The video was recorded by the Pilecki Institute as part of the “Witnesses to the Age” project.
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Our today’s interviewee:
Apolonia Dolińska née Zawadzka (1919-2022), a nurse who took part in the Warsaw Uprising, prisoner of KL Auschwitz and KL Ravensbrück. After the Warsaw Uprising she was sent to Auschwitz, where she spent half a year. Apolonia and her friends tried to organize a small Christmas Eve celebration on 24 December 1944, but Dr Mengele came to their block and forbade them to sing Christmas carols. Shortly afterwards, an argument between two Jewish women broke out in a nearby shoes warehouse and an Allied aircraft dropped a bomb on the camp buildings. No Christmas celebration was possible. On 17 January 1945, the evacuation of the camp began with so-called death march. Apolonia Dolińska grabbed a syringe to help her fellow prisoners by giving them injections to prevent infections, but many of them died anyway. Having gone through many tragic experiences, Apolonia arrived in KL Ravensbrück, where a German prisoner took mercy on her and gave her a bowl of her own soup. Soon after Apolonia’s entire block was to be sent to Sweden. The exhausted Polish prisoners finally received proper food and clothing. In Copenhagen, the first time in a long while they saw a Polish flag, so they sang the Polish national anthem. On the ship to Sweden, tables were filled with food, but the severely ill women couldn’t enjoy it. They had to be hospitalized in Sweden and go through any weeks of treatment first.
Copyright by Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego.