Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust

Eugeniusz M. Folta

66 Out of the Inferno The Soviet camps at Starobielsk, Kozielsk, and Ostashkov were initially used to imprison Polish officers and enlisted men who found themselves on the Soviet side of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Line, which had been decided by the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact. Fifteen thousand of these prisoners disappeared . Then in April 1943, the Germans announced the discovery of the corpses of more than four thousand Polish soldiers, most of whom were officers, in the forest of Katyn, and they charged the Soviets with the atrocity. The German allegations were correct; the Soviets were responsible for the mass murders. See J.K. Zawodny, Death in the Forest: The Story of the Katyn Forest Massacre (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962). After the war, Duszkiewicz was liberated by the Americans and joined the Polish Second Corps in Italy. From there she went to England, where she has lived since 1947. EUGENIUSZ M. FOLTA In June 1942, I started to work in an ammunition factory in Hasag in Cz~stochowa. In the concentration camp near the factory, there were several thousand Jewish inmates. I estimated eight thousand to ten thousand people. I had completed commercial school at the head of my class, and I worked in the factory's bookkeeping department, calculating costs. By virtue of my job, I had access to various offices and positions in the factory. At the beginning, I survived the selection of prisoners whom the Germans deported for execution. I tried to help the unfortunates in the concentration camp within the limits of the possibilities open to me. The inmates begged for bread and onions. Furnishing bread to the inmates was not easy because of the presence of guards. For giving bread, my brother was arrested and my father paid with his life in Gross-Rosen concentration camp. I received a special allocation of bread and vodka for working in the munitions factory. The vodka I exchanged for more bread, and often I gave away my own portion. I began to experience more and more difficulty in furnishing bread and onions to the inmates, but I found a way out of the problem: I became acquainted with two Ukrainian guards of the Werkschutz (Work Security). Today I cannot really 67 Eugeniusz M. Folta explain how that happened. Perhaps it was my attitude in not admitting my advantage over them. Knowing the Ukrainian language allowed me little by little to change their attitude and to warn them that, in the end, after Germany's defeat in the war, they would be hanged. At any rate, they began to help me in providing bread. Moreover , the two of them deserted at the beginning of 1944. I remember the name of only one of them: Jan Sabat, from the vicinity ofBoryslaw. One day, on my way to the kitchen, I met my friend from the gymnasium, Henryk Wodzislawski. Since he was a Jew, he ended up in the concentration camp. With his help, I established contact with the Jewish Fighting Organization, which was active in the camp. I arranged a contact between my friend Wodzislawski and the guard Sabat. He made possible Wodzislawski's flight to the partisans in Kielce in October or November 1943. An entire group [of Jews] also fled. I do not remember the circumstances; besides, it was better at the time not to know. Toward the end of November 1943, a messenger came to me carrying a letter from Wodzislawski, who wanted to establish contact with the Jewish Fighting Organization in the concentration camp. The messenger was a young girl who came once or twice a month with an infant in her arms. In the baby's clothes and shoes were letters written in code, newspapers, and money. (The underground press was printed on very thin paper.) I did not know then and do not know now the messenger's name. Nor do I know where she came from. Under the circumstances, it was better not to know. I remember the sums of money she brought. Each time we received an amount between ten thousand and fifteen thousand dollars. I remember because it was my obligation to give all of the money to the Jewish organization in the concentration camp. My first contact with that group is well fixed in my mind. The girl messenger told me to go to a watchmaker in the concentration camp and ask for someone who used the code name "Black One." It was necessary for...