Ing. Edvard Polok

* 1923

  • “We had an exercise in full gear. A mask, shovel, sometimes even a machine gun, which was so heavy that my arms felt so long like monkey’s arms. After we walked for ten kilometres at night, they ordered us to rest. I placed my helmet under my head and I fell asleep five minutes later because I was so tired. But sometimes there was full moon and we watched American airplanes flying over the moon silhouette. It was amazing as they were passing over the moon. They were droning quietly and I thought: Please, get it over with quickly. But I did not say it out loud.”

  • “There were hundred thousand soldiers and not all of them wanted to return to Poland, mainly those who were from eastern Poland, which belonged to Russia. They were afraid that Russians would send them to Siberia. I wanted to stay in England, because there was a chance to find a job in agriculture. A guy from Bludovice was there with me. He said that we would stay in England and grow onions. Every soldier who found a job in England was allowed to stay. But I learnt that this guy was married and that he had a wife and two kids in Bludovice. I told him not to be crazy. I thus decided to go home with him.”

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    Horní Suchá, 24.11.2014

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I fought for the Germans and at the same time I hoped that they would lose the war

As a jeep driver in the Polish army in Italy, 1944
As a jeep driver in the Polish army in Italy, 1944
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

  Ing. Edvard Polok was born on August 16, 1923 in Prostřední Suchá in the Karviná region. In 1939 he graduated from a Polish grammar school in Orlová and then he became employed as a worker. After the occupation of the Těšín region by Germans in autumn 1939, the local people were urged to sign a so-called Volksliste, thereby registering as German nationals, but the Polok family ignored the call. Edvard‘s brother died in 1940 as a result of poisoning while doing forced labour in Germany. Fearing the loss of his second son and the threat of the family‘s transportation to Germany to do forced labour, Edvard‘s father eventually signed the Volksliste in 1942. Edvard was drafted to the German army shortly after. He was sent to France and ordered to deliver cipher messages between the German units. After the Allied landing in Normandy in June 1944 he deserted from the German army and he got to a POW camp in Marseille. There he joined the new Polish army, which was being formed by the Polish general Wladyslaw Anders in the Italian territory. Edvard Polok then served in Kresowa Infantry Division in Italy as a driver. He took part in combat in the northern Apennine Mountains and near Bologna. Edvard remained in Italy until 1946 when the Polish units were demobilized and then transported by ship to Great Britain in September 1946. He eventually returned home from Great Britain after eight months, taking the northern route via Poland. After the war he studied the College of Agriculture in Brno and the College of Horticulture in Lednice. He specialized in fruit growing, and he worked in fruit orchards in Životice near Havířov. He retired in 1984 and he lives in Horní Suchá.