The video was recorded by the Pilecki Institute as part of the “Witnesses to the Age” project.
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Our today’s interviewee:
Andrzej Augustynowicz (born 1931), prisoner of the camps in Pustków near Dębica and Ravensbrück. During his stay at the male camp, he was once sent to carry a package to the Siemens factory. On his way he encountered three Germans who were practicing shooting a Panzerfaust at a tank on a nearby hill. One of them called out to Agustynowicz and spoke to him in Polish, offering him to have a go at the weapon. Andrzej Augustynowicz fired the Panzerfaust once and the Germans sent him on his way.
During his stay in Ravensbrück he became friends with a group of Gypsies. When they were separated for a short while, as Augustynowicz fell sick with flu and was taken to the camp hospital, the Gypsies were sent to the gas chamber. If Augustynowicz hadn’t fallen ill, he probably would have died with them. He witnessed many other atrocities in the camp. After the evacuation of the camp he saw numerous corpses in the abandoned camp hospital.
His father took part in a death march, during which he witnessed instances of cannibalism. He was so weak that he was eventually abandoned in a ditch - luckily, the Germans didn’t kill him. When American paramedics found him, he was barely alive. He recovered after half-a-year-long stay in hospital.
Near the end of the war, Andrzej Augustynowicz was sent to a youth camp, where the majority of prisoners were young German criminals. One day his prisoner number was read out - it turned out that his mother in the female camp had spoken with the Swedish representative of the Red Cross, who managed to get him released. After many long months, Andrzej Augustynowicz was finally reunited with his mother and siblings.
Copyright by Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego
2 окт 2024
