Modest Mikołajewski 1900 - 1942

Born 20.11.1900 in Luberadz
Died 12.12.1942 in Mauthausen

Biography

My father came from a family of craftsmen, and like his own father became a blacksmith. He had two younger sisters. He married in 1926 and became the father of three children, who were eleven, eight and six at the time of my father’s arrest by the Gestapo.

Before the Second World War we lived in Pomiechówek in a house that would be hit by a bomb during the battle of Modlin Fortress in 1939 and burned down, along with the forge. My father was a very good craftsman and taught the trade to young people. Before the Second World War the wife of prime minister Sławoj Składkowski contacted him and ordered metal hardware for the construction of a horse-drawn carriage. This carriage was the main prize in the lottery for the festival in honour of the patron saint of the church of Pomiechówek. This was a custom of the time, and people came to the festival from all over Masovia.

My father was a great patriot and, despite the great danger from the German occupiers, made his forge available for people to hold resistance meetings and listen to the radio. After my father’s arrest the Gestapo searched for this radio in the house and the garden. However, my mother had already destroyed it because she had guessed that it would be sought by the German authorities.

My father belonged to the Polish underground army, the ZWZ (Związek Walki Zbrodniej), from which the AK (Armia Krajowa) was formed in 1942, and which took as its main objective a collective national uprising. It was not, however, possible for that group of patriots from Pomiechówek and the surrounding area, which provided the ZWZ with 16 members, to live to see the victory over the German Fascists and occupiers.

In the night of 14 to 15 August 1941, all 16 of the patriots were arrested by Gestapo men from Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki. The group was accused of crimes including the destruction of railway installations and transport routes of military importance. They were subjected to severe interrogations in the Gestapo station in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki: they were beaten, starved and dogs were set on them. My sister, then 16, went with our mother to visit our father and bring him food, and saw my father coming out of the cellar, beaten and covered in blood – she remembers this image to this day.

After six weeks of interrogation in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki – beaten, starving, attacked by dogs and subjected to further abuses by the murderers – they were interned in a high-security facility in Płock, Olsztyn. They went to Kaliningrad for their hearings.

The trial in Kaliningrad took place in May 1942 and ended with three people being condemned to death. The verdict was carried out in July 1942. Three people were sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment, seven people to six years and three people to ten, eight and seven years each.

My father was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. All of the people were sent to concentration camps to make their punishment more severe. After the trial in Kaliningrad, the prisoners were transported to Sieradz, where they were prepared for the concentration camp.

In the meantime my mother was given permission to visit my father on 23 November 1942 in Sieradz. My father was doing well at that time, and my mother returned home full of optimism. However, my father was soon sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he died on 12 December 1942 at 1.35pm; according to a telegram the cause of death was pneumonia. His body was cremated on 15 December 1942 in the crematorium. My father had made the mistake of reporting to the infirmary after his arrival in Mauthausen. As a blacksmith he had always worked standing up, as a result of which he suffered from varicose veins and open wounds on his legs – for this reason it seems he feared the quarry.

 

Danuta Herok

Translation into English: Joanna White

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