Miroslaw Krajewski

This is Miroslaw Krajewski. He was a Polish partisan and a dear friend of mine. In the last year of World War II he helped me a lot. He gave me this picture then. I suppose it must have been taken before the war. I don’t know who took this photo. 

So after some time of wandering about Warsaw, I went to the partisan forces and that was it. I joined a unit in the forests near Deblin. I remember that we slept in holes dug in the ground. When it comes to food, some of it was bought, because the partisans had some money. Most of the partisans came from that area, so it was easy for them to get and buy something. 

Every once in a while we organized various combat actions. I never took a direct part in them, but helped the partisans any way I could. They were a mix: there were Jews, Russians, and Poles. 

After a while the Russians went to a different forest, and they wrote to me that they wished I had come with them, because they could use me. But I wasn’t able to go with them because I had horrible ulcers all over my body. My daughter still has that letter from those Russians.

I worked like that until 1944. In 1944 the war ended in those areas. We returned to Lublin, where life was going back to normal. There was one partisan there, a Pole. His name was Miroslaw Krajewski. He was a communist. We had known each other for over a year then. He helped me a lot then. 

This comrade Krajewski, when our group came to Lublin, took care of me and took me to Gomulka. And Gomulka hired me. Miroslaw was shortly after that killed by Russians, maybe out of jealousy or something… he died horribly, I don’t want to talk about it.