The author was born in 1913 in Grochów near Sokołów Podlaski. A professional NCO, he took part in the defence of Poland in 1939. He ended up in Stalag I A in East Prussia. At the end of September he was taken to Baalau (today Balewo) near Sztum where he had to work on the land until he escaped in June 1942.

In May 1935 I joined the army at Zambrów – the 71 Infantry Regiment. In 1937 I completed my NCO training. In March 1939 I completed a divisional NCO course which lasted one year at the 33 Infantry Regiment in Łomża. Once that was finished I was sent straight to the 7 company, 3 battalion, 71 Infantry Regiment in Zambrów. I took charge of the third platoon. In charge of the seventh company was Capitan Klemens Janitz. In April 1939 my platoon was sent to build fortifications at Wizna on the Narwia river. We stayed here until 30 August 1939.

On this day Major Jakub Fober, the commander of the third battalion, 71 Infantry regiment, took over the fortification construction project. In the evening after regrouping in the area of Wizna‐Pstręgowo, command of the seventh company was taken by Lt. Stanisław Świstek and he took the whole battalion from Wizny to Czerwony Bór.

On 7 September, I received an order to take a recon platoon in the area of the villages of Szabły Stare and Szabły Młode. It was very difficult but there were more volunteers than were needed. After giving orders we set off. Leaving the forest we came to the built up area of the village of Szabły Młode. When we found ourselves in a large meadow I saw the moon as the cloud cover broke. On the right flares went off and then there was machine gun fire. We hit the ground. I remembered that there was a drainage ditch nearby and I sent soldiers to it. During a lull in firing and in the dark we pulled back there. Fortunately no‐one was wounded or killed and the Germans had given their positions away. On my return I made a report and the command decided on a plan of attack.

At dawn on 8 September we attacked and captured the enemy positions alongside equipment, vehicles, tanks, weapons and food.

During an attack on Zambrów from the village of Poryte on 11 September there was a long and bloody battle with the enemy. The Germans were firing at us with artillery and machine guns. In this long and hard fight we had many killed and wounded. Our commander was fatally injured and there was nothing I could do for him. I saw him die in pain amongst the potato plants.

On the night of 12–13 September after various attempts to break out of the enemy envelopment, we were forced to surrender. The Germans took our weapons in the village of Łętownica near Andrzejewa. I thought that the fight would go on despite having been taken prisoner and I had hidden our records. I knew that my family would suffer as soon as I tried to escape and I tried to protect my family from any consequences that this would entail. Therefore I gave them a false name, false address and false date of birth and refused to give them my rank.

We were taken in the evening of 13 September under a large armed guard to Zambrów to the barracks of the 71 Infantry Regiment. We were kept on the roll call square. Our barracks now looked a little different. There was barbed wire everywhere, guard towers with machine guns and German soldiers everywhere. Many of those who were now prisoners had been in 71 Infantry Regiment, so we knew the area well. We thought of escape. Around midnight when we were sure that the Germans were asleep, we tried to get out via the mounds near the firing range. This was a fatal mistake. The Germans were on their guard and had thought of escape. When we broke cover, they turned the searchlights on and it was as light as day. They opened fire from the guard towers. We were sitting ducks. We had to lie absolutely still until dawn. There were many killed but also some who got away.

After this nightmare we were put in a column of POWs at dawn. We were taken from the barracks to Łomża. It was awful. It was only 30km but many Polish soldiers fell from exhaustion and the German guards hit them to make them continue. I was hit several times with a rifle butt in my back when I tried to get a tomato which one of the locals tried to give me as we passed through a village. It did not get any better. At the barracks of the 33 Infantry Regiment at Łomża we were kept on the roll call square for two days. We got nothing to eat. I heard a field kitchen that was handing out food but we did not see it nor did we see anyone eating. I gave someone my watch in exchange for a small piece of bread. The watch was the only thing that I had brought from home. During 16 and 17 September we were force marched through Jedwabne to the railway station at a place I cannot recall the name of. There we were loaded onto covered cattle wagons and taken to the camp at Stalag I A which was located at Riesenburg, which is today Prabuty.

Life at Stalag I A was very difficult. We were kept in old uniform warehouses, equipped with wooden shelves at various levels which was where we had to sleep. The ceiling was very high, to get to the top, we had to make a pyramid, otherwise there was no other way of getting up there. We had nothing to cover ourselves with at night. The only clothing we had was that which we had upon us on capture. After around a week they started to break us up into small groups and take us to different places. As I told them that I had been a farmer, they took me with other farmers to work on the land.

The ten of us were taken by a German guard to the place we were to go to. We got into a vehicle and headed off into the unknown. In the evening we got to a large farm. We learned later that this was in Baalau (today Balewo). The nearest station is at Waplewo Wielkie which is near Dzierzgon in the district of Sztum.

The guard, or “Wachmann” in German, could decide if we lived or died. From dawn to night, he walked around with a rifle watching what we were doing. He gave us work, handed out our food. He could punish us and shoot us if we tried to escape. We lived in the attic on the farm. On the ground floor there was a place for storing milk and bottling it. There was not much in our room. There was straw for sleeping, a table and two benches. That was all. There were two barred windows high in the wall. The work was hard and needed a lot of strength, especially in spring and autumn. In the autumn we picked sugar beet and put them on carts and took them to the railway station where they were loaded onto wagons. In the winter we soaked wheat and stored the beets. In the spring we cleaned the farm of the manure which the cows, horses and pigs had left. We took it to the fields to act as fertiliser. We did the hardest work, as fast as we could as the wachman did not allow us to rest.

The wachman was changed every few months. One wachman I remember particularly well. His name was Abramowski and he came from what is today Nowe Miasto Lubawskie. He hit me with the butt of his rifle for leaving without permission for a few minutes to go to the well to drink. We had not received any clothing, only the Polish uniforms we had been captured with. We did everything in them and despite trying to look as soldiers, we could not stop them turning to rags. The only payment we got was small meals which were handed out by the wachman and a few marks which was hardly sufficient to buy shaving cream, razor blades and toothpaste. We got Sundays off but we did not go to church as it was too far to walk.

There was no contact from home. My family did not know where I was and how I was doing. This was because from the very beginning I had planned to escape and was worried about the safety of my family and therefore had not given my real personal details. I was waiting for the right moment to escape which would need the right wachman to be guarding us. Although the conditions were bad, we were healthy but suddenly several of us got ill and I managed to pretend that I was ill too. We were taken to a doctor by train under escort in a separate compartment. If I remember rightly, the clinic for POWs was in the pressure tower in Morąg. The doctor was a Polish POW like us. He was very nice and talkative. One could trust him. When I took my clothes off, I told him that I was healthy. He asked why I was there. I told him that I was going on a long walk and I would like something to build my strength up. He asked me how far and I told him that I would be going to the Białystok region and others in different directions. He thought for a few moments and told me that he had family in Kupientynie in this region and would like to be there too. However he was more useful where he was for the moment. He told me that it would be safe there and that they did not look for people like me who escaped, however village heads decided who would go for forced labour to Germany. He gave me some vitamins and medicine and shook my hand with a lot of pressure. He wished me a pleasant journey but to only go to Central Poland and that everything would be OK there. I took this strong handshake to mean that he agreed with me about my escape. I left his surgery and saw many Polish soldiers waiting in the corridor. I could not talk to any of them as each group had its own wachman, who stopped any form of conversation. I joined my friends and thought of my conversation with the doctor. I thought maybe I was with him too long compared to others. Maybe the wachman was suspicious. I was very worried, especially after our wachman was asked to enter the surgery of the doctor who had examined me. Whilst he was in there, another wachman with his own POWs guarded us.

When we returned to Baalau, we discussed the matter. We agreed that the beginning of May was the best time to go. It was warm, there were leaves on the trees and the wheat was high and would allow us to hide during the day as we could only walk at night. We agreed that we needed to prepare things for our journey – mainly food although other escape equipment was also necessary. We could only get bread but there was never any left over. Another problem was how to break the bars of our cell.

Mr Rutkowski gave us a lot of help. He was the night watchman on the farm. He spoke good Polish. One day when the wachman was not present he told us not to worry about him. He was from Masuria which before the war had been part of Germany but in his heart he was Polish. He asked us not to reveal to anyone that he had spoken to us as he could be killed for it. It was hard to talk to him as he worked nights when we were locked up. Sometimes however he was around during the day on rare occasions. He suggested that we pray for an end to the war which maintained our spirits. We treated him as a friend. We told him our plans. He got bread for us, saved from his own meagre helpings. He got a piece of metal to us to be used to break the bars and he left a ladder under one of them. Thanks to him we had a chance of escape.

We counted off the days until spring. We believed that we would soon be free although we would still have to fight for the freedom of Poland. We decided upon several dates for our escape, at last deciding on 23 May 1942. That day I will never forget.

We went to sleep at 21:00. At this time the guard would come and we had to leave our uniforms and boots in the corridor. We could only collect them in the morning. Then the guard closed the entry door at ground floor level and took the key with him. This night we managed to trick the guard. We took our clothes off but we left only our trousers and overcoats and kept our uniform shirts and underwear. The wachman did not notice and went to where he slept. We waited for the light to go out and for him to go to sleep. Around 23:00 we sprang into action.

Two of us broke the bars and the others then used the blankets which we had formed into a rope to lower us. In order to dullen the sound of the bars being broken we wrapped the metal with a blanket. The bars were however much stronger than we had thought. We tried on the second window and managed to make a small exit and I got out in either fifth or seventh place. My heart was pounding when I reached the ground. I looked around me, I wanted to get out of this hated place. As I ran, from time to time I could hear one of my friends behind me. After a while I slowed down and stopped. I needed to rest before continuing.

After a short rest, I continued on my journey towards my family. It would be a very long way home! There would be many dangers on the road. I had nothing on my feet and needed to avoid settlements. Every step brought me closer. During the day I slept in the wheat. I walked at night following the stars although I did not always have the right weather and frequently got lost.

After several nights walking in the dark through fields, my feet were injured and I was in a lot of pain. Hunger was even worse. The bread had not lasted long. I ate things I found in the fields like roots and young spikes. I was very happy to find a pile of smelling rotten turnips – my first huge breakfast! At other times I could find some hay or something similar.

One day I saw someone approaching me. I hid but when the person was up close, I noticed that he was carrying scythe on his shoulder. I decided to let him see me. When he saw me I saw how afraid he was. I am not surprised! I was very thin, unshaven, bloody, my clothing had turned to rags and probably looked more like an animal than a person. When he pulled himself together he asked who I was. I told him that I had escaped from a POW camp and was very hungry. He was very kind to me, he gave me his own food. After a talk lasting several minutes, he asked me to come with him. I followed him at a safe distance. He took me to the home of his cousin who lived with others a short distance from the village. My saviour left me in the charge of a nice family and then went on to cut the hay in the meadow.

The family was poor but very hospitable. I could wash myself, shave and they gave me clothing and shoes. I looked more like a person. They gave me food and took me to the barn so I could rest. In the evening they invited me to eat with them. I saw the whole family. I told them what had happened in the POW camp and how I had escaped. I was happy that after so much time in captivity and doing forced labour I was at last amongst my own people. They told me that it was only 6km to the border between Nazi annexed Poland and Nazi occupied Poland. I was warned to be very careful, it was dangerous and they explained how and where to cross the border.

I thanked them all for their help and we said our goodbyes. I was off with a full stomach and bread, cheese and a bottle of milk for the journey. From then on I did not have to hide so much. It took me 34 days to get home after my escape but thanks to the assistance of the many nice people I met along the way, I made it back to my family home in Grochów in June 1942. Polish prisoners.