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Memoirs by Kazimierz Młyńczak "Biography of Mine"

1941

Polish History Museum

Polish History Museum
Warszawa, Poland

Kazimierz Młyńczak began noting down his memoirs in 1939, at the detention camp in Rokiszki, Lithuania, but they were stolen from him. The author managed to write them down again in England after WWII. At the beginning of the 1990s, the manuscript was acquired by his brother Witalis, in Poland.

Details

  • Title: Memoirs by Kazimierz Młyńczak "Biography of Mine"
  • Date: 1941
  • Location: Murmansk
  • Transcript:
    On 22 May 1941, we landed in Murmańsk and they took us 8 kilometres from Murmańsk to a valley, which we called the valley of tears. Behind barbed wire, in the open air, on top of frozen earth covered with snow, we split into groups and piled together into one heap, warming ourselves on one another. After a few days, we built two barrack shapes from bits of discarded wood and covered them with tarpaulin. Three-storeyed bunk-beds were arranged based on the calculation that everyone had one round rod on which they slept. If they managed to actually fall asleep, then they would fall onto the bunk below, between their neighbours. So-called white nights had the biggest impact on people, because it was almost as bright as on cloudy day. On 3 June 1941, they took us to Murmańsk, and accommodated us in barracks in the vicinity of the port – we could have been eaten alive by rats, there were so many of them.
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  • Credit: Polish History Museum
  • Collection: Młyńczak family

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