2,600 German soldiers fought against the 205-strong garrison of stalwart Poles. The Polish garrison repulsed the Germans for seven days, before the depleted unit, suffering from exhaustion, severe injury and a shortage of food, water, ammunition and medical supplies, was forced to surrender on September 7th.
Anyway I was there and saw some of the actual buildings and bombed out barracks that are still standing there. I showed the class tons of pictures that I took when I was there.
My mom was taken from her home in eastern Poland at the age of 16 and was put on a train (a cattle car no less) and was sent to Aschaffenburg, Germany to work slave labor for the duration of the war. Her last images of her farm as the family was evacuated were the house and barn being torched. She worked in a cleanup crew. After the allies bombed the town, she would collect stack of bricks and would mix mortar and fix some of the damaged walls of buildings.
My dad, who came from Nowinka Poland was in the Polish Army and eventually worked in the underground and gave the Germans a tough time for a while. He was on horseback one time and was being chased by a motorcycle and sidecar with a mounted machine gun.
He remembered hearing the bullets whiz by his head as he hugged the horse. His saving grace was finding a freshly plowed field. The motorcycle got stuck and could no longer pursue him and he was able to get away. One time he was rounded up by the Germans who were going to retaliate by killing about twenty people because of the death of a German soldier. They lined all the people up in front of a ditch and with my dad being on the end fell back before he got hit. When he hit the ground he took off on all fours and headed for some nearby woods. He was able to hide in some bushes until they gave up looking for him. It’s a good thing there were no dogs or…..well you know.
Eventually he was rounded up and put on train and sent to Russelsheim, Germany where he was forced to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week in the Opel factory that was located there. He said what helped him survive those years was the fact that he befriended a German guard who would leave him some food every day in a secret location.
My folks both met in an internment camp were married in 1948, had my sister in 1949, and were both put on the USAT General R. L. Howze bound for Ellis Island. With the help of some cousins and friends of the family, they were able to make it here to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I also talked about my visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau when I toured Poland and how I felt when I walked into the showers that were used to gas the people, and the ovens that were still left standing there. This is something I will NEVER forget.
Anyway I showed the class several of the original documents that my dad saved from their time in Germany. I have the original picture ID’s of both my parents, along with the marriage license, inoculation papers, baggage claim, and meal ticket from the cruise on the ship.
The history teachers is young enough to be my daughter and she was so impressed with my presentation that she wants me to come back and talk to two more classes before the end of the year. She asked me if I ever taught. I told her I have never done anything like this before.
I had enough material to talk for about an hour and a half. It was pretty cool!
Ok, I could go on, but I don’t want to completely bore you guys.
I just wanted to share this stuff with you guys since the stories are real and pretty interesting.
Thanks for reading!!!
Bill
PS
Here are a couple pictures of the ship my folks came over on.
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