European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

We weren’t told anything about this.

But they told us a great deal about conspiracy.

We didn’t know what it meant,

but our team leader, Michał Sianorzecki, who was killed in the Warsaw Uprising,

thought that it was very important for us to know what it was all about and told us a lot about it.

There was democracy in our organization and the troop council decided, because all our instructors belonged to the Home Army,

And me, very soon, I got into the BS, i.e. Combat School.

There were boys from more or less 15 years of age till 18.

Later you had the GS, i.e. the assault groups with boys between 17, 18 and twenty something.

This is where they had the squads like ‘Zośka’, ‘Parasol’, ‘Miotła’, some sabotage troops.

They did not want us in sabotage, we were too young.

Our scout authorities made it clear not to get us into sabotage.

Naturally, we cheated them a bit with how old we were.

Me, being 14, I got into a non-commissioned officer school, because, naturally, I lied I was 17.

Brother Jerzy’s commander found out that I was a scout,

that I was being trained in how to trail to do some intelligence activity.

They trained our perceptiveness, imagination.

I had to know all these gateway passages, shortcuts which often came in handy.

And my brother’s commander reckoned I might be useful for them as a boy in shorts.