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51 Marian D~browski After the war, Czelny settled in England, where he completed his higher education at the Polish University in London and at the University of London. A distinguished engineer, he was made a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1973 for his services to the automobile industry and to textile technology . MARIAN D~BROWSKI After the death of our parents, my two younger brothers and I lived in the Henryk Dietz Orphanage in Bydgoszcz, which was run by the Sisters of Charity. Many of the boys in the orphanage belonged to the Boy Scouts. When the war broke out, we took part in intelligence and observation work, helping the Polish forces in Bydgoszcz. We wore our Scout uniforms and our troop leader even had a small pistol. We were very excited and thrilled to be involved with the Polish Army. On one occasion, we were on duty at night on K6scielecki Square near Bemardynska Street when we heard a rustling sound. We saw some armed civilians hiding in the churchyard of the German Evangelical Church. Since we knew that there were German fifth column units preparing something in the town, we immediately informed the nearest unit of the Polish Army. By the time a Polish patrol arrived, the Germans had disappeared, but during the subsequent search, the patrol discovered traces of broken boxes inside the church, which led them to the church tower. Upon climbing the tower, they found a mounted machine gun covered by a rag. On September 5, we looked out of the windows of the orphanage and saw soldiers slowly approaching. We knew at once that they were not Polish. At first we thought that they might be the French or English army and our spirits rose. Then with horror we realized from the markings on their helmets that they were Germans. We tried to escape through the windows on. the opposite side of the building, but the Germans had us surrounded so we went back inside. The Germans threw us all out into the street. Nuns and boys stood huddled together surrounded by German troops, with several machine guns pointed at us. All the civilians who were in the building were 52 Out of the Inferno taken away; many were shot. The Germans threatened to shoot us all if the mother superior did not give them the information they demanded. One of the nuns spoke excellent German. She assured them that there was nothing hidden in the orphanage, and eventually they let us back into the building. We still wore our Scout uniforms. Now we took them off quickly and hid them in the huge attic of the orphanage. One day the mother superior received orders that boys between fourteen and sixteen years of age were to report to the SA [Brown Shirts] office in Bydgoszcz. Mother Superior complied with the order but sent the gardener with the four of us. I was sixteen and the oldest; Mieczyslaw Cichosz was fifteen, and the other two, Czeslaw Jelka and Teofil Pilarczyk, were fifteen and fourteen, respectively. We still wore short trousers. The SA told the gardener that they could use more boys like us, hoping no doubt that he would leave us there. But the gardener insisted that he had been given instructions that on no account was he to return without us. The Germans insisted that they would look after us and that in any case we would have to undergo a medical examination. We were taken to a room that looked like a doctor's consulting room and kept there for a very long time, but no one came to examine us. We decided we were being kept there deliberately because the SA wanted to overhear what we were saying. Eventually, we were allowed to return to the orphanage on the condition that we reported to the railway station the following day, February 27, 1940. Little realizing what was in store for us, the nuns had gotten us ready as well as they could, but we were very inadequately dressed. The winter of 1939-40 was a very hard one, yet under our jackets we wore only sweaters and our orphanage suits with short trousers. We had no coats, gloves, or heavy boots. When we arrived at the station, we saw a large crowd of adults. We were the only boys. We had no idea what was in store for us until the Germans told us that because we...

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