Diary Notes

         Part 2 - Captivity.

         1. Excerpt from the diary without corrections
         2. ..................... illegible text
         3. [Supplements and explanations related to the text that were added during the Uprising]
         4. ---------------- no information

         06.10.- piątek.
         I got up at 3.00. It was horribly cold. We were given bread and some margarine. For dinner we had vegetable soup. Our predecessors were just leaving. We had some more room.
         I met Wojtek .................. .Then we went to bed.

         07.10. - Saturday
         Our ............... regiment was leaving. We had a really great soup for dinner; I took three helpings of it.
         We left in the afternoon at 6.00. There were 52 in one car. [people].
         There was not enough room to stretch your legs and relieve oneself. [The only possible way to relieve oneself was through a hole in the floor, which was filled with the broken neck of a bottle instead of a funnel. The rest had to be relieved at random stops.].

         08.10. - 11.10. - Sunday until Wednesday
         -------------- [We did not know where we were heading for. We passed Poznań, Berlin, Hannover; we used to wait at the sidings on our way. Sometimes we could hear and see the air raids. Finally we were getting closer to the Stalag Camp XI B in Fallingbostel.]

         12.10. - Thursday
         We went to the bath- house. They took our clothes to be deloused, and we went to have a warm shower and then came back. To feed six of us we got one loaf of bread (1,40kg), some margarine, fish and soup for today.
         Everything slowly started to settle down. We received numbers, mine was 140334, then we had to give photographs and state the acquired professions.

         13.10. - Friday
         At night there were sirens and [allied planes]. flying overhead. Ours played football. With a loaf of bread we always got something extra - some cheese and fish. For washing two pieces of clothes I could go to the hairdresser's.
         Soon we would go to work. We handed over the money.

         14.10. - Saturday
         On Monday we were supposed to get sheets of paper for writing.

         15.10. - 23.10. - Sunday until next Monday
         --------------------

         24.10. - Tuesday
         We were going to the bath-house, only 123 were called out for departure. Pack up ................. some bread and dinner; pack up and there will be a search at 13.00.

         25.10. - Wednesday
         We left at 5.45. We got provisions including one tin of food for eight of us, and two loaves of bread for the trip tomorrow afternoon. The trip was long ................... There was nothing to eat and it was cold. I bought a loaf of bread for 50 marks. The escort was bad either ..................... heavily ................... .

         26.10. - Thursday
         -----------------------------

         27.10. - Friday
         We were in ................. [Harlingerode close to Oker in the Harz mountains]. Tomorrow we would probably go to work. [in a copper smelting plant]. They were disappointed [the Germans] because they needed specialists of ............ trades. ............................ maybe they would send us somewhere else.
         The railway station where we had waited for 20 hours and had left at 7.00 was bombed at 12.00.

         28.10. - Saturday
         We were tidying up the yard from 7.00 until 13.00. It was raining and everything was getting soaked. The work was not hard but very dirty. They said we would go to the bath-house after Sunday.
         Old Wachmans [the guards] left, the new ones arrived. They were all right. ................... They also behaved well ........................ .
         I wish I could get a letter and write home.

         29.10. - Sunday
         There was no mass. We went to work at 8.00. .......................... the weather was fine. [The view of the mountains in autumnal hues was beautiful.] ]. The work was very pleasant.
         For dinner we had meat, cabbage and potatoes, but it was not enough for me. [We ate potatoes with peels]. For supper we had sweet barley groats..

         30.10. - Monday
         At 8.00 we went to work. Some of us did not go, I had bad luck, it was raining again.
         I horribly got wet. It seemed that in some ................... better. The shoes were extremely wearing out.

         31.10. - Tuesday
         We were in Harlingerode .......................... the rains. The trans-shipment of boxes from .................. . The worst was that it was still raining.
         The foreman was good. We worked from 7.00 until 13.30 and from 14.00 to 16.00.

         01.11. - Wednesday
         The best part was that we became skilled. But it was still raining.

         02.11. - Thursday
         Today it was better. It was not raining. The alarm rang out because there was a huge number of bombers and other fighter planes. [The whole sky was so full of airplanes that the earth was trembling. We were working outdoors all the time. With heavy hammers, we were breaking pig iron castings for further remelting].

         03.11. - Friday
         ------------------------

         04.11. - Saturday
         Today from 6.00 until 12.00. Again ...................... junk. Three men escaped from the [smelting plant]. A Wachman hit one, but three of them reacted keenly

         05.11. - Sunday
         ..................... it did not rain. It was much better to work. I was only weak and still hungry. I had no cigarettes, ..................... however I got used to it a bit.

         06.11. - 07.11. - Monday - Tuesday
         --------------------

         08.11. - Wednesday
         ............................. There were air raids everyday. They were reportedly ................. bombing.

         09.11. - Thursday
         The work was not that bad because the foreman was good, but the food was lousy. All the time I was walking hungry.

         10.11. - Friday
         -------------------------

         11.11. - Saturday
         4 prisoners escaped again, but this time from the barracks. They should have escaped from the smelting plant not from the camp.
         [This was what the chief of the camp told us, because then he did not take the responsibility for it!]

         12.11. - Sunday
         This day we were off, but throughout the week we started at 6.00. We had to work for 60 hours a week. The dinner was very scarce as usually.

         13.11. - Monday
         We were pouring copper ore. It was a lousy work. The soup was so bad that we did not eat it..
         Only the foreman was a decent person, ......................... , were still worse.
         I did not give up hope that it all would be over one day because they were talking about negotiations.

         14.11. - 19.11. - Tuesday until Sunday
         -------------------------

         20.11. - Monday
         From today I started working at "lorki". [these were narrow gauged dumpers used for disposing of sulfuric waste.] The work was better than it seemed to be [but it was also hard, especially the rolling of the dumpers along the old rails, rotary points, etc. The work required much struggle from us.] I worked from 6.00 until 15.30. Three times I had a soup of dried carrots!
         I was awaiting an answer from Poznań. I wanted to go there. I was constantly thinking about it [escape]. It was pretty far away.
         I did not like the Poles here, who for everything ................. .

         21.11. - 24.11. - Tuesday until Friday
         -----------------------

         25.11. - Saturday
         I received money order to the amount of 20 marks from my auntie Toli from Poznań. I was really glad about it.

         26.11. - 27.11. - Saturday - Sunday
         --------------------

         27.11. - Monday
         There was a great number of planes in flight. They shot down a few German ones. I saw it.

         This was the end of my notes from the diary. Because there were a few more events worth making a note of, I decided to write them down briefly before they left my memory.

         Each prisoner of war had the right to escape, at the same time risking being caught and serving the sentence back in Stalag, not always the same one he escaped from. Because we were having a hard time, my friend Czarek Kiliman and I, decided to escape without much belief that we would ever get to Poland, but hoping, among others, that our situation would improve.
         Having put off the date of our escape a few times, we finally carried out our plan around 10 December, simply by leaving the premises of the smelting plant and heading for the railway station, where we purchased tickets and got to Magdeburg. Unfortunately there our escapade was over. When we were coming out of the tunnel, a young civilian stopped us and ordered us to show him our papers. We showed him our prisoner of war numbers and told him that we were the veterans of the Warsaw Uprising. Hearing this he declared that he knew Warsaw well, because he had worked there on Szucha Avenue (this was where the Gestapo Headquarters were located!) Our knees were knocking when we heard this, it could not have been any worse. We were facing the threat of being sent to the concentration camp.
         Meanwhile he led us to the Wehrmacht Station and spoke against handing us over to the Gestapo, demanding instead, to notify the Military Headquarters and send us there as veterans. We could have expected everything but such a fortunate ending. It was one more instance of escaping, maybe even, death!
         As a result we were transported to Stalag XI A at Altengrabow, south of Berlin. After a short stay in a temporary barrack, where we barely avoided the threat of being eaten by lice, they directed us to a so called "penal company", and then, for three weeks, to the custody.

         In the "penal company" they kept before sending them to custody, fugitives from different countries, even nine-time fugitives, were the biggest con men which was why the atmosphere there was so extraordinary. The custody itself was unpleasant, because it was during a harsh winter in the Christmas time from 18.12.44. until 09.01.45. Besides it was located in an unheated stable with only wooden-plank beds, a thin blanket to cover yourself and lousy food.
         We spent the whole three weeks lying close to each other and trying to warm ourselves up or walking around the cell talking about good food. The rest of our stay in the camp was better than it had been before, which meant, we managed, more or less, to accomplish what we wanted. The work was not that tough, we worked indoors and were getting food parcels (very few) from the Red Cross and the UNNRA.

         At this point it should be mentioned that once a day in the morning we were given dry provisions for two days (like in the previous camp). The elder and more experienced ones knew how to divide them properly, whereas the younger ones ate everything at once. Then we had dinner, nothing for supper and breakfast. Then dinner again, no supper, and all the same from the morning. It was very unreasonable, but continuous hunger did its job. When parcels arrived the situation was similar. They were filled with various good things [unfortunately in very small quantities] such as tinned meat and cheese, some fish, jam, chocolate etc., which eaten at once on an empty stomach triggered obvious results, and ended up in a never-ending line to the "john." It seemed to be funny, but only in memories.
         The parcels also contained good cigarettes that Wachmans eyed greedily. From time to time we gave them one, but in exchange they had to say "Poland has not yet perished!" This was how the Third Reich collapsed.

         I recalled that one of the prisoners of war in 1939 was also Konstanty, Ildefons Gałczyński; who, among others, once recited to us his beautiful poem written in the camp, entitled "Biało-Czerwona" (White and Red).

Janusz Gunderman


translated by Lukasz Glowacki

Janusz Gunderman, born on November 24th, 1926 in Poznan the NOW and the Home Army Corporal pps. "2671", "Janusz" "Gustaw Harnaś" Battalion "Aniela" Company prisoner of war no. 140334