Editor’s Word: Extracts of Dad’s Story (Eugene Telesor Maciejewski 1916 – 1998) from “A Misplaced Heritage” by D. Mariana Robinson ©
My father’s story is one among trial, concern, hunger, survival methods, and eventual salvation in a foreign country. He was born in Poznan, Poland on 5th January 1916 however I do know little of his adolescence.
I visited his household residence in 2003, and noticed an oil portray on the wall, riddled with bullet holes. This portray was a reminder of the German invasion of Poznan on the 1st of September 1939. That day, my father had been working outdoors Poznan however strolling residence that night, he noticed a commotion with military vans on the town and heard gunshots and screams.
Germany had invaded Poland. He heard machine gun hearth, rifles, and shouting. Terrified, he hid in fields till dusk – by no means to return to his household once more till 1974. I can not think about what went via his thoughts throughout that invasion.
Dad stored underneath cowl and assuredly discovered his approach to the Polish Military barracks, to affix up, eat and have a mattress, earlier than understanding what he might do. After a brief quantity of coaching with the Polish Military, he was ultimately captured by Germans while out on maneuvers and brought prisoner.
World Warfare II began with a pact between Russia and Germany, The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed on 23 August 1939. As a prisoner of conflict, my father spent weeks being marched eastwards towards Russia. He quickly realized they had been being marched to their deaths.
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It was a short-lived pact, so by Spring 1940, after surviving an intense winter, dad was handed over by Germany to the Russians. They had been someplace within the deep forests of the Polish/Ukraine border. Many columns of Polish troopers in several areas of South East Poland, had been massacred within the Katyn Forest.
By June 1941, 1000’s of Polish prisoners had been additionally being moved in the direction of Russia earlier than dying from fatigue or being shot.
Poznan was annexed into Germany’s Third Reich, and Poznan Citadel grew to become a Nazi Headquarters, while Poznan’s residents had been both murdered or taken prisoners. This was genocide of the Poles on a large scale.
It’s laborious for us to understand the concern and trauma of conflict, at age 23, for we’ve grown up in an period of peace and prosperity in Europe.
To have the wit to seek out sanctuary with the Polish Military relatively than attempt to go residence should have left dad with a horrible concern, isolation, insufferable loss and probably a sense of betrayal of his household and family members, the destiny of whom, he didn’t know.
He was marched via the world identified at present as Belarus, and determined he needed to escape – if caught, he’d be shot and if he stayed with the column of males, he’d even be shot or die a gradual demise in a Russian Gulag in the event that they reached he rail heads. So why wait?
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A chance arose when his column was dive bombed by German Stuka planes, in late summer season 1941. The column scattered, Dad jumped behind a tree, in entrance of which a bomb exploded. From that day ahead, he was partially deaf. Within the confusion he escaped into the forest and simply stored working.
He spent just a few weeks stealing from farms and sleeping in barns. He quickly realized he couldn’t handle to get to freedom on his personal. He was drained, hungry and didn’t have a plan. Even constructing a shelter was simpler with two pairs of palms relatively than one. After weeks surviving alone, he knew he couldn’t survive one other winter.
He stored strolling south and got here throughout one other column of Polish prisoners, additionally being marched eastwards and fell in with these prisoners making associates with Kazimierz Majkut, from Volyn, Ukraine. A few years later dad discovered that the primary column of Polish troops he’d escaped from had all been murdered. His first escape meant he survived, and was a useful intuitive lie lesson.
He wanted to arrange a secret escape group. 5 trusted males systematically stole matches, knives, items of wire, a needle, cotton, string, or something that is likely to be helpful for survival that would simply be hid. They marched night time and day and had been by no means allowed to sleep – so aside from a brief night cease for skinny, watery soup and bread, they had been all quickly dropping physique fats, fatigued, coated in lice and winter approaching.
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Three males lined up collectively and two outsiders would carry a center man hanging on their shoulders, in order that he might attempt to relaxation taking it in turns to “sleep”. It rested their toes, as their boots and socks disintegrated in damp, chilly situations. Foot rot and different molds induced many males to fall and die.
My father, having escaped as soon as, knew he wanted to flee once more earlier than his power was sapped, his boots had worn out and one other Siberian winter got here. A handful of reliable males might survive extra simply than alone. They wanted sufficient provides for the primary half when working and hiding from Russian troopers. As soon as away from guards, they’d have extra time to forage, discover water and shelter.
One moonless night time, they captured the Colonel’s Bactrian camel. I discovered it laborious to consider that camels had been used as a way of transport in Siberia – however I we’re speaking of an space of Russia near the Afghan borders. They killed it by slicing its throat, skinned it, and took off each little bit of meat, fats and pores and skin, which they both cooked and ate, or lined their clothes with, all underneath the noses of their Russian guards. They rigorously secreted pores and skin for shoe leather-based and bigger items as safety from snow and rain. They should have smelled completely rancid!
As soon as ready, between darkness and daybreak, my father, Kazik, and three others managed to flee into dense forest. Subsequent morning, these 5 males had escaped and the Colonel should have remained perpetually puzzled on the disappearance of his camel with out hint!
They ran in a southerly route and as soon as away from guards, weapons and exercise, they walked south east – following the solar. They didn’t have a compass, however my dad knew that yellow lichen development on bushes might point out the best way. These bushy growths grew on ‘dangerous climate’ or north aspect of tree branches.
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In sunshine it was simpler to inform their route and time of day from its place and shadows. Initially the escapees lived by stealing from distant farms, fields, and catching fish with picket spears, or snaring rabbits and foxes with looped wires. They caught small birds and pelicans which populated river banks and lakes.
They ate fruit, nuts, seeds and gathered Delphinium seeds, if they might discover them, as a result of floor down with a stone and added to moist clay it was a remedy for head lice, though toxic. Their knives (two of them) had been their most valuable possessions, with out which nothing may very well be skinned, minimize or ready. Dad’s eager sense of scent as a younger man was very important for locating meals, noticing the scent of a fox, rabbit, different mammal and even looking for out mushrooms.
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They progressed in sunlight hours and made in a single day camps, so they might hunt, put together and eat earlier than shifting southwards, always preserving guard, quiet and unable to loosen up.
I had written down the title Saratov and pa thought this was the place they crossed the Volga River, which is many miles broad, and lengthy. It was unimaginable to swim throughout, bridges had been closely fortified and because it was now winter, they crossed the frozen ice.
A dangerous technique, but it surely was the one manner they might do it with out being captured.
He mentioned it wasn’t a lot snow and ice that killed you from frostbite however a penetrating icy wind. If you happen to might get out of the wind, you had an opportunity. In actual fact deep compacted snow allowed them to make snow holes or igloos for shelter.
Close to Saratov, there are quite a few islands which broke their icy crossing. They stayed near the river as they knew it exited into the land-locked Caspian Sea, however that might maintain them in Russian territory.
The escapees knew they’d be secure as soon as they crossed into Asia and had many false celebrations crossing rivers or railway strains till their dream got here true they usually had been out of Russia and free – however hopelessly exhausted and misplaced.
On the northern shores of the Caspian Sea, they encountered huge marsh lands and feasted on recent fish, a few of which they gutted and dried on rocks for later. They travelled East once more avoiding cities alongside the Western shores, resembling Astrakhan and Baku. The jap route was treacherous mountainous desert. Surviving this terrain required completely different abilities.
There have been no farms, orchards or remnants of civilization. They encountered blistering warmth in daytime and freezing temperatures at night time with nothing to eat for days on finish, which quickly began to take its toll. There was additionally a scarcity of water. To some extent, dad had foreseen these issues, therefore the preparation of dried fish.
They even ate worms! Not reside ones, but when he squeezed out the muck from inside, they may very well be sun-dried then powdered and saved. Dried worms, blended with just a little water later, had been a supply of mineral salts and protein, however tasted fairly salty.
Dad recalled catching a tortoise – not tough I suppose – after which cooking it over a hearth. 5 ravenous males had been so distressed to be taught there was solely slime inside its huge shell, and solely had a mouthful every from 4 toes and its head, by means of sustenance.
He additionally caught snakes, utilizing his fish spear, sharpened from a stick. He mentioned snake tasted like rooster, as soon as barbecued. Snake pores and skin was additionally helpful as a water-resistant insert in what remained of their boots. Any animal they caught for meals was skinned, stripped, blood collected as a supply of salts, and cooked.
They experimented with numerous strategies of cooking from a tripod above an open hearth, to the equal of an Umu oven or Hangi. That is the place you dig a gap, place items of wooden throughout, with stones on high. The hearth heats the stones because the wooden burns, then collapses into the outlet.
Place your meat, wrapped in a leaf you probably have one, then cowl it up with the earth you dug out, to permit it to gradual prepare dinner. This stops meat, notably bigger items, from burning in an open flame and after just a few hours it’s cooked. They then used the stones for heat at night time.
Earlier than this escape my dad couldn’t swim and needed to be taught, with the intention to cross rivers. However in mountainous desert there have been no rivers, no streams, no rain or any water in any respect.
I can keep in mind dad exhibiting me tips on how to make water from a barely indented piece of tarpaulin hanging over a gap. Within the warmth of a dying day, he would dig a gap, place a shell beneath within the middle, unfold his piece of tarpaulin above, weight the perimeters with stones, then make a small indent to permit condensation beneath to run into the shell. By morning, the rigorously positioned shell had gathered two tablespoons of condensed water. That is how he survived the desert with out water but it surely wasn’t sufficient to quench a thirst – simply sufficient to outlive.
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Solely my dad and Kazik made it to northern British India, via the hole between the Caspian and Aral Seas, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan into Afghanistan and thru the mountains of the Hindu Kush, by way of the Spin-Ghar Mountains and Pakistan. Different prisoners escaped too, however their routes are unknown to me.
This was an epic stroll of endurance, hardship, famine and sheer dedication. Dying would certainly have come if they’d continued to the railheads and Russian Gulags. They had been alive, misplaced, exhausted and hungry with solely their wits, nature, solar and the weather to depend upon.
Their three companions had died within the mountainous desert from hunger, exhaustion and sickness. The tragedy of getting to bury your mates, dying in these horrible circumstances after 1000’s of miles collectively, should have been soul destroying.
When dad was ultimately picked up in Northern India by the British Military, he weighed solely 4 stones 8lbs and was virtually shot when getting into the camp. British troopers didn’t perceive his language or acknowledge what was left of his uniform, and later, after translation and additional interrogation, discovered his account of strolling from Poland fully implausible.
Fortuitously, he and Kazik had been interrogated individually, each expressing precisely the identical story. Their military information had been checked. This was a 4,000 thousand mile journey on foot, via swamps, rivers, desert and the very best mountains on the earth, via all seasons. Dad’s toes by no means did recuperate – he had appalling smelly toes and suffered from fungal infections, corns and curling toenails, for the remainder of his life.
Finally, he and Kazik got here to Britain. They each joined the RAF and skilled as floor crew armorers and mechanics, the place their engineering abilities had been put to good impact. His RAF Service quantity was 703299.
He was stationed at RAF Church Fenton in Yorkshire with 303 Squadron engaged on Spitfires and Hurricanes, and in addition at Exeter with 307 Squadron, the Polish “Evening Owls” Dad had the owl brand on a field wherein he stored his treasured possessions and letters, together with a dance sheet from when he met my mom.
His rank was LAC (Main Aircraftman), the Polish equal is “Plutonowy” or Platoon Chief. Right here he developed his pastime of carving damaged Perspex windshields into intricate objects of magnificence, together with Spitfire brooches.
He “glued” items collectively utilizing Glacial Acetic Acid then sanded them which rendered them opaque. He polished them again to clear Perspex utilizing Brasso™ and a gentle material. He should have spent many hours creating Spitfires, jewellery containers, and different gadgets, a few of which I nonetheless possess.
Dad was extraordinarily intelligent along with his palms, notably with metal and Perspex, and had an creative and inventive thoughts. In his personal small manner, he stored spitfires within the skies over Britain to assist win the Warfare. His extremely lengthy stroll from Poland to India by way of Siberia, took him three lengthy years, and he served out the following three years of WWII within the RAF.
He was in a brand new nation, needed to be taught a brand new language then he married and had three daughters of which I’m the youngest, and I wouldn’t be right here if it weren’t for the truth that he had such a tenacious spirit for survival, escaped, walked and lived. He was awarded two Air Pressure Medals.
My childhood reminiscences are of working outdoor with my dad, serving to him assemble tasks, making an igloo collectively in 1962, or making home-made wine. He was form, had a love of nature, tenacious and very decided. I’m very like him!
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