Władysław Dzięciołowski was born on 18th July 1920 in Lviv, where he studied at the Foreign Trade Academy. He took part in the defence of Lviv in September 1939 fighting in the Academic Legion. At the end of 1939, he decided to join the Polish Army organized in France by general Władysław Sikorski.
His route to France led through Romania and Hungary. When he illegally crossed the border with Romania, he was detained by the Bolsheviks and sent to north Ural mountains. For over a year he worked in a labour camp in Ivdel. After announcement of the Sikorski-Mayski agreement, he joined the Polish Army established by general Anders
. Władysław Dzięciołowski set off from the Ural Mountains and headed south, to Persia, Palestine and Egypt. Władysław Dzięciołowski was a radio operator and the commander of a platoon. After arriving in Italy via Egypt on board of MS Piłsudski, he took part in the fights over Rome, also known as the Battle of Monte Cassino.
When the war ended Władysław Dzięciołowski settled in the UK. In 1948, after demobilization of the Polish Army, he left from the Southampton harbour to Argentina. He reached the Buenos Aires harbour on 2nd April 1948, at the age of twenty-eight. After twenty-four years he moved to Brazil, where he worked as an auditor for IBM.
Władysław Dzięciołowski died on 22nd March 2016, 10 months after this interview.
Interview by Aleksandra Pluta on 4th May 2015 in Petrópolis.
I was born in Lviv. I was born in Lviv and I was living in Lviv until the outbreak of the war and until November 1939, I think. I took part in the defence of Lviv as a member of the Academic Battalion, the Academic Legion and it was obligatory. We lodged in the Lviv Polytechnic National University. It’s a beautiful large building close to the main railway station. We were lodged there, in the basement of the Polytechnic and one time they sent us to watch the line, the defence line I mean. It was called the line, everyone knew what line was it. And of course, many people back then crossed the border with Hungary or Romania to get to France. We heard that it was easier to travel from there and one could join the Polish Army formed by general Sikorski. And so we set off but it started snowing a little and we were caught by the Bolsheviks. They shot at us and it still was the Polish territory, just before the border. And that’s that. I was sentenced to 8 years but I didn’t serve my entire sentence. I was a prisoner only for a year because Germans invaded the Soviet Union so we became their allies and they let us go. They allowed general Anders to form the Polish Army from the people that had been transported to Russia and there were lots and lots of them.
They transported me on trains all the way to Ivdel, north Ural Mountains. It’s a distribution point to all kinds of labour camps. You don’t sit in prisons there, you have to work. And at first we were cutting down trees. There are different forests there and we had to work until Poland and Russia concluded this Sikorski-Mayski agreement. The Polish Army was being organized and then they let us go, I was allowed to leave.
And when we left Russia we got proper food, just like in the military, in the English military, yes. I can’t remember how much did I weigh but I suppose it was a bit more than forty kilos. When they enrolled me in the army there was this procedure… every recruit is weighted. And clothes, everyone had some rags on them and we just got military coats. It was a luxurious item back then. When we came to Persia we got uniforms including shorts and shirts with rolled-up sleeves because the uniforms were designed for tropical climate. We hoped that we’ll win the war. We never had any doubts that we’ll win the war. We still didn’t know how the situation will turn out with Russia because it was still unclear, it was on purpose. We imagined that when the war ends we’ll come home, to Lviv, I’ll come home to Poland but that didn’t happen. What can you do?
Our regiment march was: “Always faithful our Polish hussar panzer arm, there is chivalry blood…”. “Our honour harden by steel, military homage paid by our ancestors. We’re the forefront of the nation when the enemies will fall with rain of steel, Lebensraum will fall and we’ll exile the jackal tribe from the Polish gates. When we hear the engines, the panzer blood rushes in us. When we hear the engines, the panzer war song is to be heard. When we hear the engines, a group of steel dragons is moving forward. To the last stone from the cross, deadly for us, or our victory soon to be”. That was the 4th Panzer Regiment March.
When we arrived to Palestine it was just like little Poland because there were lots of Jews speaking Polish because Palestine was invaded by Italy. No, by Egypt. We were a group of panzer armies, such a regiment of tanks with eighteen, with fifty or four tanks came for eighteen and that’s a lot of troops and a lot of equipment. You cannot lodge it anywhere. At first, I was a radio operator and then I became the commander. Yes, a radio operator who at the same time loads the gun carried by the tank. We had Sherman tanks but our platoon commander died really quickly and I was appointed as the platoon commander despite the fact that I was just a corporeal officer cadet. Three tanks, I mean every tank has 75 mm gun and every tank has its radio station so that they can communicate with each other. Every tank has a maximum of three machine guns, it’s a lot of firepower and you can aim it wherever you want.
– And afterwards they took us to Italy. We landed and were put on a ferry near Monte Cassino. We boarded Piłsudski, a Polish vessel.
– It took you from Egypt to Italy.
– Yes, it did.
– And where did you moor in Italy, in which harbour?
– In Naples, Mia bella Napoli. We stopped there only for about a week. It’s hard to say exactly, and then we went up Italy but all south had already been taken by the allies. The first real battle was of Monte Cassino. Monte Cassino. “The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino drank Polish blood instead of dew... O'er the poppies the soldiers did go 'Mid death, and to their anger stayed true! Years will come and ages will go, Enshrining their strivings and their toil!... And the poppies on Monte Cassino Will be redder for Poles' blood in their soil”.
I took Spanish lessons back in the UK. I even earned my first money in emigration giving Spanish lessons because many people were going to Argentina. There was an entire transport organized and nobody thought that you had to speak Spanish there. But I’d thought of that and I’d learnt a little and I started giving lessons. I can’t recall how much I charged for the lessons but it wasn’t much.
I was walking and looking. I bought newspapers and read the ads for help wanted, for jobs. So I went to check out some offers. Everyone was very kind to me because I was an ex-ally. Once they were looking for a separadores de merkadorillas – a man who puts goods on the shelves, etc. So I think to myself that I can do that job. I went there and they sent me to the English manager, of course. He was the head of accounting. He talked to me, asked me questions and all. In the end he said to come in a week and I so did come because I couldn’t find anything else during that week. To get to the main office you had to pass this… let’s call it staff. And they said: “What are you doing here?”. I replied: “I came because I’d talked to Mr Wilson and he told me to come in a week and that’s today”. Well, yes. It turned out that there were two Wilsons. One was the head of accounting and the other was the chief accountant, the head of the entire financial section. And they took me to the other one who I hadn’t seen in my life. And so the conversation started: „Come in, come in. So you coming from England, yes?”. „Yes, yes, I do”. And now what, so we started to have a chat about the war. And then he says: „What can I do for you?”. I reply: „Mr Wilson, I am first time looking for a job”, etc. I came two days earlier because I’ve just hired somebody. We had a vacancy in the audits, that is the control of all booking and financial history. But, “Let’s see”. He was really kind to me, very energetic. He said: „Call Mr Bruce”. Mr Bruce is on holiday. "So call Mr Burgus”. Burgus, a chubby Argentinian with black moustache came in. “Burgus, eso señor Wladislawo (...)”. And this is how it all started.
No, not a lot of luggage. We had this big ammunition box trimmed with green canvas and that was… well, I don’t know, I don’t remember that exactly but it wasn’t much. We had to carry that with us. Until we landed in Argentina the government paid all expenses, so during those 19 days of travel we also got money for that. It wasn’t that we didn’t have to pay but we even got some money. At the time it was quite easy to get a job. That was during the rule of Perón when they did what they could and even couldn’t do. I was lucky enough that I got a job at a very decent company, a very elegant company. Even today it’s a treat.
