大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Janet Kowalska and has been added to the website on behalf of Ryszard Ganther with his permission. He fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

In 1943, I was 17 and living in Jaroslaw in south east Poland. I was living in the family house but was mainly by myself because my mother spent much of her time in Cracow looking after other family members. I attended the local technical college.

When the Germans invaded, all Poles had been required to hand in their radios to the authorities. My grandfather had a splended big Philips radio - the latest model - and he was very reluctant to part with it. He managed to hold on to it by acquiring, and handing in, a much older radio. The Philips was kept well hidden on the roof of the conservatory, in a waterproof wrapping to keep it safe. There it stayed, undisturbed for years, until my friend Wladek and I had a bright idea. We wanted to make a contribution to the war effort so we decided to listen in to the 大象传媒 on a regular basis and, using an ancient portable typewriter, clandestinely issue news about the war. Several carbon copies were made and these were passed to friends who then passed them on to other friends. It was, of course, a punishable offence to listen to the 大象传媒 - the broadcast always began with the words 'London Calling' - and my mother would have been very angry if I had put the family in danger by doing so. Nevertheless, as she was away from home so much, we got the radio down from the roof and hid it under a pile of clothes at the back of a wardrobe. We listened to 'London Calling' on a regular basis and secretly circulated our newsletters.

Later in 1943 rumours started to circulate that General Sikorski, the military leader of the Polish forces in exile, had been killed. Without thinking about what I was saying, I remarked to my mother that we should listen to the 大象传媒 to find out if the rumours were true. When she found that we had been listening in regularly she was furious that I had put the family in so much danger and made me get rid of the radio. She did, however, agree to let me join the resistance, the Polish Home Army.

Years later, in this country, I bought a small portable typewriter and used it to write to friends - including Wladek in Poland. Only in 2004, he replied to my latest letter asking me whether it was the same typewriter that we had used during the war as my letters were becoming increasingly hard to read as the print was so faint and malformed.

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