WARTIME GUIDES

"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...

Ken came to Toruń with his wife Sue tracking his father's steps in Stalag XXA (20A). His father worked in a workshop repairing shoes, clothes and theatre costumes. His comrades were Sam Kydd and Albie Tomson. The first one, after the war became a famous actor and the latter after leaving the camp died in the plane crach near Paris, France. Thanks to numerous documents and materials we were able to move back in history and see Torun in a wartime persepective. The reason for our visit to Torun was to try and identify and visit as many sites that my father Corporal Ron Harrison, 7th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, would have been at during his five years in captivity at Stalag XXA during the Second World War. Ron rarely spoke about his time as a POW but he did have a considerable collection of wartime pictures plus a number of hand drawn sketches from publications such as “The Prisoners Pie”, which was an official paper produced by the prisoners. Ron signed up...

        This time we had a great opportunity to host a son of Corporal Tom MacGrath from 51st Highland Division, Mr Tom MacGrath When Tom jr wrote to us, we were more than curiuos to learn about his father stay in Stalag XXA. It turned out that after spending two years in dreadful conditions of Stalag XXA, corp. MacGrath decided to escape from the camp. It took him some time to prepare the operation. But with help of local Home Army he managed to do so. The route was difficult and exhausting but fortunatelly through Barlin, Paris and finally Spain he got home safe and sound. Thanks to British Army reports, his son and grandson recently retraced Tom's footsteps, crossing the Pyrenees into Spain. It was a next thriving visit in which we actively took part! Hope for more!

Apart from learning new facts about Stalag XXA (20A) and preparing materials about it, writing articles and book chapters Paweł albo runs  radio programms about local history, obviously with the touch of Stalag and its forbidden history.

                    This Autumn, we found a very unique register! The register of burials in Torun's cemetery. Over 90 prisoners of war were buried at local cemetery and exhumeted soon after the war. We won't be publishing the names but if you want to know if your relative was buried in Torun, Poland, Stalag XXA do not hesitate to ask. fot. http://bit.ly/2AQ1Nhq

Only local guides and enthusiasts know how much do the signatures mean to Prisoners of War (Stalag XXA) and its relatives. This time we came to fort with another element of its history. A history of a soldier who wrote a sign in the cell but also took this unique picture!

 Today, Paweł went to his former High School to educate students about his passions. He gave a lecture about the importance of history and traditions in contemporary world. The students listened also to stories about Stalag XXA (20A).