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 Owsiński (born in 1919), before the war he lived in Pińsk, a town in the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939 he left Pińsk and encountered a Polish unit. When the soldiers started shooting at the aircraft flying past them, he told them that they were shooting at their own, i.e. the Polish "Łoś" aircraft. He was arrested under suspicion of spying for the Germans. Only after a senior officer arrived in the scene and confirmed that these were indeed Polish aircraft, Andrzej Owsiński was released.
On 17 September 1939, the Red Army entered the Polish territories and proceeded to lie to the locals, promising that they would helped them fight the Germans. At the same time, the Communist Party of the Western Belorussia tried to incite rebellion among the local peasants, who were planning to start a revolution and plunder any goods they encounter. A clever idea realized by the mayor and the starost of Pińsk resolved the situation.
Andrzej Owsiński attempted to flee Pińsk when the Red Army was entering the town, but he got arrested. The Soviets transported all the arrestees to Brześć on the Bug river, where they kept promising them freedom and a "communist paradise". However, Andrzej Owsiński and his colleagues did not believe them and they decided to escape. They later learned that in the meantime all prisoners from Brześć were deported in an unknown direction. After returning to Pińsk, Andrzej Owsiński decided to flee to the west together with his uncle, in order to avoid Soviet repression. While Andrzej Owsiński went to Warsaw, his uncle made his way to Białystok.
Copyright by Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego.
17 дек 2020
