JERZY WOJCIECHOWSKI – A CAPTAIN OF THE POLISH ARMY
The testimonies were collected by Artur Stelmasiak
During the war occupation I was a partisan in Puszcza Kampinowska. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising I and a group of soldiers were in Żoliborz. After fights for Gdańsk Railway Station, I was in captivity. I was taken to Dachau on 12 September 1944. Priests did not stand out among others in the camp, because we all were brothers wearing striped uniforms and had shaven heads. I was not long in Dachau, because as a well-nourished young man I was able to do a different work. First I was taken to Daimler factory and later - to a quarry. Please, imagine, that when we were liberated by the French, I weighed 28 kg. My body was only the skin stretched out on my bones…Since that time, I have been to Dachau many times. However, today it is particularly beautiful, because many priests arrived. It proves that it is our Polish day.
Natalia Prajs – she was a child in the camp
When I was walking through the gates of the camp today, I started crying. The Germans brought me here with my whole family in spring 1944. In this terrible place my sister was born. At that time I was a 9-year-old child and I did not completely understand what was happening. My mum was a beautiful woman, with long hair about which she cared a lot. When she was deprived of it, she was hurling herself, crying and I was crying with her. Children in the camp were crying or praying. I remember that my greatest dream was a slice of white bread because the camp bread was baked from some wastes and sawdust. Even today I live in such a way, so as not to waste bread.
Jerzy Trame – a Pole living in Munich
The 70th anniversary of the camp liberation is a very important event for Poles living in Germany. It is necessary to remind about what happened here, because there are tendencies of deforming the historical truth. When I observe the German public opinion, it seems to me that today more is said about the murdered homosexuals in Dachau than about Poles, especially Polish priests. Therefore, it is necessary to tell the truth about clergy martyrdom clearly. It was a death camp for them, and also a ‘factory’ of saint martyrs. Their attitude was often heroic because it is impossible to call the situation in any other way, when a starving priest gives his food to others. Therefore it is necessary to remind about their martyrdom and holiness.
AA
„Niedziela” 19/2015