Tragic Sunday in Old Town - August 13, 1944
date:14 August 2011 Editor: Barbara Chojnacka
Warsaw Uprisingtrap tankOld Town13.08.201944
Fragments from the diary of the orderly "Pajek" from the second platoon of the company storm battalion "Wigry" covering the Warsaw Uprising period in the Old Town from 1st July 1944 to 2nd June 1944.
The memories of Barbara Gancarczyk in the video here:
http://solidarni2010.pl/n,728,8,mowia-postural-barbarbara-gancarczyk-8.html
The memories of Barbara Gancarczyk in the video here:
http://solidarni2010.pl/n,728,8,mowia-postural-barbarbara-gancarczyk-8.html
Paramedic Spider; photo: author
13.VIII Sunday:
In the morning, in the school on Baroque there is simply a service of O. Warsaw. The building is badly damaged. The bombing continues. They manage the evacuation of both office and branches. Back to Kilinski 1.
On Long Street, I meet my friend from Saska Kępa Zosia Martens. He's following a squad. Our paths are falling apart. We don't have time to have words with each other. Welcome and goodbye with a smile. You do not come to me that this will be the last grin I will keep in mind, I do not fishy that she will die in a very short time after our meeting.
In the afternoon, around 5:00 p.m. there is sensational news that our captured the tank on the street. We are in the quarters, on the I p. of the Kilinski home 1. We're going to the balcony, we're going to the windows. We can see the rolling tank with the fresh York Podwala. He's getting closer. The white-red flag floats over it. There's a crowd out on the street. There is general enthusiasm, joy. The tank reaches the barricade on the corner of Podwala and Kiliński. He's climbing up. Unfortunately, the obstacle is besides high, it stands. People are immediately spreading on 1 side of the sidewalks, from which the barricade is built. 1 more effort this time, successful. They're coming through. They're under our balcony. We can see the Boy Scouts sitting down. Among them are ten- to twelve-year-old boys in Boy Scout uniforms, with insurgent armbands. They're turning in Kilinski towards Long. We scream with joy, wave their hands, send kisses. They're stopping at the next house. The mechanics must have failed, due to the fact that the even 1 jumps out of the tank. We see him tampering with something. It's surrounded by a crowd of people on the streets. This crowd grows, swells. Old people, young children, run down the streets. Everyone wants to wipe as close as possible, to see that success is the most real fact, not the imaginary bush, the "duck" let go for a cheering.
It's a beautiful, hot, sunny afternoon. We're in the balcony. I'm the closest to the concrete railing, next to Janka. I can see everything perfectly.
Suddenly, within a fraction of a second, there's a flame in my eyes... I'm breathless, I fall to the ground stunned. With the remainder of consciousness, I realize: it's over. We must have been hit by a bullet... I'm dying. Last thoughts returned to your mother. It takes seconds or minutes, I lose track of time. Tearing, desperate screams, passing into an animal roar, snarling, groaning of people torn to shreds reconstruct my consciousness. I'm lying on the ground with any terrible blow in a pile of people standing next to me. I feel like individual underneath me is playing, crawling out to my room. I'm kneeling. Hands, my legs are sticky in my blood. The skirt in front is torn to shreds. I don't feel pain. Is that not my blood? I'm getting up. I'm taking a step. I find it hard to believe that nothing happened to me, that I'm not even hurt. We're focusing in the yard room. If that's the "shaft" there'll be another explosions. The flat is trashed, covered in rubble. Doors and windows ripped out of their furs. Broken glass on the level and equipment. Strings in the area where we dried our underwear, suspended by human shreds. The wounded are Isia and Szpak. I can't find Janka or Oli-Oli. They were right next to me. I'm going to the balcony. I stumble almost on a bloody human hull without a head or limb, thrown out here by force of explosion. The concrete railing of our balcony has been swept away. The girls could have fallen down. The view is so terrible, it takes all the courage. The cries of the wounded, the desperate calls of mothers, seeking their children are unbearable. I'm retreating to the paramedics' room. There's already a group of our surviving paramedics. They make dressings. I'm joining them. I'm a small distracted. With my trembling hands, I wash someone's eyes with picrin alternatively of rivalom, and I'm amazed he screams. I can see through the window, like in the yard, the common graves. Human remains are sometimes borne here in buckets. There's a fainting, horrible odor of burned flesh in the air. The origin of the tragedy has revealed itself. The captured tank contained a treacherous shipment of TNT with an incredible blast force. The Germans sneaked under him under the barricade and fled.
I sleep in the yard area with the wounded Janka and Isia. It's hard to sleep. It's the night of the drop. Allied aircraft fly very low. The German defence is just amazing. The sky is as bright as day after day from the spotlights and light missiles. The canonada of anti-aircraft weapons continues continuously until dawn. I find out in the morning 1 of the Allied aircraft fell on Honey.
All here:
http://www.eurofresh.se/video/pajak44.pdf
Rise day by day:
http://warszawa.wikia.com/wiki/Warsaw Uprising_-_13_August
In the morning, in the school on Baroque there is simply a service of O. Warsaw. The building is badly damaged. The bombing continues. They manage the evacuation of both office and branches. Back to Kilinski 1.
On Long Street, I meet my friend from Saska Kępa Zosia Martens. He's following a squad. Our paths are falling apart. We don't have time to have words with each other. Welcome and goodbye with a smile. You do not come to me that this will be the last grin I will keep in mind, I do not fishy that she will die in a very short time after our meeting.
In the afternoon, around 5:00 p.m. there is sensational news that our captured the tank on the street. We are in the quarters, on the I p. of the Kilinski home 1. We're going to the balcony, we're going to the windows. We can see the rolling tank with the fresh York Podwala. He's getting closer. The white-red flag floats over it. There's a crowd out on the street. There is general enthusiasm, joy. The tank reaches the barricade on the corner of Podwala and Kiliński. He's climbing up. Unfortunately, the obstacle is besides high, it stands. People are immediately spreading on 1 side of the sidewalks, from which the barricade is built. 1 more effort this time, successful. They're coming through. They're under our balcony. We can see the Boy Scouts sitting down. Among them are ten- to twelve-year-old boys in Boy Scout uniforms, with insurgent armbands. They're turning in Kilinski towards Long. We scream with joy, wave their hands, send kisses. They're stopping at the next house. The mechanics must have failed, due to the fact that the even 1 jumps out of the tank. We see him tampering with something. It's surrounded by a crowd of people on the streets. This crowd grows, swells. Old people, young children, run down the streets. Everyone wants to wipe as close as possible, to see that success is the most real fact, not the imaginary bush, the "duck" let go for a cheering.
It's a beautiful, hot, sunny afternoon. We're in the balcony. I'm the closest to the concrete railing, next to Janka. I can see everything perfectly.
Suddenly, within a fraction of a second, there's a flame in my eyes... I'm breathless, I fall to the ground stunned. With the remainder of consciousness, I realize: it's over. We must have been hit by a bullet... I'm dying. Last thoughts returned to your mother. It takes seconds or minutes, I lose track of time. Tearing, desperate screams, passing into an animal roar, snarling, groaning of people torn to shreds reconstruct my consciousness. I'm lying on the ground with any terrible blow in a pile of people standing next to me. I feel like individual underneath me is playing, crawling out to my room. I'm kneeling. Hands, my legs are sticky in my blood. The skirt in front is torn to shreds. I don't feel pain. Is that not my blood? I'm getting up. I'm taking a step. I find it hard to believe that nothing happened to me, that I'm not even hurt. We're focusing in the yard room. If that's the "shaft" there'll be another explosions. The flat is trashed, covered in rubble. Doors and windows ripped out of their furs. Broken glass on the level and equipment. Strings in the area where we dried our underwear, suspended by human shreds. The wounded are Isia and Szpak. I can't find Janka or Oli-Oli. They were right next to me. I'm going to the balcony. I stumble almost on a bloody human hull without a head or limb, thrown out here by force of explosion. The concrete railing of our balcony has been swept away. The girls could have fallen down. The view is so terrible, it takes all the courage. The cries of the wounded, the desperate calls of mothers, seeking their children are unbearable. I'm retreating to the paramedics' room. There's already a group of our surviving paramedics. They make dressings. I'm joining them. I'm a small distracted. With my trembling hands, I wash someone's eyes with picrin alternatively of rivalom, and I'm amazed he screams. I can see through the window, like in the yard, the common graves. Human remains are sometimes borne here in buckets. There's a fainting, horrible odor of burned flesh in the air. The origin of the tragedy has revealed itself. The captured tank contained a treacherous shipment of TNT with an incredible blast force. The Germans sneaked under him under the barricade and fled.
I sleep in the yard area with the wounded Janka and Isia. It's hard to sleep. It's the night of the drop. Allied aircraft fly very low. The German defence is just amazing. The sky is as bright as day after day from the spotlights and light missiles. The canonada of anti-aircraft weapons continues continuously until dawn. I find out in the morning 1 of the Allied aircraft fell on Honey.
All here:
http://www.eurofresh.se/video/pajak44.pdf
Rise day by day:
http://warszawa.wikia.com/wiki/Warsaw Uprising_-_13_August
