Henryk Prajs being awarded a medal

This is a photo of me, when I got a gold medal, for taking part in the Olszewo battle during the September campaign in 1939, where I was wounded. I got this medal in 1987. I?m very proud of this. Military service lasted two years and mine was to finish in 1939, so instead of going home I went to war. I fought in the September campaign. On 14th September I was wounded in a battle with the Germans at Olszewo. There's still a memorial room there with a photo of me, among other things, and a description of the battle. I was messed up by a shrapnel, had a couple of wounds. I was unfit to fight on, so I was assigned to the regimental train service column. On 17th September the Russians marched in and took us all prisoners. We were interned in a place called Negroloc, some 40 kilometers further east from Minsk, Belarus. They didn't treat us bad. We had to work and if we fulfilled the ordered quota, it was alright. The food was also acceptable. Every Saturday we had a bath, they called it bania. We weren't given any clothes for change. In December 1939 there was a prisoners exchange, the Russians returned the Germans and the Poles. I was in that group and so got back to Gora Kalwaria. As I've served in the army, after the war I was a member of ZBoWiD, Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy. In the 1990s ZBoWiD was transformed into the Veterans Union and the Disabled Soldiers Union. I'm a member of the latter now, of the Piaseczno branch.