A Polish servicewoman wearing a German uniform with Polish insignia is checking the identity card of Canadian soldier William Massey near Haren, Germany, in 1945.
Displaced Persons (DP) were defined as people outside the border of their home country when WWII ended. The majority of these people were slave laborers in Germany, had been held in prisoner of war or concentration camps, or had fled their country in fear of prosecution or retribution as post war borders and governments changed after the war. There were an estimated 11 million to 20 million displaced persons when the war ended.
DP camps were intended to be temporary facilities to house, care for, and eventually resettle or repatriate the inhabitants. This was a monumental challenge as many of the DPs were ill, exhausted, and psychologically traumatized by their wartime experiences.
By the end of 1945 DP camps numbered in the hundreds and were located primarily in Germany, Italy, and Austria. Due to the great need for DP camps, one was even established in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Among the different nationalities classified as DPs were over 3,000,000 Polish citizens. In May of 1945 the German town of Haren in Lower Saxony was chosen by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force as an enclave for some 4,000 Poles. It was located in the British Sector under the administration of the Polish 1st Armoured Division of the Polish I Corps. German residents of the town were moved to surrounding communities.
The Poles renamed the town Lwow after a city in Poland that was an important cultural center in that country. The Soviets objected to the name. Lwow was in Soviet-occupied Poland at the end of the war. Under pressure, the Poles then named the city Maczkow after Polish General Stanislaw Maczkow.
Maczkow became a working Polish community with a Polish mayor, school, daily newspapers, a theater and cultural center, fire brigade, and a rectory. Streets were given Polish names. Four hundred and seventy-six Polish babies were born there and have birth certificates registering Maczkow as their place of birth.
In 1946 the Poles of Maczkow began to emigrate to other countries or return to Poland. Those Poles returning to Poland, especially those who had participated in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 or had been in the Polish Home Army or Polish Resistance, feared possible repression, prosecution, or arrest by the new Polish Soviet-influenced government. Those fears were realized by some of the Poles returning to their home country.
The town of Maczkow was returned to the Germans in 1948 and renamed Haren.
The last DP camp was closed in the early 1960s.
Thank you to military historian Dr. George H. Kelling for his assistance in the writing of this story.
The WWII German American Memorial in Schweinfurt, Germany. Inscription: “Dedicated by some who witnessed the tragedy of war, now united in friendship and the hope for lasting peace among all people.”
Wars are not forgotten. But with time, the people involved may look at a former enemy in a different way. This is one of those stories.
June 14, 1943 – April 19, 1944
Operation Pointblank
Operation Pointblank was a Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) strategic bombing plan of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) with the objective to destroy or cripple the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) fighter strength and aircraft production prior to the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944. CBO targets included German aircraft factories, fuel depots, ball bearing plants, and other related industry.
1943
Tuesday, August 17
First Mission to Schweinfurt
The two targets of Mission 84 deep into Germany were the Messerschmitt Bf109 fighter plane factory in Regensburg and the Schweinfurt ball bearing plants.
USAAF “Flying Fortress” B-17s from the 4th Bombardment Wing (BW) in England flying to Regensburg took off around 8 AM that day. The 1st BW B-17s were scheduled to take off next. Due to heavy fog at their bases in England, the 1st BW began take off more than three hours later with their target being Schweinfurt. The delay seriously affected the mission plan. One objective of the mission was to overwhelm German air defenses as a large number of B-17s attacked at two different targets in rapid succession. Because of the delay, German fighter planes had time between the waves of B-17s to land, refuel, and rearm before again attacking B-17 formations.
Losses that day numbered 60 B-17s of the 376 B-17s assigned to the mission, and another 95 aircraft were seriously damaged. Three USAAF P-47 “Thunderbolt” fighter planes and two RAF Spitfire fighter planes were also lost. Air crew Killed in Action (KIA), Missing in Action (MIA), Wounded in Action (WIA), and Prisoner of War (POW) numbered over 550.
1943
Thursday, October 14
Second Mission to Schweinfurt
B-17s assigned to Mission 115 numbered 291. Aggressive Luftwaffe fighter planes and a heavily defended city led to more losses for the Allies. It is estimated that 1,100 German fighters were involved in the defense of Schweinfurt as well as numerous anti-aircraft Luftwaffe Fliegerabuchrkanone (Flak) batteries in and around the city.
Sixty B-17s were lost. Air crew KIA, MIA, WIA, and POW numbered over 625. This mission became known as “Black Thursday.”
Due to the large attrition of men and aircraft and the continuing bad weather, long range and unescorted missions in daylight deep into Germany were temporarily suspended after these first two missions. Missions resumed again in February 1944.
1973
The Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association (SSMA) was founded by USAAF Lieutenant Colonel Budd Peaslee who had been the Mission 115 “Black Thursday” Commander.
1993
Two WWII German Flak boys from Schweinfurt, Germany, attended the SSMA Reunion in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Helmut Katzenberger and Volmar Wilckens were two of an estimated 2,500 German students who had been ordered to man Flak batteries as German military losses affected its fighting strength. German civilians, young and old, men and women, were recruited to support Flak units. They were called Luftwaffenhelfers (Flak helpers).
1996
Georg Schafer was another of the Schweinfurt Flak boys. He wrote a letter to then SSMA President Wilbur “Bud” Klint.
June 20, 1996
Dear Mr. Klint:
From a good friend of mine, Dr. Helmut Katzenberger of Bad Kissingen, I received a copy of the Briefing Letter 95-4, December 1995 of the Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association, Inc. I was quite excited when I read it.
May I introduce myself to you:
For over 40 years I have been active in the Management and on the Board of Directors of the FAG Kugelfischer Georg Schafer in Schweinfurt, a Company, with which you might have been somewhat familiar some 50 years ago! I am now retired from office, 68 years of age and have lived in Schweinfurt most of my life, also during your “visits” in 1943/44. From January 1944 through January 1945 I have served, together with my classmates, at some of the 8.8 cm Flakbatteries around my hometown, at the age of 16 years!
During 1954 to 1956 I had lived in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, where our Company was establishing a manufacturing plant for ball-bearings. During those years I have met several former US and Canadian Airforce men, who were over Schweinfurt during the war. We exchanged views about our feelings during those “visits” and quickly agreed, that it was a good thing that we missed each other at that time! It also strikingly made us realize how stupid wars are and that everything should be done to avoid for our children and grand-children the experiences our generation had to go through. My wife and I have four sons and four grand-children.
Also: During our last visit to Washington DC, in April of this year my wife and I re-visited Arlington-Cemetary [sic] and noticed how much the tree, your Association planted some 10 to 15 years ago, has grown. A couple of pictures may serve as “proof”. (encl.)
Further on that trip we stopped for a day at Savannah, GA, and tried to visit the Mighty Eighth Airforce Heritage Museum before our departure, name and location of which we found in a visitors’ guide booklet. Unfortunately the place was still under construction, and so was access-road. Only through Helmut Katzenberger’s notification I found out about your Association’s involvement in this exhibition. Maybe better luck some other time.
My wife and I are travelling to the US quite frequently once or twice a year, so on our next trip I shall give you a call, or maybe we can meet, if it is convenient to you. In the meantime perhaps you could send me some information about your Association, and also, if you or another member of your group should come to Germany, please give me a call and, if it is convenient, come and visit Schweinfurt – by Car this time! We’d love to meet with you and show you around our city.
Best personal regards,
Sincerely
Georg Schafer
Georg Schafer attended the SSMA Reunion in 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and brought WWII artifacts with him that are now on exhibit at the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force in Pooler, Georgia.
It was at this reunion that the idea of a German American Memorial in Schweinfurt was first discussed.
1998
Memorial dedication. Left to right: G. Hubert Neidhard (Memorial designer, Flak boy), Walter Hillgartner (Government of Lower Frankonia), Georg Schafer (Flak boy), Lord Mayor Mrs. Gudrun Grieser, Colonel John Parker (United States Army Chaplain), Wilber “Bud” Klint (SSMA), and George Glass (American Consul General, Munich).
On June 16, 1998, the German American Memorial was dedicated in Schweinfurt, Germany. Every year since then on October 14, “Black Thursday,” SSMA places flowers at the Memorial.
Georg Schafer’s family owned ball bearing plants in Schweinfurt during WWII. Interestingly, after the war ended, he and his company helped establish ball bearing plants in the United States and Canada.
Thank you to Sue Moyer, SSMA Education Director, for her invaluable assistance in the writing of this story. Those interested in further information about SSMA can view the Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association Facebook page or contact SSMA at ssma43@gmail.com.
US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital personnel near Notre Dame Cathedral in September 1944. Left to right: Major Paul Kundahl, Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore, Captain Walker Reaves, Captain Philip Morrison, Lieutenant Pearl Domma, Captain John Vieta, and Lieutenant Frances Harrell. Photograph courtesy of Josephine Pescatore Reaves.
After more than four years of German occupation the French 2nd Armored Division and the United States (US) Army 4th Infantry Division, working with the French Resistance (later in WWII called the French Forces of the Interior), liberated the city of Paris, France. The German garrison in the city surrendered to French General Philippe LeClerc on August 25, 1944.
Shortly after the Liberation of Paris, medical personnel of the US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital had an opportunity to visit the city for an afternoon. A US Army truck drove them into Paris and let them off near Notre Dame Cathedral. Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore handed out chocolate and chewing gum to the children. The Americans and Parisians, in spite of the language difference, tried to share their thoughts about the war. After that celebratory afternoon, one of the Parisians they met, Henriette Bellavoine, wrote a letter to LieutenantPescatore.
Paris, 10th of September 1944
Dear little American friend,
I should like very much to have you for my friend. I know that we live very far one from the other, but actually you are in France and I do hope that you will not leave old Europa without coming back to Paris for a longer stay than the first one. And then, I should be really happy to live a little bit with you! You are so sympathetic, so kind! All the American people are very sympathetic, but you are specially charming and lovely. I shall always remember you, young American girl, on the Paris Notre Dame, distributing cigarettes___chocolate and chewing-gum to children all around you___ smiles and kisses to everyone. And I want you to know that your kindness and your loveliness touched every one, as well as your sweets, for everybody all around you said: “How lovely she is!” I was sorry that you did not understand them, and I try to translate the general opinion for you.
Henriette Bellavoine (with glasses) and other Parisians near Notre Dame Cathedral. Photograph courtesy of Josephine Pescatore Reaves.
You certainly appeared to children like a young fairy bringing good things for them (quite a modern fairy, with a helmet on her curly hair!!).
But, I am a bit annoyed and afraid that all of you think that we are a people of beggars. Our sufferings and want during four years are our excuse, specially for children, but well bred people are not very proud.
Yes, we suffered a lot during four years. Morally, because we had never had such a defeat in our past (I hope that it will be a lesson)___ and phisically [sic] because Germans took most of our productions and we starved.
Germans have robbed everything in France and you now find a very poor country__you were kind enough to tell me that Paris is a nice city. Of course it has its past, its mind and its building, but you have seen a very sad and poor Paris! Our shops are empty (they were so beautiful!); there is nothing good to eat, only a little good to drink; there are not any distractions; there is no LIGHT!!
You have not seen the real Paris and I wish you to see it. I am fond of my city (I was born there and I know Paris rather well) and I want you to love it. This will be easy, I think, because you seem to be full of enthusiasm (you have an Italian ascendancy!).
If you like pictures, I shall take you to our best museums. If you like music I shall take you to the Opera. If you like old things I shall take you into the narrow streets of the old Paris.
Come and see me, dear little American friend. I should like to know your country. I should like to know better the American people and you quite specially because you look very charming and sweet and gay. I love your country for its youth, its pep, its strength; I love mine for its past and its mind. You should not leave Europa without spending a few days in Paris; it is worth while. And we could have a good time together and become good friends.
Will you write to me about your actual life. We do not know exactly, in France, what American women do in the U.S. Army and how they live. I should like to know that and to have it known around me.
And now, I want to tell you, once more, how thankful we are to you for your help. What would have become of France if you had not liberated us! When your first soldiers arrived in Paris, we shouted “Bravo” and “Thanks” with all our heart. We do love you because you are very good friends, because we have the same conception of life, the same ideal of freedom. And you are so gay! a so young people! I am sorry that I have no words to tell you how much we admire your strength and your pep. What General Eisenhower does is wonderful, thundering. You may be proud.
I am sorry not to be able to tell you exactly my thoughts about this; I speak English like a poor little child. My school time is far away!! I am much older than you (nearly fourty [sic] years old), but in spite of that difference of age, I think that we could be good friends. Don’t you think so? France and the United States are good friends and one is so much older than the other!!
I left you in a hurry, when I saw you in Paris. This is because I had escaped from my office (I belong to the Administration of the Ville de Paris). I had escaped from my office for a few minutes, to see American soldiers and live in the midst of them for a few minutes. I was so happy to chat with you that I forgot time and had to go back preciputately [sic]. Excuse me.
I hope to hear from you soon. I speak English very badly, but I read it almost fluently and I can read very long letters. You are quite sympathetic to me. I wish with all my heart to see you again, to receive you like a friend of mine, to have a good time with you and I send you my best kisses with my best wishes. Good luck to you.
Henriette Bellavoine 220 boulevard Voltaire Paris XI cme
Story as told to me by Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore Reaves. The photographs and letter are used with her permission.
Lieutenant Pescatore and the US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital did not have the opportunity to return to Paris. The unit moved on and in September 1944 became part of Operation Market Garden in Holland.
Alfred Lubojacky. Photograph courtesy of Lubojacky Family.
Sergeant Lubojacky’s body was found near the Czechoslovakian village of Merboltice on February 15, 1945. A partially opened parachute lay next to him. Where the Germans buried him remains a mystery.
Alfred S. Lubojacky, known to his family as Buddy, was born January 29, 1924, in Texas. He was one of eight children born to Joseph and Louise Lubojacky. Both his paternal and maternal grandparents had immigrated to the United States (US) from Czechoslovakia in the late 1800s. Alfred grew up working on the family farm and spoke both English and Czech.
In 1944 Alfred joined the US Army Air Corps and was trained as a B-17 “Flying Fortress” gunner. His brother, Roman, was already serving in the US Army in Europe. Before Alfred left the US for England in November of 1944, he travelled home to Texas for a visit with his family and his girlfriend, Katherine.
In England Alfred was assigned as a B-17 ball turret* gunner with the 8th Air Force, 306th Bomb Group, 369th Bomb Squadron, based at Thurleigh.
On February 14, 1945, the bombing target was the marshalling (railroad) yards at Dresden, Germany. After dropping the bombs, the B-17s were attacked by German Fockewulf (FW)-190 fighter planes. Machine gun and cannon fire from a FW-190 hit the right wing and fuselage of Sergeant (SGT) Lubojacky’s plane. SGT McDonough, the waist gunner, SGT Nahmias, the tail gunner, and SGT Lubojacky were wounded. The damaged B-17 was forced to drop out of flying formation.
Captain (CPT) Lewis, the pilot, knew the plane would not make it back to England. He decided to fly into Czechoslovakia and try to land behind the Russian ally front line there.
The situation in the B-17 worsened. Fires were burning in the fuselage and the Number 3 engine. CPT Lewis gave the order to bail out. While preparing to leave the plane, SGT McDonough saw SGT Lubojacky’s head above the ball turret escape hatch. He was conscious, but there was blood on his head. Lieutenant (LT) Whitelaw, the co-pilot, also saw SGT Lubojacky when he was climbing out of the ball turret. What happened to him after that is unknown.
CPT Lewis was the last to bail out. He set the plane to fly in a specific direction hoping it would come down in a unpopulated area. The B-17 crashed in a field near the Czechoslovakian village of Hridelec.
All the crew managed to bail out. Eight of the nine crew members became prisoners of war. SGT Lubojacky was killed.
SGT Lubojacky’s body was found on February 15, 1945, by the local police near the Czechoslovakian village of Merboltice (called Mertendorf by the Germans). A document has been found indicating that he may have been buried in the Czechoslovakian village of Vernerice cemetery.
In the early hours of February 14, 1945, and around the same time the B-17 crashed in Czechoslovakia, Alfred’s mother in Texas had a dream. In the dream he was crying, and she asked him what was wrong. He said, “I’ll never get to see Katherine again.”
A Western Union telegram dated March 3, 1945, informed the Lubojacky family that Alfred was missing in action.
Telegram to Lubojacky family reporting Alfred S. Lubojacky is missing in action. Photograph of telegram courtesy of the Lubojacky Family.
Alfred’s family has never given up hope that they will someday locate his grave. And then they will bring him home.
Czech Republic historian, Milos Podzimek, wrote, “Alfred died on 14 February 1945 for our freedom in the country of his ancestors, but he will live forever in our hearts.” Milos and his son have done extensive and detailed research on Alfred’s plane. Their information has been invaluable in putting together the story of the fate of the B-17 and its crew.
Story as told to me by Walter Lubojacky, Alfred’s brother. The photographs and story are posted with his permission.
After no further information was found indicating that he was alive, SGT Alfred S. Lubojacky was officially declared killed in action a year later on February 15, 1946.
Katherine married after WWII. In later years she sometimes attended Lubojacky family reunions. Katherine died in 2008.
All of Alfred’s B-17 crew members and his brother, Roman, returned to the US after WWII ended.
B-17 crew members:
CPT Boylston Lewis, Jr., Pilot LT Robert Whitelaw, Co-Pilot LT Lester Harrison, Navigator LT Joseph Sicard, Bombardier Technical SGT James Standlee, Jr., Flight Engineer SGT Hardin McChesney, Jr., Radio Operator SGT Frank McDonough, Waist Gunner SGT Leon Nahmias, Tail Gunner SGT Alfred Lubojacky, Ball Turret Gunner
In 1993, Czechoslovakia formally separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
* Ball turret — a rotating, manned, gun turret mounted on the underside of a US B-17 “Flying Fortress.”
Camp Shanks Historical Marker in Rockland County, New York. Photograph The Historical Society of Rockland County.
Camp Shanks was located in Orangeburg, New York, about 30 miles up the Hudson River from New York City. It served as a staging area to equip United States (US) military units in preparation for their embarkation to the European Theater of Operations in WWII.
US Army bombardment groups, infantry divisions, armoured divisions, medical groups, and other military units passed through Camp Shanks. The average stay was 12 days. It is estimated that 75% of those who took part in the Normandy, France, D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, had been billeted there. One unit that was in transit at Camp Shanks was the 101st Airborne Division, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, E (Easy) Company. Easy Company later became well-known in the Stephen E. Ambrose book Band of Brothers and a HBO miniseries by the same name.
Camp Shanks, nicknamed “Last Stop, USA,” was a large military installation that had its own newspaper, orchestra, and baseball team. Celebrities of the time, Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, the Andrews Sisters, and Jimmy Durante were among those who entertained the troops there.
One visitor to Camp Shanks was Archbishop Francis J. Spellman. He had been named Vicar for the US Armed Forces by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. On one of the Archbishop’s visits there in 1943, a young US Army nurse, Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore, was in the audience.
Lieutenant Pescatore remembers the audience, of about 1,000 people, included individuals from various religious denominations. She says there was an atmosphere of apprehension in the air as those in attendance prepared for war and did not know if they would return home someday.
Archbishop Spellman gave everyone a prayer, the Act of Contrition, that he said was specially written for those in wartime.* There were many questions from those attending the gathering, such as “What do I do if I am wounded and dying and there is no priest there to say the prayer for me?” The Archbishop told them that someone other than a priest could say it for them, or they could say it themselves.
On June 12, 1944, Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, as a nurse with the US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital. The evacuation hospital treated and cared for the wounded and dying as it followed the troops through Europe. As a nurse, it was important to Lieutenant Pescatore to let dying men know they were not alone. When she knew a man was dying, she would go to his bedside, touch him gently, and say the Act of Contrition for him. She once told me … she didn’t know if a dying man had been able to say the prayer for himself, so she said it for him.
Act of Contrition
Forgive me my sins, O Lord, forgive me my sins; the sins of my youth, the sins of my age, the sins of my soul, the sins of my body; my idle sins, my serious voluntary sins, the sins I know, the sins I do not know; the sins I have concealed so long, and which are now hidden from my memory. I am truly sorry for every sin, mortal and venial, for all the sins of my childhood up to the present hour. I know my sins have wounded Thy tender Heart. O my Saviour, let me be freed from the bonds of evil through the most bitter Passion of my Redeemer. Amen
O my Jesus, forget and forgive what I have been.
Nihil Obstat:–Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D.
Imprimatur:–Francis J. Spellman, D.D.
April 8, 1941
* The Act of Contrition is a prayer to make peace with God.
Story as told to me by Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore Reaves. For her service in WWII, she was awarded the Bronze Star with Battle Citations for Normandy, Northern France, the Rhineland, and Central Europe.
The US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital admitted and treated 19,313 patients in WWII. The survival rate at the evacuation hospital was 98.39%.
In the future there will be more stories about the US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital and its people.
Wojtek with a Polish Soldier. Photograph pinterest.com.
In September 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and divided Poland. Approximately two million Polish citizens were deported by the Soviets to labor camps or imprisoned. After Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, with the subsequent Sikorski-Mayski Agreement of July 30, 1941, and the Polish-Soviet Military Agreement of August 14, 1941, the Soviets released thousands of Poles to fight with the Allies. Under the command of General Wladyslaw Anders, the Poles left the Soviet Union and made their way to the Middle East. Once there, the Poles formed the Polish II Corps and fought under British command.
A brown bear first became part of Polish WWII history in 1942. When the Poles reached Persia (Iran), they met a young boy who sold them a orphaned bear cub. The bear became a mascot for the Polish II Corps. The Polish soldiers named him Wojtek (Voytek in English). As the bear grew he became more than a mascot and fit very well into army life. He learned how to smoke, enjoy a beer, wrestle and relax with his fellow soldiers, eat army food, go on guard duty, salute, nod his head when addressed, and liked riding in trucks. Wojtek and his fellow soldiers developed a camaraderie that would last a lifetime.
Wojtek moved with the soldiers from Persia, to Palestine, to Iraq, and then to Egypt. When the Poles were preparing to sail from Egypt to Italy, a problem arose. The ship would only transport soldiers and supplies. It is said by some that General Anders officially “enlisted” Wojtek into the Polish Army at that time. Corporal Wojtek was listed as a soldier and left for Italy.
In Italy the Poles fought with other Allied countries in the famous Battle of Monte Cassino. In the fourth battle to capture the Benedictine monastery, the Poles reached the top of the mountain and raised the Polish flag on May 18, 1944.
Among the Polish units at Monte Cassino was the 22nd Transport Company. It was their responsibility to transport and distribute munitions, food, and fuel to the heavy artillery regiments. During the battle, one of the soldiers carrying munition boxes was Corporal Wojtek. Wojtek carrying a shell became the emblem of the company.
Emblem of Polish 22nd Transport Company. Photograph pinterest.com.
After WWII ended, the Polish II Corps sailed from Italy to Scotland and was demobilized. WWII had ended, but Poland was not an independent, free country again. Many Poles felt they were left homeless and chose not to return to Poland after the war.
But what would become of Corporal Wojtek?
It was decided to send Wojtek to the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland. He had a new home, but like the Poles he was not free. There are stories of Poles who visited Wojtek at the zoo, threw him cigarettes which he ate, and proclaimed he still understood Polish. A touching story is told of a man who brought a violin to the zoo and played a Polish mazurka for Wojtek. It is said Wojtek “danced” with the music. Wojtek had the look of a bear but, indeed, had the heart of a Pole.
Wojtek was a popular resident at the Edinburgh Zoo but never again had his freedom or the camaraderie of his Polish friends. Wojtek died at the zoo on December 2, 1963. He was about 21 years old.
In a newspaper Letters to the Editor section after Wojtek died, a Londoner, Michael George Olizar wrote, “He left his bones, like many other Polish veterans, on British soil.”
Wojtek, the soldier bear, is still remembered and celebrated today. His story has been told in books, a BBC documentary, and there are statues and plaques dedicated in his memory around the world.
