Tag #157502 - Interview #100414 (Michal Warzager)

After six months had gone by and I was somewhat better, the hospital put me to work. There were storehouses with firewood, and they told me to guard them for the time being and that later they’d figure out what to do with me. After I’d got better and could walk pretty well – as well as possible, anyway – they discharged me from the hospital. The discharge papers said: ‘fit for non-combat duty’. I thought they’d give me a discharge from the army. I had nowhere to go, but still! But no, I was ‘fit for non-combat duty’. I was assigned to something called the Convalescent Unit, where they sent cripples like me to continue recuperating. We didn’t have any medical care anymore in that unit; I had to do everything for myself. In the hospital everything had been taken care of. Anyway, there I was in that unit, and officers would come around when they needed to reinforce their personnel. One day this major showed up and started looking everyone over as if we were cattle at a market. He looked me over and asked how old I was, what my name was and where I was from. I answered all his questions, and he told me to come with him. He picked out two other guys too – three of us all together – and took us to something called the Communications Unit. They had cars there with telegraphs in them, and there was even a woman who taught me to operate it.

I liked that unit. I was just a guard – we guarded the headquarters.