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My unit was called the 2nd Reserve Corps of the First Polish Army. We didn't really fight; we just followed behind the Russians. And that is how I crossed the Polish border again. And that is also how I returned to my home town. The Russians entered Cracow on 17th January 1945, and I was back in Cracow on 2nd February.
I arrived in Cracow absolutely unaware of what had happened. I started going round different addresses. I went to 4 Potockiego Street to Mrs. Helena Lgocka, a friend of my aunt Zofia's, and only then did I find out that there was no point in my going to my grandparents' apartment. I was young, I was 21, I was stupefied by my freedom. I didn't comprehend what had happened. I understood it but I wasn't paralyzed. It was really only as the years went on that the awareness of that loss, of that wild, terrible tragedy came to me.
I arrived in Cracow absolutely unaware of what had happened. I started going round different addresses. I went to 4 Potockiego Street to Mrs. Helena Lgocka, a friend of my aunt Zofia's, and only then did I find out that there was no point in my going to my grandparents' apartment. I was young, I was 21, I was stupefied by my freedom. I didn't comprehend what had happened. I understood it but I wasn't paralyzed. It was really only as the years went on that the awareness of that loss, of that wild, terrible tragedy came to me.
Period
Interview
Aleksander Ziemny