Selected text
When the war broke out [26], they didn’t open the door, the staff ran away… And they wanted to hand us over to the Germans. [Editor’s note: the area of Bydgoszcz was annexed by Germany, separated from the remaining Polish lands and Germanized.] Consciously or not, I can’t say, I don’t know for sure. On 1st September, it was a Friday, a bomb fell on the prison. The girls who were on the 4th floor panicked.
We asked Zdankowska, who was the chief of the prison, to move them downstairs and the woman told us, ‘When they drop bombs, then it’s going to be worse upstairs, but if there’s gas, then you’re going to have it worse downstairs.’ I was in the basement. One of the guards opened the door for us, we helped others and that’s how we got out. They had a cell for minors there, 15-17 years of age, so-called communists. They knew about as much about communism as I did, they were just fighting for a Ukrainian or Belarusian school. Or for land that they took away from them, in Volhynia, in Podolye [in 1921 Poland gained western Volhynia, eastern Volhynia and eastern Podolye belonged to Soviet Ukraine.] And there was a door with metal fixtures there, so we had to move some bricks. When we got out, a bomb fell and the wall collapsed.
People from the military units suggested that we should join them. But the Germans were close by. And we, with our stupid biographies… and stupid people who would have turned us in to the Germans at once… There were twelve girls in our group; the oldest one was Maria Kaminska, who became the president of Samopomoc Chlopska [27] after the war. So she was our leader, but I was the one who had to take care of all the outside contacts. Because I had a good appearance, Aryan, I spoke Polish perfectly and all the others were either Jews or Ukrainians, who didn’t know Polish. So there I was. And that’s how ‘Janina’ was born. And that’s how it stayed.
We asked Zdankowska, who was the chief of the prison, to move them downstairs and the woman told us, ‘When they drop bombs, then it’s going to be worse upstairs, but if there’s gas, then you’re going to have it worse downstairs.’ I was in the basement. One of the guards opened the door for us, we helped others and that’s how we got out. They had a cell for minors there, 15-17 years of age, so-called communists. They knew about as much about communism as I did, they were just fighting for a Ukrainian or Belarusian school. Or for land that they took away from them, in Volhynia, in Podolye [in 1921 Poland gained western Volhynia, eastern Volhynia and eastern Podolye belonged to Soviet Ukraine.] And there was a door with metal fixtures there, so we had to move some bricks. When we got out, a bomb fell and the wall collapsed.
People from the military units suggested that we should join them. But the Germans were close by. And we, with our stupid biographies… and stupid people who would have turned us in to the Germans at once… There were twelve girls in our group; the oldest one was Maria Kaminska, who became the president of Samopomoc Chlopska [27] after the war. So she was our leader, but I was the one who had to take care of all the outside contacts. Because I had a good appearance, Aryan, I spoke Polish perfectly and all the others were either Jews or Ukrainians, who didn’t know Polish. So there I was. And that’s how ‘Janina’ was born. And that’s how it stayed.
Period
Interview
Janina Duda
Tag(s)