HISTORY OF BARTEK
Slawomir Kwiatkowski
ABOUT THE MEMORIES OF BARTEK
a parachuter from the 1st Independent Parachuters Brigade
(1 Samodzielna Brygada Spadochronowa)
There are different soldier stories.
Sometimes they try to frighten with the untrue picture of war.
Sometimes I also hear untrue stories of some of the parachuters.
One of them, for example, to help the English in Oosterbeek
swam across the river Rhine with knife in his teeth.
The other victorously landed on heads of surprised German gunners near some famous bridge.
The third modestly told the Dutch how he kissed their ground
after jumping whereas he was on the sea by then and didn’t even
once visit Holland through the whole war.
That is why I decided to make an introduction to my friend’s Bartek report.
The fate has connected us in the Brigade for good.
We were in the same company and-regarding lack of our Polish documents -
we passed together our maturity exam for the second time
in Polish female secondary shool in Dunalastair House.
Together we used to spend our short, sightseeing holidays.
In the same team we went through parachute and Officer Cadet training in Earlsferry House.
We jumped together from the same plane in Driel
and sat in the same anti-aircraft trench.
Finally we parted before crossing of the river Rhine.
Bartek describes his, full of obstacles,
way to our unit and he mentions shame that he felt
about not using his gun in Driel.
There is another reason for this preface.
Bartek is now a retired doctor-psychiatrist,
former headmaster of an America hospital, married to the American woman,
father of six children and grandfather of several grandchildren.
He has been out of Poland for years
(recently, for a long time, near Atlanta in Georgia
where I visited him and where there are a lot of Polish people living).
He is not quite sure of his Polish language
so he asked me to literary draft his memories.
He wrote them after my suggestion during his visit with his family in Lodz (2002).
And he is as unconventional as his way to the Brigade.
He is tall, with characteristic big nose and behaviour which differs from this commonly accepted.
It was him who during the baloon jumps in presence of the Prime Minister Mikołajczyk
shouted loudly in an Indian manner.
When he was in Scotland he played the piano like earlier at home.
Now, when he retired, he deals successfuly with painting and sculpting and keeps his own studio.
In addition, his name is not Bartek althuogh under this name
he is known to his companions from the camp in Miranda del Ebro,
his friends from the Brigade and new acquaintances in USA.
It is true that he was born on the day of St.Bartholomew
and traditionally he should have this name.
It was well known to his godparents but on the way to church
they called at the bar and finally forgot the name
so they named him after his father Vladislav.
And that is why the author’s of these memories name
is Vladislav Piotr Mazur and his whole family and friends,
including me and my son, call him 'Bartek'.
Historia Bartka
History of Bartek - English version
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Strona utworzona dnia 10-02-2004
przy pomocy programu Pajączek NxG Standard