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Karol WIERZBICKI The life stories of many immigrant Poles are the life
stories of the Polish Soldier marked by the events of the Second World
War. Some of these life experiences were shared by hundreds of thousands
or even millions, others by small communities.
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Karol Wierzbicki was born on July 13, 1916 in Meducha, a village near Halicz in the Voivodship of Stanislawow. In 1937 he graduated from Marshal J. Pilsudski Grammar School II in Stanislawow. In September of that year he was drafted to serve in the 11 Carpathian Infantry Division and attended the Infantry Reserve Officers School, where he decided on a professional career in the military. In 1938 he was sent on a two-year training course to the Infantry Officers School in Komorow. The outbreak of the Second World War in September, 1939 interrupted his theoretical studies and forced Karol Wierzbicki to put the acquired knowledge into practice. As an officer cadet he had taken part in the dramatic struggle against the Nazi and Soviet invaders. Like millions of others, he saw and experienced the discrepancy between the government propaganda and the rapidly developing reality of war. On September 18, 1939, when he and his detachment crossed the border with Hungary in Jasina, it was officially called an expedition for arms and supplies for the fighting army, and not an evacuation. A general malaise among Poles, caused by the September 1939 defeat did not kill all hope or initiative. As early as December, 1939, while on a holiday pass, 2Lt. Wierzbicki made his way from the camp in Esztergom, where he was interned, to the Polish Consulate in Budapest. On January 3, 1940 he left Hungary, and through Yugoslavia and Italy arrived in France. Thanks to his youthful appearance he travelled posing as a student. On January 6, 1940, the "student" reported to the Polish Army's Reception Station in Bressuire in the Department of Deux-Sevres. Here, he received confirmation of his promotion to the rank of a second-lieutenant in the Polish Army (with seniority from September 1, 1939). Three days later, on January 9, he was sent to a training camp for army officers in Chateaubriant. One day, a high ranking army officer from the Independent Highland Rifle Brigade (Samodzielna Brygada Strzelcow Podhalanskich; Brigade des Chasseurs de Montagne) came to the camp. He informed the studying officers about the recruitment to the Brigade, which was being formed in the Polish Army camp in Coetquidan. The Brigade became a part of an expeditionary corps, which was to aid the Finns fighting against the Soviet invasion. One of the criteria for the recruits was the ability to ski. Among the volunteers - lead by the sense of soldier's obligation for combat duty - was Karol Wierzbicki. When the volunteers were asked to stand, he felt someone behind him lightly tugging on his uniform jacket. Then came the anxious whisper: "You're still young, comrade. Why do you want to go?". On February 25, 1940, Wierzbicki received his assignment fo the Brigade. On April 23 the Brigade embarked on transport ships in the port of Brest. For the Brigade this was the beginning of the Norwegian Campaign. In Gen. Szyszko-Bohusz's speech, at the officers' briefing the day before the departure for their mission in Norway, one part made a particularly strong impression on Karol Wierzbicki: "I take with me a few meters of the Cross of Valour ribbon, but also the Court Martial". Sailing to Norway under wartime conditions took about two weeks. To their amazement and amusement, during the woyage the soldiers heard a German radio announcement about their own supposed sinking. Among the soldiers, as well as the officers, there was a general feeling that the next phase, after pushing the Germans out of Norway, would be the liberation od Poland. From the time of the Norwegian Campaign a small and seemingly insignificant episode was especially memorable for Karol Wierzbicki. During one of the military operations, on the Ankenes Peninsula, he and his platoon were based on a jutting and isolated outpost. He was invited for a drink by the officer in command of the neighbouring outpost. This invitation was overheard by his subordinates, who happened to be nearby. One of them, seeing the commanding officer leaving the outpost, said with a tinge of resignation in his voice: "If you go, Sir, then we'll all get killed here". Without much thought Wierzbicki answered: "If you'll get killed, then I'll get killed with you". "So, will you go, Sir?", asked the soldier. "No, I won't". And he did not go. Of course, nobody "got killed", however, this small incident made it clear for the young officer, how important, regardless of age and experience, the immediate commanding officer is to a soldier. Paradoxically, the tragic defeat of France by Germany in 1940, the sight of organizational chaos, and low morale in the French Army helped thousands of Polish soldiers, who took part in the French Campaign, to regain some emotional balance after the September 1939 defeat of Poland. It also helped them to shake off all unfounded feelings of guilt from the defeat, as well as to regain confidence and the will to fight on. The demobilized Polish soldiers, who had not been evacuated from France to England, due to the irresponsible actions of the Polish state and military authorities, were organized into so called Labour Companies in the territory under the Vichy Government. The volunteering officers were directed to keep up the morale and continue to work with the soldiers. Officially, according to the French authorities orders, there was one officer for every forty soldiers. In fact, there was one, "demoted" to the rank of a NCO, for every ten soldiers. On August 1, 1940, in the 803 Labour Company arrived 2Lt. Wierzbicki - "Sergeant Soroka", demobilized officially by the French authorities on August 31 in Camp de Carpiagne in Marseille. For this voluntary "demotion" and involvement in much needed work with the soldiers he received personal thanks from Gen. Juliusz Kleeberg. He values it as much as the distinctions he was awarded. On March 25, 1941 he received orders to break through with four other soldiers (Piasecki, Torba, Dybek and Gumienny) to England via Spain. The mission failed and 2Lt. Wierzbicki was sent to Evaux-les-Bains, near Marseille, for training for company commanders (July 4, 1941 - September 21, 1942). From September 22, 1942 to July 14, 1943 he served as maintenance officer at the Officer Camps in Le Mont Dore and Yssingeaux. While on duty he opened himself up to the hostility of higher ranking officers for refusing them preferential treatment which they expected as a reflection of their rank in the military. As result of this conflict, on July 15, 1943, he was sent to Carcassonne, near the French-Spanish border, to command the route to the Pyrenees transfer outpost - a part of the Polish Evacuation Service (code "Eva" from "eva-cuation"). The aim of this undertaking was to transfer the Allied military personnel (those, who were not evacuated in time following France's collapse in 1940 and remained in hiding; escapees from German POW camps; airmen, who managed to avoid capture after being shot down over the German-occupied territories) from France to England. Also, to maintain a transfer route, available for couriers and special assignment agents. 2Lt. Wierzbicki and his outpost's activities did not go unnoticed by the Germans. On September 16, 1943, due to the action of a German agent, who infiltrated the organization, Wierzbicki ("Chomik") and two of his collaborators (Lt. Piotr Glowacki - "Pierre", and Zygmunt Szulwic - "Zyg", who probably died later in a concentration camp) were arrested by the Gestapo. Wierzbicki was accused of smuggling people (Menschen Schmuggel) and after two weeks of investigation and a stay in solitary confinement in Carcassonne prison, as well as four weeks in the Campiegne concentration camp, he was sent the Buchenwald concentration camp. He was then transferred to the Dora-Mittelbau camp, known for its use of inmates as slave labour on the production lines of V1 and V2 missiles. For some reason, unknown to him even today, the Gestapo was convinced, that 2Lt. Wierzbicki was familiar with plans for the Allied invasion of Western Europe. One day, in the early stage of the invasion, Wierzbicki was transported from Dora-Mittelbau to nearby Gestapo headquarters, where they attempted to obtain information of this operation from him. Of course, this interrogation did not contribute anything new to the Gestapo's intelligence about the invasion. However, during the interrogation, Wierzbicki had enough time to acquaint himself with a wall map, where current developments of the invasion were shown in detail. He was filled with a renewed sense of hope. As a prisoner of concentration camps, Karol Wierzbicki witnessed the unimaginable moral degeneration of the oppressors and the utter physical deterioration of their victims. Although he survived, the threat of death was ever-present, as he witnessed the deaths of inmates every day. A particularly deep impression was left on him when the Hitlerites hung twenty prisoners accused of sabotage. Fellow-inmates were forced to watch the execution, which was done to prevent any future acts of sabotage. Freedom, which came on April 15, 1945, was preceded by a transfer to another concentration camp - Bergen-Belsen, known for its horrible living conditions. In post-war Europe the picture of material destruction was made complete by the multi-million war machines rumbling in all directions, remains of defeated armies, throngs of disoriented civilians deported by the Germans from various countries, and prisoners released from POW and concentration camps. Sudden freedom was sometimes a shock for the former prisoners. The horrors of the concentration camp's life obliterated their memories of the past, leaving only one thought and one desire - the will to survive. Now, freed and left to their own devices, they could not always find themselves, fit in, and return to where they left off before the war. The above was in some way experienced by 2Lt. Wierzbicki himself. After his liberation, he travelled through half of Europe and on June 16, 1945 joined the Gen. Anders' 2 Polish Corps in Italy. The horrible concentration camp experience made him forget that, according to regulations, as a soldier, he should first report to his superior, who sent him over a year ago to the transfer outpost in Carcassonne on the French-Spanish border. Sometime later, in Scotland this superior, Col. Jozef Jaklicz gave him a joking reprimand when he wrote in a letter: "You are drinking Scotch whisky there, and here I am offering money for Mass for your soul". He had been convinced that Wierzbicki perished in the concentration camp. Although the war was officially over, in Italy the expansion of the 2 Polish Corps was still in progress. The Poles were hoping that the possibility of a truly independent Poland, sold as a bargaining chip in Yalta by Roosevelt and Churchill, would not be given up for good, yet. That is how on June 22, 1945 2Lt. Wierzbicki was sent to the 16 Pomeranian Infantry Brigade (64 Pomeranian Infantry Battalion) of the 2 Warsaw Armoured Division. However, the hopes for an independent Poland did not
materialize and the 2 Polish Corps was demobilized. Karol Wierzbicki,
now in the rank of lieutenant (with seniority from July 1, 1943), after
a few years spent in England, started a truly civilian life in Hamilton,
Canada. This however, was preceded by a one year long contract on a
Canadian farm in Quebec. • Many documents, photographs and military decorations were left as proof of his eventful past, among them: the Cross of Valour and the Norwegian Deltagermedaljen for the Norwegian Campaign as well as the French Croix de Guerre avec Etoile d'Argent and Croix du Combattant Volontaire de la Resistance. December, 1995 Karol Wierzbicki passed away on September 14, 2001 in Hamilton, Ontario Translation: Agnieszka K. Marszalek
Last modified June 30, 2009 4:32 PM |
