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:
Stanisława Imiołek (1923-2022), a prisoner of several concentration camps. At the end of the war she was detained in Oranienburg. Due to the advancing front, the Germans organized a death march: they woke the prisoners up at 2 a.m., put them into columns, gave them half a kilogram of bread per person and forced them to march! After many hours of marching, the exhausted prisoners could spend the night at a barn. The prisoners found some oat and rye, which served as the only food they had for the next several days. During this pointless march, many people died of hunger, thirst and exhaustion. Those who lagged behind were promptly shot by the Germans. At one point, Stanisława Imiołek’s mother felt very tired and said she couldn’t keep on walking. Stanisława Imiołek and a midwife from Trzebownisko near Rzeszów, who still had some strength left, dragged Stanisława’s mother for many kilometers, holding her under her arms. The Germans finally ordered them to stop at a meadow near the forest. The prisoners were glad to have a moment of rest. Then they realized that the guards started to gradually disappear until the prisoners were left all alone. Two hours later, two motorcycles carrying soldiers drove up. One of the soldiers asked in Polish if there were any Poles among them. Stanisława Imiołek and her fellow prisoners realized that their suffering was over - they were free at last. The Polish Red Cross trucks arrived soon and took them to the former military barracks in the city, where the prisoners could finally eat proper food and start to slowly regain their health.
Copyright by Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego.