European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

The neighbours, as they stood, in fear would crouch!

Now whole of Warsaw knows

Every single kid and watchman,

Shoot, not to lose one’s touch

Why bother with the couch?’

Surrounded by German troops, escape

They attacked us there.

I was very ill at the time, because I had been marching for a long time

and I had some grazes on the leg.

The legs, always in long boots, were eaten by lice.

This was the time when you could take your boots off, taking time to scratch your feet stung by lice.

It resulted in festering wounds and infections. I had high fever, I couldn’t walk.

The commander took out the maps and tried to figure out how to get away.

He spread these maps and I saw how calm he was.

After all, the cannonade around meant we were going to fight.

And he was just lying there calm, on this blanket looking at the maps.

Apparently trying to get us all away from this trap the best way.

We had this cadet on horseback.

We asked him to ride to the left, to the right of the forest to find the best getaway out of the forest.

He tried a couple of times in various directions and each time he came back saying we were surrounded and there was no way out.