Edwards was a soldier serving under General Maczek who had plans for life and dreams. However, fate decided for him. He was a sapper; he and 2 comrades were talking about the battlefield of Breda and how long it was lasting. Unfortunately, it was the last Day of his life. The next day was Christmas Eve, but they would not live to see it. They are resting side by side in the cemetery in Oosterhout in the Netherlands.

 

Edward Mżyczek was 26 years old. The war was over, and the next day Christmas began, and with it the hope for a normal life. He had decent furniture before the war; he gave it to his sister for storage. He sent his photo and greetings, promising that he would come back home December 14th. That was the last message the family received.

 

He was born on 28 October 1919 in Konczyce Mały near Cieszyn. Before the war, Silesian Cieszyn was incorporated into the Third Reich and the people were forced to sign the Volkslist.

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Young people, who since the beginning of the war had lived under German occupation, without schools and all the help of education and a start to a new life. This is what also happened in Edward’s family.

 

Summoned by the Wehrmacht was like a verdict, it was difficult to ignore. Referring to a family situation or wounds sustained in World War I did not help. For refusing to fill in the Volkslist, he was threatened with arrest, and if he further refused, he would be transferred to a concentration camp.

 

Both Edward and his sister’s husband Jan, Jan’s brother Robert got the call to join the Wehrmacht. Robert later fought in the 303 Division, and Robert's brother fought in the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

 

Jan returned from the war without a leg. And it was Robert, Janka's brother, who informed the family of Edward's death. When his sister learned of his death, she burned in shock all the documents related to Edward. She left only the last letter and the last photograph.

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Polish soldiers in the Wehrmacht just wanted to live and were reluctantly fighting on the enemy's side. The Polish Armed Forces fighting in 1944 and 1945 in western Europe and in Italy had 90,000 soldiers in their ranks, who had been prisoners or deserters from the Wehrmacht. Edward joined the Polish Forces on 26.10.1943.

 

Edward was probably captured by the Allies in Sicily on 9 July 1943. It is difficult to determine today the place and time when he finished his service with the enemy. He might have deserted from Wermacht and ended up in Allied captivity?

Deserting German military units was extremely difficult. The commanders of the branches where Polish citizens were conscripted, came to knew very well that most of them did not intend to die for the Third Reich.

 

Getting captured by the Allies gave them a good chance to join the ranks of the Polish army, which needed recruits on the Western front.

 

Most soldiers who previously served in the German army took different names while serving in the the Polish army in order to protect their families who were still under German occupation.  Edward’s pseudonym was Burzy Mazski.

 

Desertification opportunities on the western front were much greater than on the eastern. Poles serving in the Wehrmacht, when they came into Allied captivity, were returning under the jurisdiction of the Polish authorities, who had the right to call them to serve in the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

 

He was a soldier of the Podhale Rifle Battalion of the 3rd Rifle Brigade of the 1st Polish Armored Division. He fought under the command of General Maczek and sometimes celebrated mass for the division as a Chaplain in the west.

 

Unfortunately, the family does not have much information about Edward's battle trail in the West.

 

On 27 October 1944, the 1st Polish Armored Division attacked German positions in the Dutch town of Oosterhout, located north-east of Breda. The attack lasted until 9 November.

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Before Christmas in 1944, Edward Mżyczek with 2 other soldiers: Mieczysław Ziental and Edward Necel, were ordered to clear mines in the town of Doeveren, 28 km from Breda. Sadly, they did not live to see Christmas, and were buried in Oosterhout cemetery.

 

Edward is one of a thousand Poles who fought and died in the Polish Army in the West.

 

In Silesian families, there is no shortage of letters, kept like relics, written by sons and fathers, who did not return from the war. The last traces of their grandparents, parents and brothers were left on the yellow cards and postcards.

 

More than 375 thousand Poles were forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht during the war, another tens of thousands were forced to join other German armed forces. More than 220,000 died on the frontline. And 90,000Poles became prisoners or deserted.

 

The recruitment by the German authorities among the inhabitants of the territories incorporated into the Third Reich is a part of the Polish history of the 20th century and it is impossible to forget this painful part of the events.

 

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Copyright: Mżyczek family

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