account of that transgression, were severely punished. During the searches,
pots are searched for meat. If found, it is requisitioned.
The anniversary of Poland’s independence, the 11th of November, was celebrated
in Garbatka in such a fashion: Upon all government buildings Polish
eagles were drawn with chalk with the inscriptions: “Long live a free and
independent Poland of the peasants and workers.” In some places, there hung
flags of red paper. The cemetery where the fallen Polish soldiers lay, was covered
with red paper wreaths. The Polish population marked its holiday that
day by gathering in front of the church and saying prayers. The church was
locked that day.
About Polish train workers who freed Russian prisoners, it is reported
that: On the Dęblin-Radom line while transporting the prisoners, the Polish
train workers used to detach two railway cars at every station where the trains
with the prisoners stopped. All the Russian soldiers who were still able to
stand on their feet fled to the fields and forests. The Polish and Jewish populace
would help them with money, food, and clothing. The authorities in
Radom, where there is a major assembling area for prisoners, realised that
there were missing cars with Russian prisoners. Gendarmes and SS. people
were immediately dispatched across the aforementioned stretch. They
conducted searches in the forests and houses, but without any results.
As recounted, in such a manner up to 800 members of the Red Army were
freed. Among them, there were also Jews from Poland (2 from Kozienice).
The wounded and weak remained in the cars. Their appearance was appalling:
in tatters and rags, without shoes, robbed of their clothes, filthy and starving.
They asked passers-by for bread and water. The gendarme threatened to
shoot anyone who approaches and gives help to the prisoners. For several days,
the cars with the prisoners stood at the stations, and the prisoners did not
receive any food.
Over the course of a longer period, the Germans placed an armed patrol
over an area of 70 km along the train line, at every half kilometre, so that
these acts of sabotage would not be repeated. [7] From the trains that passed
through, members of the Red Army would jump from the cars while the train
was moving. Many saved themselves in this way. One of them, while jumping,
fell upon an iron pole and died on the spot. The commandant did not
allow the populace to organise a funeral for the person killed, but asked that
he be buried in secret at the Christian cemetery, in the state in which he lay.
