His name was Joe, he played a leading role in Norfolk and Norwich life in many different ways…but he, like many others, rarely spoke about his war years.
They were often the people who had been to hell and back. The torment and torture, death and destruction, dominated their thoughts for the rest of their lives but talking about it to family and friends…well that was a different matter.
Joe was Antoni Zozef Podolski and how he survived and what he achieved during the Second World War is quite astonishing and illustrates what a brave, courageous and tough young man he was.
Although he never spoke about his early war years he suffered a stroke in the 1980s and then decided to get a tape recorder and talk about what happened to him. Forty four years after the outbreak of WW2.
He was captured by vicious and murderous Russian soldiers in his homeland of Poland during 1939. Trapped between invading armies and against all odds he escaped and ended the war as a fighter pilot based in Norfolk.
The captivating and horrendous story of how Joe, in his teenage years, survived being murdered by the Russian beasts is told in a book 23 Days: A Memoir of 1939 published by the family ten years ago and this is your opportunity to get one of the last copies available.
Be warned, this is not a tale of glory and honour, it is one of brutality. While not an easy read it is one which illustrates the appalling and sickening way human beings can treat each other. One with a gun and a knife and the other trembling with terror.
Young Joe led a good life in the Eastern Polish countryside until war broke out and he became part of a resistance group fighting the Russian occupation force, NKVD, the secret internal forces of the Red Army known as the “Robins.”
“A bigger collection of perverted thieves and murderers were never bunched together before,” said Joe.
As the evil Robins marched into Poland killing men and raping and murdering women Joe was one of the young resistance fighters who fought them tooth and nail before Poland and Russia formed an uncomfortable relationship taking on Germany.
Once caught, still a teenager, his captors put him through mock executions, beat him to within an inch of his life and was he sentenced to death…he spent 23 days in a grim prison in Russia . He could hear the executions from his cell.
He was given a reprieve and then managed to escape while on a prison train to Siberia and ran for his life as the guards fired at him. He made his way across war-torn Europe to England via Finland.
Joe then served with the Polish commandos in the Middle East and travelled around the world, before becoming a pilot with the Polish Air Force at Coltishall and Horsham St faith.
In 1960 he was awarded the Virtuti Militari, one of Poland’s highest military medals.
Demobbed in 1948 he settled in Norwich, met his wife Mil at the Samson & Hercules and they were married at St John’s RC Cathedral.
Living in the city and then at Mulbarton they had two sons, Andrew and Nigel and four grandchildren, Greg, John, Jeffrey and Jeremy.
After recording his memories solicitor Keith Flatman and his secretary transcribed the spoken words into type with Tim Russell editing the text.
That was 40 years ago and no-one was interested in publishing the book. When Joe died in 1999, aged 76, he willed his manuscript to his grandsons Jeremy and Jeffrey and with great support from his son Nigel, their father, they published the book ten years ago.
The last few copies are finally available to buy and if you want to read an extraordinary, no-holds-barred account of life for Joe all those years ago it is highly recommended looking at a time of war rarely written or talked about.
Any profits will be donated to charity.
In fact you may have known Joe. He had a whole host of jobs…from running his own jewellery repair shop in Norwich to boat-building and having a glider repair and inspection business for Norfolk Gliding Club.
And then…
*A founder member of Norwich Judo Club with Eric Pleasants.
*Chief Instructor at Norfolk Gliding Club for 25 years – teaching hundreds of pupils and instructors.
*Aerobatic flyer with Norfolk and Norwich Aero Club often appearing at local flying displays.
*Chief instructor at Rattlesden Gliding Club.
*It was said that without Joe there would probably not have been a Norfolk Flying Club.
And then…
*Joe received the Royal Humane Society Award in the 1950s for rescuing and reviving a downing boy at Lakenham Swimming Pool in Norwich
*Received the Chief Constable’s of Norfolk’s Award for going to the aid of a police officer being attacked in Dereham during the 1970s.
*When the Russian speedway riders arrived in Norwich for a test match who acted as the interpreter? Joe stepped in.
His book is highly recommended. 23 Days: A Memoir of 1939 is published by the family, at £10 including post and packing, at 23days.memoir@gmail.com
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