Zofia Szostak - 1985
Husband's Experience
We were supposed to be allies but they started arresting us right away, you know. And uh, my husband, at that time he was, he was my fiancé, you know, and uh, he, he had a, a Partisan unit in, unit in uh, you know, in the upland, you know, not very far from, from Bochnia. And he ask me, you know, because they were going, and he had to go from one village, he slept one night in one village with his unit, in another and another and another, was being chased all around. And there was always possibility maybe a village could be burned, you know, or there would be a reprisal for, for other people, because the Underground existed because uh, had the backing up of the people, otherwise it would not exist. It was during the German occupation and the same was, was after Russian came. But they decided uh, that this was too dangerous, and he uh, sent a messenger to Kraków, to his, to his commanders, and he ask for permission to leave Poland and uh, try to go to northern part of Poland, and later from over there, from Gdynia, or Gdańsk uh, to Sweden, lots of people choose this way. And he says no, the uh, you know, the commander over there in Kraków, said no, you have to, you have to stay where you are, do what you, what you doing, we cannot lose people. But after little while uh, they just, they just decided that staying this, this would be too dangerous. And they disbanded the whole, whole unit, and everybody went some other place, and I was, I was getting some papers uh, because at that time I worked, I worked at county building, you know, and uh, I got some, some papers for them uh, this was called like a pass, sztuczka, pass that you could go to another, another part of Poland. Because at that time, you couldn't go wherever you wanted, you know, you had to have a pass in order to even be on a train, because they would ask you question, "Where you going? Where you going?" You know, they could arrest you or something. So, I got those papers for, for the unit, and I was sure uh, he was already...because I didn't hear for, from him for a long, long time, and I was sure that he was out of, out of the district, out of that area altogether. Then I found out one day, this was about the time when we were passing um, those last exams, you know, from, from the teachers' course, and I was sitting with other, other, some of my friends and studying, and somebody knock on the door, and a, a boy I knew only, you know, because I saw him occasionally, but I didn't even know, know his name or, or anything, he came up, he says he wants to talk to me. And he asked me on the, you know, on veranda, and we, we talked, and he said ??? would like to see you next uh, tomorrow, be at certain time. And this is when I found out, you know, that my husband was uh, you know, uh, was still in that area. So we met, uh, on the same street next uh, next day, and then he took me by wagon to, you know, into hill country, you know, over there where he was with some, some of the members, and he said to me he, he just wants to say good-bye to me because he has to go, go and leave, he said I don't know if we ever going to, going to see each other again, and uh, this is when I decided that wherever he would go, I would go also, you know. And I, I told him uh, "I am going to get those papers."
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