Skip to main content

Escapes and tunnels in Camp 13a

It's really hard to write about trips when we meet people who was so close to stories which aren't written in any books. Fear, escapes and longing that typical features which appears very offten in memories of POW's relatives. This time we heard amazing story about three escapes and liberation by Americans. We really admire people who decided to visit our city sometimes for few hours only to see footsteps, places connected to Stalag but moreover to their personally history. Below we present you a brief from Michael's trip to Torun which is trully hard to publish at all. But belive us information about tunnels in Stalag XXA really suprised us! 

Our trip over to Poland was wonderful and our accommodation at Hotel Spichrz was fantastic. 
The studio was on two floors it was like an apartment but without the kitchen. I would recommend the Hotel without any hesitation.
Prepeparation to trip 
 We started the morning with a presentation which my wife and found very interesting it was full of new and previously unknown information about my father and the prison camp. Pawel showed us a map of all the forts that are around Torun. He showed us on the map just where Stalag XXA was. I was very surprised to find it was south of the River Vistula I always believed it to be north of the river. So this was new information about my father. Then he told us all about the history of the forts. 
He showed us photos and told us detailed information about the P.O.W. Camps. 
On the footsteps
Then after the presentation we then went to see the Private Museum that is run by Piotr (Peter) Olecki at the Historical War Museum. Which was just a short walk from the Hotel Spichrz. This museum is truly amazing it crammed full of interesting artefacts and items which includes every day items such as food containers, Red Cross tins and boxes, games,related to the Prisoners of War and how their life was in the camps. Piotr then pointed to a sketch of a prison camp and said “That is XXA13 were your father was”. There had to be tunnels at least one because my father spoke of it saying they could only dig in the summer because the ground was too frozen in the winter months. 

We started next day with Hania and presentation and trip thru all places connected to my father.  I was standing in my father’s footsteps and seeing the same road that he would have seen all those years ago as that 20 year old man not knowing where he was or that was going to happen to him next....
We can highly recommend them. I would like now to take this opportunity to thank them for the marvellous work they are doing.

In Historical - War Museum
Labels:
Location: Toruń, Polska

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thanks this trip we've discovered new facts about POW from Stalag XXA in 1945

That was wonderful trip. During three days we saw couple of places connected with POW path of Jack Stansfield. Moreover thanks his son Michael we saw notes with memories of last days in Stalag XXA in Torun. In opposit to all facts which says that prisoners left camp in late december 1945 Jack wrote that they started to march on 21 january! That means that lasts groups of POW left camp in 10 days before Torun was liberated. Fortunatley Jack survived afeter he escaped from march. He met russians army and polish partizants. Below we presents you short memories about Jack and trip to Poland... My father was called Jack Stansfield, he was born in August 1918. He was brought up in the market town of Malton in North Yorkshire where his parents were publicans. He joined the Territorial Army in March 1939 and was mobilised on the declaration of war. Jack enlisted in his local regiment joining the 5th Battalion of the Green Howards. After a short time at the Regimental HQ in Richmond, North...
Post a Comment
Read more

Living conditions in Stalag XXA

Monthly bath in Stalag XXA Living conditions Lawrence Travers Dorins a former POW describes „fort XI was surrounded by a high bank and the fence around it with gates across the entrance road, on one side there was also a dry moat with a bridge on it. The bridge led to a tunnel” The fortress was covered with trees, bushes and earth so that the fortress could not be visible from the bird's eye. Prisoners slept in caponiers where initially were supposed to sleep Prussian soldiers. Yet PoW describes the rooms as if there were designed as rooms in the concentration camps. Rooms looked as semi tunnels. “The perpendicular walls were about 3m high and the height of the arched roof was about 5 m, wooden bunks provided sleeping spaces. Each room had only two small windows which obviously allowed no ventilation. Due to the end of the night the air was solid and everyone would have a headache due to oxygen starvation” .In those rooms kept approximately 32 men. There were three shelves whe...
2 comments
Read more

Just few hours to understand life in Stalag XXA(20A) in Torun

"I will always be grateful to Pawel for helping me understand better what happened to my father when he was captured by the German army after the fighting at Dunkirk. Like many former British POWs, Dad was reluctant to tell his children very much about what he had endured during the war. We knew he spent most of the war in German POW camps, in particular one in Poland. From his army records we discovered that camp was Staleg XX-A. I contacted Pawel at very short notice recently when I was in traveling with my husband in Europe. Pawel was able to meet me in Torun to walk me through the history of Staleg XX-A and some of the forts of Torun. My father, John Wilkinson, was with the British Expeditionary Force, serving in the  Light Tank Regiment of the 1st East Riding Yeomanry. We believe he fought at Cassel in France before being captured.  It was extraordinary for me to walk with Pawel at Torun where the British POWs disembarked, knowing my father would hav...
Post a Comment
Read more