Wiktor Mostek

* 1929

Belarus, National minorities, Poles in the USSR 1945 - 1956
22. 6. 1941 – Operation Barbarossa - Nazi attack on the USSR
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    The German occupation

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    "The Germans executed my dad and my sister but my life was saved by a German soldier. In 1942, I came down with typhus. It was the time of the occupation so we had no medicine, nothing. As I fell ill, I was forced to hide myself from the Germans. If they found anybody suffering from typhus they would take them into the hospital where people died. Sick people’s houses where covered with wooden boards as the Germans were scared that typhus could spread. I had a temperature of 42 degrees Celsius, I felt faint and hadsome red spots on my body. My mum didn’t know what I was suffering from. People had no idea what it was. They applied vinegar to my body vinegar because nobody knew what the illness was. Finally, they learned it typhus. My mum asked a nun for help, saying her son was dying. The nun brought a German doctor. And the German came and did not denounce! He sat on the edge of my bed (because the house was clean and neat) and administered me some new type of medicine – red Streptocyd. I got better immediately, right before their eyes".

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    September 1939

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    "I remember very well – I still have those associations in front of my eyes – We were working on the field, near the train station. The planes bombarded the village Baranowice and were coming, back flying above the station. They flew so low that I was able to see the German pilot’s face! They were shooting at the same time. Luckily, nobody was injured. This is what I remember from the war. What else do I remember? I remember when the the German planes flew to Słonim. Near Słonim was the Polish airport and the polish planes were taking off from here as well. Polish planes were ( I am not sure how they are called in Polish) they looked like some kind of double-wing planes. I remember Polish soldiers shooting from the plane from the machine guns and by mistake they shoot not the German but their own Polish plane! I remember us running there to see what happened. I remember the plane landing. The pilots were alive but the plane was damaged. I saw the planes in Poland but just a few times. When the Soviets came, the planes above our heads were a usual thing".

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    The first Soviets occupation

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    "When the Soviets came to Albertyn during the war, we were sent back to school. I started to attended school again and I completed the fourth year in 1941. I was a good student apart from the Russian and Belarusian languages that didn’t go well. Just because I was a good student, the language teachers graded my work more that fairly, as they used to give me a grade C but really my language tests deserved to be no more than D. The headmaster visited my mum a few times to reprimand her, she used to say: Stop speaking polish at home! Speak just Russian because the kids can’t not only read and write, but even speak Russian good enough".

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    Pińsk, 13.06.2011

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    duration: 03:41:49
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The headmaster visited my mum a few times, she used to say Stop speaking polish at home! Speak just Russian because the kids can’t not only read and write, but even speak Russian good enough

Wiktor Mostek
Wiktor Mostek
photo: Pamět národa - Archiv
photo: Pamět národa - Archiv
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He was born on 4 June, 1929 in Albertyn near Słonim. His father came from Częstochowa, he moved to Polesie to search a job. The father and the oldest of Wiktor Mostek’s sister were executed by the Germans during the war, whilst her brother died of fatal wounds. Wiktor Mostek in his early age took the responsibilities over the farm and had to look after his mother and sister. He completed secondary school and graduated in the Melioration Academy after the war. His whole life, he worked as a Melioration engineer. He is now retired. For over two years, he was a president of the Association of the Poles in Pińsk an he set up the Polish Educational society here. He still lives in Pińsk.  

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