Dear William, Daniel, Catherine, Michael (and Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),
Yesterday I told you about the celebration of my Mom’s 96th Birthday; and that my Mom told us the story of one of her training missions while she was in the AK. Well, my sister Olenka recorded my Mother telling that story, and she sent the recording to me, for you to hear it:
Here is an English translation of that recording:
[Time stamp: 00:00]
When I joined the AK, after half a year, in the summer, they organized a trip to a field somewhere, so we would learn how to survive; there was a burned-out house, it was totally empty, all the windows were broken; and we had to learn how to secretly enter the upstairs; how to get back down; how to hide if the Germans were hunting us.
[00:36]
And to get there, each one of us traveled to a different train station. There was about five or six of us; six, I think. And, so we would not be in a group, and each of us with …, how do you say it … [compass] … yes, according to a compass had to get to that place, to find the place where we were all to meet; because each of us arrived from a different train station; and then at that place we all met.
[01:14]
After those exercises, in the afternoon, we again had training exercises — lying down on the ground; standing up — and I got a terrible migraine; and I could not do these exercises; they had to excuse me from these exercises; I then … she was the director — I told her that I have from time to time these migraine headaches and I cannot move then; and they are ordering me to lay down, and to get up, and to crawl, and again and to get up, and to lay down, and this was the wort thing to do all these movements; so they excused me.
[01:50]
But at night there was a different exercise still — we were walking at night, and we had to walk, quietly, and cross a small river, that was not deep; the water reached up to the knees; so we had to cross this river, which was pretty wide, and then through the forest, we went, and to the train station, where we all scattered, so each one of us was in a different place, and returned home in the morning.
[02:30]
But, in the forest; no; the worst was when we reached the small river; you know, the water was rather swift, so when we were crossing it, there was such a noise from the water rushing; gurgling; so the water was scrambled and was high; and the neighborhood dogs started barking, because they could here this, and could sense that something was happening; but, thank goodness, no one came out, no one checked. We finally got out of the river, and we went into the woods.
[03:10]
When we were in the forest; as we were waling, and walking; and suddenly we heard some German conversations and singing — so we all scattered in the woods. Fortunately, there was a lot of ferns; and we all laid down flat; and we were laying under the ferns; and they — there was only one road over there, and they were driving; six of them, on jeeps; two jeeps; with lights that brightened everything around.
[03:45]
My hart was pounding; oh boy; hoping that they would not catch anyone; but they passed; and then, after a long time, we started to come out; and we finally got to the train station at dawn, and we took the train home; but my dress, at the bottom, was damp, and dirty … because, first we got wet, and then we lay on the ground; and it got muddy; but somehow, people did not notice.
[04:20]
I went straight to my school class; at the hospital — this was also all in secret; for the lecture, the professor would sit, knitting, and lecturing on medical subjects; and we would sit on chairs, or small end tables; we would all be sitting; just in case the Germans would come unexpectedly, and surprised us — we were just meeting and talking; only a private meeting.
[05:00]
With everything, we always had to conceal ourselves, and to hide. But this was a very big experience; when the Germans were driving in those jeeps; we were lucky that those ferns were there; so we could hide and lay under them, so they could cover us.
[05:42]
Love,
Dziadziuś Paweł.
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