WARTIME GUIDES

That was very interesting beginning of August. Since first messages from Jason, we knew that it will  not be a random trip. His grandfather was a prisoner of war who spent in Stalag 20A all war. During his imprisonment he sent a lot of letters and postcards which almost all survive! Thanks to that, it was very easy to see and knew more about places where he was. What is more, it was an excellent source to see how Germans organised system of support for local farmers and industry. Finally we heard a lot of interesting stories about Russian prisoners of war who helped western soldiers during The Long Marches To Freedom.

Very often we publish here stories about Edward 'Wally' Smith, a prisoner of war who was also in Stalag 20A in Torun. He escaped from here, fought in Warsaw Uprising 1944, finally he survived the war and who knows, maybe Karol Wojtyła (John Paul II) who talked with him in Krakow was one of the person thanks to whom he survived the war. Apart from this story, we had a great honour to guide  his family who wanted to see the footsteps of their relative. That was very emotional trip, full of new facts which we probably wouldn't know without this meeting.

During our research, very often we find out that offcial documents are not complete when it comes to detail information. It was like that when Paul visited us during his trip on war footsteps of his Father. Thanks his documentation we know that space offically dedicated do the officers were occupied by regular soldiers. What is more, we confirmed also place where was a dentist and we heard  many  stories about his proffesional work in Stalag XXA (20A).

      Six years ago, we initiated actions to build a new monument in Lisak village, app. 40 km from Toruń. During the IIWW there was located a hard labour camp (Stutthof subcamp) for civilians. Those people were captured and forced to built fortifications at the Drwęca River againts Soviet counterstrike. From memories we also know that there worked also Prisoners of War camps. Thanks to our initiative, local organisations, passionates and Institute of National Rememberance got interested into the topic. Now INR is conducting an investigation. Because we are almost sure that there is a massive grave of people who were killed during the evacuation.      There are plans to do exhumations, clean up the area, and demarcate a new path to the monument. Here a radio programme about the topic

     This month we had great plasure to help Carole and her brother Terry in researching their father's war path. Thanks to memories and pictures, we were able to show places connected to his history. There were also new facts about Stalag XXA and treatment of POW by the Germans; sometimes far from offical statement based on Geneva Convention.      We also vistited Malbork to pay tribute to their father's friend who was shoot just because he made an ugly comment ...

Pawel was interviewed by a journalist from a prestigious magazin: :"Wiadomosci Historyczne" about  Stalag XXA history and comunists camp after the war. That was also an interesting discussion about prespecitves of using old camp area in future education. Thanks such activites we are trying to promote knowledge about less known part of city history in which  involved thousands of peoples' lives all over the world.

          We are happy to learn that Tom McGrath who vistited us last winter, to get information about his father's stay in Stalag XXA between 1940-1942, captured at Dunkirk in 1940  (We wrote about his visit here:  https://bit.ly/2SRBqSf ) fot. dailymail.co.uk During his research Tom McGrath discovered that his father - Tom McGrath snr was given 3 medals:  - The Military Medal  - 1939-1945 Star  - The War Medal but he did not receive them in person. And now after 75 years his son, at the ceremony at the British ambassador's in Dublin got the medals! fot. dailymail.co.uk Read more about the story:  https://dailym.ai/2SRCEgj https://bit.ly/2FpoT5q