大象传媒

My grandad is called Stefan Szymkowiak and lived in the small town of Koscian and even though he is dead he was able to tell me his stories of his experiences in WW2.
My grandad was not at first in the Polish Army but was in a local defence unit, BON (Brygady Obrony Narodowy). He joined this in mid 1938. When the invasion of Poland began he was guarding a post office when he heard artillery in the distance. He then ran back home where he told his father the war had started. Him and his freind then rejoined his group and were told to move East for the defence of Warsaw
(unit was attached to the Poznan Army). The Poznan Army were hardly touched by the Germans at the beggining until around the beggining September where they were used for a counter attack on the Germans which my grandad took part in (at the Bzura). He got there by train from Poznan to Kutno. He said the journey was continually interupted from constant aerial attacks. He survived by the train stopping and him getting out, he did this many times, so i am told and i dont really know if his train was blown up. On one particular attack my grandad got out and with other soldiers, the soldiers hit the ground but my grandad was still running and one of the fighters saw him running and tried to strafe him. He ran to a tree where he avoided being shot by going round the tree, eventually it went away. When he got to Kutno he said it was being bombed and shelled, which caused great confusion. Here my grandad was split up from the rest of his unit and so with a friend walked to Warsaw which all he knew he had to do. On the way he saw sights of bits of human and horse in the trees, but there was a sad occasion when they both on the way stopped to eat at a German owned farm. They ate, but on there way out Stukas bombed the house. My grandad and friend came to do what they could but the owner/s had died. Finally they both found a unit and fought along side them. My grandad did not say or know where he exactly was but that he was in a foxhole firing at the German tanks and the soldiers. He said the fire was intense and it would cut you to pieces if you stood up, there was also constant aerial attack and artillery fire. He was there for a number of days (about 4-5) and was captured. He escaped with his friend and walked back to Koscian which took a month evading the Germans.
When he got back to Koscian he set up an underground group called the (group of four) with 2 others and his friend which would listen to the 大象传媒 and print news letters of what was going on in the outside world secretly to raise morale of the local people. He used to do this in an apartment and hide the radio under the floor boards, he also said that at night whilst he was there he used to hear the civilians being hearded into the wood and shot. They decided to expand to groups in Warsaw and so he sent one member of the group to go and tell them. My grandad said to him not to bring any of the leaflets as an example but he did. When he finally got to the German border (Germany had not invaded Russia yet) he was searched and whilst doing so the member ran away and ate the leaflet whilst running. When the Germans finally caught up with him he didnt have the leaflet but the notebook with all the members phone numbers and addresses which obviusly they would want to interrogate. On the night on the day this happened my grandad had a dream about the radio being found by the Germans, so he got up and went to where ever the radio was and destroyed it. My grandad also worked as a coal rationer and on the day he was arrested the gestapo visited his parents and asked if he was there, he wasnt but they told him were he worked. It was only after they had gone when their neighbours told them it was the gestapo. If he was found with it he would have been shot. The following day the Germans arrested him, the members of the group and my grandads brother (who was not in the group but the address book). They took them to a place named Fort 7 in Poznan where they were beaten up and interrogated. Sadly the first who was caught died there whilst the others survived. After this event my garandad was put on trial and was given six months in the camp Auschwitz.

Whilst my grandad was at the camp he was used to build the death camp Berkenau. Also at Auschwitz he saw Himmler when he went to visit. Auschwitz in 1940/41 was not a death camp but a political prison camp. It was only in 1943 that it became a death camp. When my grandad told me he was at Auschwitz i thought that it was the worst camps that he ever went to but my grandad told me the next camp he went to was a lot worse. Once my grandad came out of of Auschwitz he was arrested again by the Gestapo and sent to Mauthausen.

My grandad was sent to the camp. When he came to Mauthausen he stayed there for 3 days then they marched him 3km to work in the quarrys at Gusen ii (where he stayed, there were 3 and no ii was the worst), a satellite camp nearby. On the march he was punched and beaten, but did not fall or go out of line, if he did he would have been killed. He told me of many stories from this camp such as when he was coming back from Linz (which was bombed so he went to clean the rubble up) his friends wanted him to come into a train wagon because it was warmer but he didnt and instead went into the cattle car, in fact the one his mates were in was air tight. My grandad said that when they arrived at Gusen they were dead, its a good thing he didnt go into that wagon. He also told me that the Germans would commit two types of death apart from shooting the inmates at the camp/quarry. The first was an airmans death where they pushed you of the quarry cliff, another was the seamans death where they put you in a barrel of water situated outside the hospital. Another story was when a B24/17 was shot down over the camp the airman were all shot. (The Americans were bombing a bridge nearby)

The Germans at Mauthausen had weird ways of killing people such as the time my grandad was sent to the hospital because he had the flu, strangely whilst there they did not kill him as with others they did. They did this by injecting a poisen which stopped the heart, and apparently they did this once every two weeks. I also know of the time when he was hit with a butt of a pistol from a German officer across the face (which blinded him in one eye) that came into the kitchens drunk, along with another officer and a dog. An inmate was drowned and my grandad was gestured to leave by one of the officers who nodded to the door. He went back to his own hut. Apparently later the officer looked round the camp to try and kill my grandfather but could not find him. Many other crimes were commited, gassing, executions, and really was one of the most ruthless slave labour camps in WW2.

Pattons 3rd army liberated my grandad in 1945. After this he joined the Polish 2nd Corps in Italy and after was sent to England. He later met my grandmother, (who was also Polish) and married. At some point i dont know when my grandad and his friend met one of the Germans from the camp, his friend murdered him. This story is of many unheard off and im glad to say it was not only my grandad but the others of his generation in my family that took part in World War 2 as heroes.

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