The Assassination of Heydrich: Hitler's Hangman and the Czech Resistance by Wiener Jan

Author:Wiener, Jan [Wiener, Jan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Heydrich, World War II, European History, Hilter, Wiener, history
Publisher: Irie Books
Published: 2012-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

A Catholic Jew

The prison camp to which I was sent contained a mixture of political prisoners and prisoners of war. There were about two thousand of us—Yugoslavs, Czechs, Poles, Englishmen, and Frenchmen. We lived in barracks surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by Italian Blackshirts.

Compared with German concentration camps, this camp was a luxury hotel. The Italians treated prisoners as though they were indeed people like themselves. The only restrictions were the lack of freedom and the perpetual hunger. We never had enough food.

I became very friendly with a young Polish soldier who lived in my barracks. Zbigniew Jakubek was my own age, and since all Slavic languages resemble each other we were able to communicate. He had fought in the Polish army and was a prisoner of war.

The prisoners in this camp were allowed to work in the forest, cutting down acacia trees and making drainage ditches to prevent the spread of malaria in that part of the country. In the course of our work we came in contact with the local population. The people in that area were farmers who were very poor, and also very kind and helpful.

A lively exchange business started. We exchanged our shirts, old shoes, and any clothing we could scrape up in return for food: bread, rice, cheese, and olive oil.

During rest breaks, known in Italy as siestas, we sat around and chatted with the farmers. By this time I too could speak a little of the language. The farmers would always ask, of course, why we found ourselves in prison camp; once I explained that I had had to escape from my country because I was a Jew.

My listeners were interested but puzzled. “What is a Jew?” they asked.

“It’s my religion,” I said.

There was a nodding of heads in understanding. They knew about religion very well. But they wanted more specific information.

“Are you a Catholic Jew or a Protestant Jew?”

I said I was a Catholic Jew, which pleased them very much. They smiled and slapped my back. “Sei nostro!” they told me. “You are our man!”

Frequently the sergeant of the camp police ordered me to clean his office, so I was sometimes in there alone. During one of these moments I noticed a pile of travel-permit blanks on his desk. Quickly I took two of them and stamped them with his rubber stamp. Then I put them in my pocket and continued sweeping.

Back in the barracks I surreptitiously showed them to my friend Jakubek. After much consultation we decided to try to escape.

The geography of Italy made this a difficult undertaking. To the north lay the Alps that bordered Germany; to the east was occupied Yugoslavia; to the west was France. Our camp was in southern Italy, which is completely surrounded by the sea. Our only possible road to freedom lay all the way through the “boot” to the northwest corner, over the Alps to Switzerland. We decided to give it a try.

Among the prisoners of war was a Canadian Army chaplain, a Catholic priest.

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