ... ~,.Ul~ al"'~4-~:-~

91 oonferma

ssociation "'With the Partisans in Northern Italy

to 2'5/4/194'5_
...••....".ay Ticket Bukarest - Sofia
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(alit
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