European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Suddenly somebody started whistling ‘Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła’ [Polish anthem].

After some time I whistled back.

Then he says: ‘How many of you?’ I said ‘Just me.’

‘There are four of us’.

So there were four more smart guys like me who hid in the thickets.

Somebody had matches just to check whether we knew each other or not.

The ‘Szary unit had around 500 people.

So it was hard to know everyone.

For the most part these were boys from the Vilnius region.

Cause they were staying in Kampinos, and the ‘Dolina’ group with Vilnius and Navahrudak guys joined the Kampinos group.

There were a lot of them and they joined us. That’s why there were so many guys from the Vilnius region.

I asked them later on where they wanted to return, where to go, what to do now,

they said: ‘We’re heading to Vilnius. We’re returning.’

I marched on, said goodbye to those Vilnius guys.

Life of a partisan

After leaving Stefanów we moved to the Białaczow forests

and there lieutenant ‘Osuch’ came to me saying they were collecting a group of soldiers

who survived the Warsaw Uprising and were joining various guerrilla groups in the nearby forests.

If I wanted to participate in a group like that.

I agreed, naturally.