Bernard Bujwicki – president of the Founding Committee "Solidarity" in PZRW Wodrol Białystok, delegate of the Białystok Region to the 1st National gathering of Solidarity Delegates. In the internment centers in Białystok, Suwałki and Kwidzyn, he was imprisoned for 5 dark months, which forever entered his memory. Antoni Stolarski – 1 of the founders of the “S” association in Instal Białystok and a associate of the board of directors of the Białystok region of NSZZ “Solidarność”. In the centers in Białystok and Suwałki he was interned for long 88 days.
It was a late night on December 12, 1981. Białystok slept, but not all of it. The town was surrounded by militia “bitches”. In any apartments in the buildings, from the lit “up to the max” chandeliers lit windows. This was the case, among others, in the flat of the Bujwicki State. Suddenly, individual knocked on their door. Bernard's household father reacted first.
I was standing in the hallway. Although I had guessed who was bothering us at specified a late hour, I asked politely “Who is there?” From behind the door I was told calmly: “We request to talk to you”. I rapidly quit: “It’s a day to talk. Come in the morning.” However, uninvited guests would not let themselves go: “We request to talk now. Open up! Open the door or we'll break the door down." This time the voice of the intruder who gave me the orders was clearly raised— This is how Bernard Bujwicki reports the beginning of the night visit to the SB.
Mr. Bernard didn't open the door, and then I think everyone in the full block heard the first crowbar hit a concrete wall adjacent to a wooden coat. The next strikes were more accurate. You could hear the pieces of wood being torn from the fur. This terrible sound woke up 2 small children of the Bujwicki state.
– My little sDavid's drink burst into tears, and Lila's daughter cried aloud "Bandites, bandits." And she hugged me. My wife, seeing that the SBs are about to break down the door and come in, asked me not to defy due to the fact that they're gonna beat us. I thought her advice was good, and I put distant the hatchets I took from the kitchen earlier. In a moment, the locks went off, the door opened with a bang. Communists came into our apartment. 3 were dressed in civilian clothes, and the 4th was wearing a MO uniform— That's how Bernard Bujwicki reports the events of that December night.
The opposition was announced that he was summoned to the MO command and if he did not go with the militia voluntarily, they would be forced to usage force. – I replied that what they were doing was illegal trespassing, violating individual freedom, and I would do anything to get those who committed this lawlessness punished. I besides told the SBs that I would not willingly go anywhere with them. I knew I'd be in the squad car anyhow, and there was a sharp frost in the yard, so I put on a warm hat and a goat. The criminals grabbed me by the sides of that goat, picked me up, set me in a horizontal position, face down, and started carrying. By the time they got me to the "bitch" my goat no longer had a button. They threw me in the car like a sack of potatoes. That was the beginning of my internment— Mr. Bernard, who was 35 years old at the time.
Similarly, the unpleasant memories of the night from 12 to 13 December 1981 have Antoni Stolarski. – That December was a harsh winter. At night from 12 to 13 to our flat in a block on the Bialystok settlement, the police knocked. I told my wife not to open the door and told them I wasn't home. I think they believed it first, and there was about half an hr of peace. But then they started killing each another again. The wife calls them “The husband has left”. And then they wouldn't let go and started knocking down the door. At the time, there was our first boy in the planet who had only a small over a year. I thought if they broke down the door, and they took me home, it'd be very cold, and he might get sick, so I opened it. They forced me to get dressed and taken to the provincial command – remembers Antoni Stolarski.
First halt
Bujnicki was besides delivered to the Provincial office of MO in Białystok. That night the movement there was “for the Marshal”. Police cars kept coming to the building, delivering further interned opponents. – When I was introduced into the long corridor of the command basement, it was filled with colleagues and colleagues from Solidarity. Most of them stood silent, only any whispering to each other. We were all afraid about what would happen next. Many were heartbroken, but it was not in me, and I decided to rise the fellows of distress and said loudly, “Listen, it is nothing that we are here that can’t defeat us. There will come a time erstwhile we will win." People have revived. We started to fall in each other's arms and shake hands. There's been no differences of opinion, and everything that's been between us so recently. At the minute we were together, we were 1 – recalls Bernard Bujwicki with emotion.
When the atmosphere cooled slightly, Mr. Bernard was taken to 1 of the offices. He was told to sit at his desk. 1 of the SB officers placed a paper before him, which was a celebrated ‘internation decision’. “Sign this” the officer told the commanding speech of the voice. An experienced oppositionist immediately decided, in a spirit, not to sign, but to buy time to come up with any subtle form of refusal, asked an officer for a glass of water. This 1 ordered a police officer standing at the door to grant this request. Although Bernard satisfied his desire, he did not come up with anything subtle at the time. He asked for another glass of water and the situation happened again. The 3rd time he requested another glass. It was evident that the officer's patience was almost exhausted, but he stopped the outbreak of aggression and again ordered the militiaman.
As people sometimes say, "up to 3 times the art." – I didn't come up with anything, and the specified saying "I won't sign" seemed profoundly inadequate to me to express my immense opposition to what the communists were doing with us that night. So I splashed water out of the glass to decide to intern. A police officer standing at the door, reaching for a rubber dick and calling me the worst. Officer SB, seemingly prepared for specified a course of business, with a calm voice stopped the subordinate and ordered him to escort me to my cell – says 1 of the leaders of Białystok Solidarity.
In the Caiams
After a night spent in the basement of the Provincial office MO, interned were transported by police cars to a detention facility on Copernicus Street. This building has a bad name. He was raised by the tsarist authorities and abused Polish patriots there. During planet War II, it was first bloodyly ruled by the NKVD, then the Gestapo, and after the UB war.
The interns were carried out from “sucks” to detention by a spatler consisting of armed militiamen and zombies, holding in their hands ready to usage the baton, and angry dogs on leashes. All this to intimidate internees.
– We were admitted to this prison like criminals. You had to go through all the humiliating procedures. It's a good thing we're not put in jail with criminals. We were sitting in our own Solidarity group. The targets were four-man. There were 2 bunk, two-man bunks in our cell by the walls, and they were filled with haystacks. There was besides a “spin” or speaker, through which prison messages and martial law decrees were inactive broadcast. 1 of the prison messages was, "Any prison guard, if necessary, may usage firearms against a prisoner." He remembers these hard moments, Mr. Bernard.
A much worse cell was assigned in this prison to the internment of Antoni Stolarski and his companions of misery. – There were conditions that dishonored human dignity. The toilet wasn't covered. So the physiological needs had to be dealt with in front of everyone. So, so to speak, "greater work" we did alternatively at night, then there was little average human shame. They fed us very poorly. erstwhile we ate bread, the sand was gnashing in our teeth. And erstwhile you found the small pebble, the enamel broke on your teeth. On Copernicus, we were kept in a cell almost all the time. The only way out was to walk in the yard for half an hour. – remembers Antoni Stolarski, imprisoned in Białystok and Suwałki for 88 long days of internment.
Internated, occasionally, were called for questioning. They were conducted in the direction of obtaining evidence incriminating Solidarity colleagues, and cooperation with SB was besides proposed. evidence was attempted to force, utilizing intellectual harassment or trying to intimidate that, for example, “something bad could happen to the family.” Sometimes the SBs played the function of a good militiaman to gain the trust of the interned one, then to be able to extract the information needed from him. Overall, the ‘kids and carrots’ method was used. All these ways, in most cases, have failed.
Adam Białous
