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23 Zbigniew Bokiewicz matter further and inquired whether he intended to execute Hitler's brutal orders, the German demurred, saying he was an officer of the Wehrmacht and did not intend to carry out the orders. When the doors to the Jewish barracks were opened by members of my brigade, the scene that greeted us was one of absolute horror. The Jewish women were skeletons, barely able to stand. From the buildings themselves, the stench of human waste and decomposing bodies was indescribable. One Jewish woman hugged me and handed me a bundle, wrapped in newspaper. She said, "I was fortunate to hide a few dollars from the Nazis. Please take them for saving my life." Of course, I did not take the money. I told the woman that our reward was the satisfaction of knowing that so many people had been saved from virtually certain death at the hands of the Germans. The number of freed inmates from Holisz6w was approximately a thousand women of various origins, including Jews, Poles, French, Czechs, Romanians, and Yugoslavs. Born in Vilna, Colonel Bohun-D~browski commanded the SWi{!tokrzyska Brigade , composed of former members of the National Armed Forces, some of whom had an anti-Semitic reputation. Today Bohun-D~browski lives in retirement in California. ZBIGNIEW BOKIEWICZ During the summer of 1939, I was away from Warsaw. Since I was a Boy Scout, I was mobilized into the Pomocnicza Sluzba Wojskowa (Auxiliary Military Service) on my return to the capital. As a telephonist for the antiaircraft troop located on Barska Street, I took a call from headquarters announcing that thirty Polish bombers had attacked Berlin and returned without any losses. The news was read out to the assembled company. Since there were constant German air raids on Warsaw, this was obviously a Polish propaganda exercise. As the Germans approached Warsaw, Colonel Umiastowski ordered that all young people were to leave the city to continue the fight against the Germans elsewhere. Since I was only sixteen years old, my mother refused to let me go on my own, and we set out together. We got as far as a village near Garwolin. While we were 24 Out of the Inferno there, the Germans came and took away all the men between the ages of eighteen and forty. When we heard that Warsaw had capitulated, we decided to return home. There were rumors that Warsaw was starving, so my mother and I bought various foodstuffs, such as potatoes , to take back with us. After the capitulation of Warsaw, Polish authorities tried to restore a semblance of normality to our lives. Before the war, I had attended the Stefan Batory gymnasium, on Mysliwecka Street. This was a very exclusive school. The building had been damaged by machine-gun fire; the roof especially needed repair. But by the end of October, the school reopened. As far as possible, normal lessons resumed. The Germans soon abolished secondary schools for the Poles. There were to be only primary and technical schools. One day during class, the Germans arrived and told us all to get out because they were taking over the building for their own use. It became a German school. We took the precaution of removing the gymnasium records and some of the paintings. A portrait of Stefan Batory, and a copy of Jan Matejka 's painting of the Battle of Grunwald went to the apartment of one of our teachers. A week later our studies resumed as a technical school in a building on ChaXubinski Street. After about a year, the Germans realized what was going on and closed that school too. My education then continued in secret. Groups of six or seven students met in private apartments and the teachers went to the various apartments to give their lessons. Along with other Scouts, I distributed the Komunikat Radiowy (Radio Communication), which was copied on a duplicating machine, as well as the news sheet of the Home Army's Bureau of Information and Propaganda, which was published in German. Entitled Der Hammer , it purported to be anti-Nazi German propaganda and was intended to demoralize the Germans in occupied Poland. We dropped copies through the open windows of parked German cars or tucked them into motorcycles. Scouts also engaged in what was known as small sabotage-painting anti-German slogans and passing out antiGerman leaflets. Since the Germans showed mainly propaganda films or newsreels , there was a Polish campaign aimed at stopping people from going...

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