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A FILM BY DOCUMENTARY AND FEATURE FILM STUDIOS

I DON’T KNOW

“A certain man will tell the story of his life‘

Independent of subjectivism and fragmentary delivery, this man and his state exist objectivelyt

One should take these facts into account as they are multiplied by social phenomena."

After graduating college, I started working for the national forest sen/ices

I worked in Olsztyn the longest, where l was a forester.

It was my passion but working conditions at that time were very difficult

And the remuneration of foresters was very dismal

We got together, there were more than 100 of us engineers in Olsztyn then,

We stopped working, let’s say it was like a little strike.

Along with my friend we went to the Central Committee.

After considering our case, the salaries at National Forest Sen/ice

were increased by 100%.

It was a huge raise.

But I felt that I had become an inconvenience to them.

At that time, there were posters around the city recruiting for the mines.

I reported to the Tores mine in Walbrzych, not letting it be known, of course,

that I had a higher education.

After a short training, I worked below in the mine as a labourer-loader.

Then October, 1956 happened. This was a time of removing dignitaries

from the plant on wheelbarrows. A time of renewal sort of.

ljoined the Party then.

They looked into me and it turned out that I am an engineer.

l was quickly promoted to plant supervisor, then director.

I had a lot of problems due to my lack of experience,

and I thought it appropriate and necessary to upgrade my educational level.

I finished economics in night school.

Then, over 9 years, l was a director in various plants.

Then came 1966,

for me a very difficult year.

Because I got a Party directive from the First Secretary of the County Committee Comrade ,

To take over the corrupt “Renifer” leather factory.

The directive was backed by guarantees

Comrade told me that he is giving me full guarantee

that in case of failure at that plant,

I would not bear any responsibility for it and would have no problems.

Those same guarantees were given me by the director

of the leather industry union in dez’, director_.

He also offered the full assistance

of the union’s apparatus in order to turn the company around.

The company which was in a disastrous situation.

l was the 13th director of this company.

The "Renifer’ plant produced mostly gloves

and one of the shops also produced some leather apparel.

There were three tanneries as well.

The starting product was imported leather.

Vlhth production and sales of about 60 million, we had about 60 million in losses.

The main task I set for myself was finding the source of this.

In the tannery, the situation was that from time to time, while soaking,

a few tons of raw leather would breakdown.

The union commission would come from the institute,

run tests on this “soup" and based on laboratory tests,

it would be determined that so many tons dissolved in the soak.

So I attempted to determine who was responsible for buying poor quality raw material.

And it turned out that union employees

took part in the purchasing of that leather.

They would spend months abroad buying the leather

and mediation commission at the ministry rejected the case as baseless.

No basis for assigning responsibility for the leather dissolving in the soak

the situation according to the ministry was normal.

Too bad.

However, regarding the tannery employees, they were long time employees

and there were no proven prior cases of pilfering,

but when it came to the cutting area, 80% of the employees had been

terminated for theft at least once,

and 50% had been terminated for theft at least three times.

At the time I took over “Renifer’, the documentation audit was finishing.

I requested the documents from the auditors, of course, it had hundreds of pages,

but there were mostly discrepancies like travel,

purchase of items done incorrectly, things like that.

And a number of auditors were

engaged at the plant before my arrival.

At that point, I summoned the plant auditor Mr. so he could tell me

how the union audit was done, what they checked and how.

This man did not want to talk with me. But he told me that he is quitting.

Why are you quitting? Because I have an issue with the union audit,

and I don’t want to be picked on.

Finally, he told me that the head of the union audit, Mr.

demands that he also sign the reports produced by the union auditors.

And he declined.

Because he had doubts as to the veracity of the report,

the validity of the auditors’ work and their honesty.

In addition, I found out that prior to my arrival, leather was stolen

and transported by cars which were escorted by militia officers.

There were cases of boxes of gloves that we exported, when opened by

the customer abroad, contained not gloves but sand.

0f the people who I had to terminate like the assistant technical director Mr. ,

the assistant sales director Mr. , the first secretary of the

the first secretary of the organization plant committee comrade ,

department as well as the judge on the workers’ court comrade ,

the warehouse manager citizen .

The head accountant citizen _,

Then his replacement for a short period citizen , also fired.

I simply had to surround myself with new people, and somehow get rid of the old ones.

When I took over position, the first secretary of the county committee arrived, Comrade

as well as the economic secretary Comrade .

At the Party meeting, these comrades that they are giving me full authority

in the area of terminating employees, regardless of the positions they have.

This state of affairs that exists at the company, cannot exist any longer.

But these were only declarations, real life took a different course.

First to quit was director replaced by director .

The new director started to be interested in renovations.

But interested parties started to dig into director past

and found that after the war, director acted against the people’s authority,

and had been convicted, later the conviction was overturned,

but because of it, the county committee threw director out of the Party

and demanded that director be immediately terminated.

This man is very upset with me, unfortunately, I was unable to help him in this matter.

The second matter concerned the head mechanic, whom I already mentioned.

The first secretary of the organization department and judge on the workers’ court, comrade .

By coincidence, that a few documents written by comrade _,

were submitted for my signature. As | read them, I started to have doubts

whether this man is capable of writing.

So I asked for his personnel file of Mr. , which contained,

among others, his final exam from a high school in Swidnica.

Auditor , at my request, went to the school, checked,

and it turned out that such a diploma was never issued and that this is a forgery.

Forged diploma, no secondary education,

when summoned for explanation, he was unable to prove that he had even elementary education.

But, the plant committee executive did not agree to terminate Mr. _.

They argued that despite not having finished high school,

he has higher education level because he attended a course

for head mechanics organized by the Gliwice polytechnic.

And that document is in his file.

To determine if leaks are possible,

I conducted a very detailed and meticulous analysis to find out

if potential customers exist for the stolen raw materials.

| used the pretext of writing a paper

about the industry as a whole.

I received information from all regional people’s councils about

private glove makers,

and it became clear that 80—90% of them are former employees of "Renifer’

terminated by the company for theft.

One of the employees fired for stealing owned a private glove shop in Swidnica.

AMr. _ ifl recall.

I filed numerous times for revoking his business permit.

Since this was the receiver of leather stolen from the plant.

I even had evidence such as after receiving a fresh shipment of dyes,

from Switzerland, which were used only for testing in the dyeing lab,

in a day or two, in the window of this glove maker, were gloves made from that leather.

The militia, declined pursuing the matter, demanded that I catch him red-handed.

When he was purchasing stolen leather.

I did not have the resources to do this.

Because individual thefts were difficult to prove

as they required a personal search,

I put in a statistical random search procedure.

Every person leaving pushed a button, if the red light came on,

they would go to a personal search area.

This did not work long,

mostly because when the red light came on, people ran away.

And besides, the device after a few days started to malfunction all the time.

I am sad to say, that the citizens’ militia didn’t want to help me.

Despite numerous initiatives on my part, applications,

they demanded either denouncements against a specific person,

or the capture of someone stealing.

However, the militia did not want to conduct any preventive measures.

I followed up on this all the way

to commandant _ and his deputy , and discussed

setting up an ORMO unit at the plant.

I did set one up, joined ORMO myself, it had no effect.

Most of my predecessors left as a result of

statements from drivers who testified that they drove the directors

on private errands,

that these directors were in different company, drank vodka.

These were arguments used to terminate prior directors.

Due to the above, from day one,

I did not have a driver for the company car but drove myself.

I got a phone call that a package was placed in the trunk of my car.

That there is a militia officer at the gate and they will search my car when I leave.

And that the package contains leather or something.

I immediately went to the car pool, opened the trunk and saw the package.

It made no sense to conduct any investigation because nobody would be found.

I simply had the package removed, and immediately informed

the county committee first secretary, comrade .

That this was set up was evident because a few minutes later,

the militia officer left the guard station.

During the search, I also received an anonymous report

that a shipment of leather

is going through the tannery without documentation.

Some obviously illegal activity.

First the leather was supposedly destroyed in the soak,

and now it’s being processed by the tannery.

If you can imagine, this was being done at the time of an audit in the plant.

An audit conducted by the home office.

|, of course, ordered the tannery to be sealed.

I sent a report to the union

and the union auditor went to the union offices.

The following day l was ordered by phone

to unseal the tannery and continue production.

There was this incident, that the head accountant

reported pay outs for fictitious business trips.

Including the fictitious business trip of the first secretary of the plant committee, comrade .

I received the official report, this was a very unpleasant situation,

I reported it by phone to comrade , went there and asked

what should be done with this case?

Another secretary, a long-time employee,

maybe not the worst employee,

will have to be terminated and the prosecutor will have to be notified

because the trip was for about 500 zloty.

Comrade immediately summoned comrade .

l was in the committee the entire time.

He summoned him and asked how this could happen, that he,

as secretary was to help curb this behaviour and here you are a thief yourself?

You stole 500 zloty, the director is here and tells me that you stole it.

For a false business trip. Well?

He said yes, comrade secretary but

l have to support my family, you know, I had to...

So you steal to support your family?

He was very harsh with him.

No, but I can’t afford buying presents.

What presents, what are you talking about?

Well, l was asked by the organizational secretary, comrade _,

takes gloves from me, does not pay for them, so what should I do?

The director here introduced these searches, now I can’t remove gloves from the plant...

They watch and audit everything, so I have to pay for these gloves.

So I had to refund myself the money in this fictitious business trip.

Comrade , immediately summoned secretary ,

All of this was going on at the county committee in front of me.

So I asked him: Wladek, did you take gloves from ?

He said that he did. Did you pay him?

No I did not.

So now get this: stole money and his excuse is that you did not

pay for the gloves, and that’s why he stole the money.

A very unpleasant situation.

Tomorrow, you will return the money in front of .

will turn the money over to the cashier,

and to me he said not to report the case to the prosecutor.

In another incident, the supply manager similarly faked a business trip,

the head accountant caught it,

his name was .

He was dismissed by me,

later, this after comrade left

the county committee, was hired there as Party instructor.

Despite such difficult, seemingly hopeless conditions,

l was able to reduce theft and waste the mess in the company,

that from 60 million in losses, the company turned a profit of 10 million.

During that time, the people who gave me the position and guarantees were replaced.

That is, comrade left as first secretary of the county committee in Swidnica,

And director_ left the union.

For turning around “Renifer” company

the Council of State awarded me the Silver Cross of Merit.

This was given to me at the ceremony

commemorating the October Revolution on October 25th, 1969

Aweek later, on October 31st

l was summoned by the county committee to the executive meeting.

Exactly six days after my being awarded.

Present at this meeting was

the deputy director of the union, Mr. .

l was faced with a number of accusations,

the atmosphere was very unpleasant, when I entered, nobody greeted me,

they told me to sit like I was the accused

or to be interrogated by the Inquisition.

They said: we have serious allegations against you,

principally that you do not cooperate with the collective,

you mistreat the employees at the plant,

You take care of personal business, like sending your children to camp,

What do you have to say for yourself in this matter?

I said that I really did not know what this was about, maybe some details...

You know exactly what we mean here,

I insisted on getting more details,

and they said that an employee who wanted to see me,

had to come three times and wait an hour at your door.

I asked which employee it was, and was told that I know which one.

The comrades whispered among themselves, nodded their heads,

and the director of the union handed me my termination notice.

To be effective immediately.

I got really upset, apparently I ran out and slammed the door.

I returned to the plant only to collect my things. And did not show my face again.

But I was so furious, that I wrote the minister of light industry,

as well as the Party Central Committee, describing the whole matter.

After a few days, the secretary called,

almost in tears, that she is in big

trouble because...

certain items that were in her area are now missing.

And she has a big problem because they are demanding

that she blame me for this.

The following items were missing:

in the director’s office, there was a radio

purchased by my predecessor or his predecessor even,

No idea why, since a radio in a director’s office was only

decoration since there was no time during working hours to listen to it.

I wrote a letter to the plant directly

about where these items are located, and who has what.

As far as the radio, I wrote that indeed, I borrowed

the radio and because I am unable to return it at this time, please charge

me with the radios cost.

Then there was a big blow-up.

From what I understand,

they were looking for some reasons

for terminating me. Because they had given me none.

So they used the letter I wrote about charging the value of the items to me,

and submitted it to the prosecutor in Swidnica.

That I am a thief of public property and that I stole a radio

and some file holders or some such.

Since in the meantime, I did not return to the plant, they took back

my company car and determined that two blankets were missing from it.

They added to the denunciation that I stole two blankets also,

As far as I remember, this was what was sent to the prosecutor.

Of course, the prosecutor initiated an intensive investigation of this matter.

Before, my reports of thefts totalling hundreds of thousands of zloty were dismissed.

But here, the chief prosecutor comrade _ personally conducted the investigation.

From what I understand, he will not allow anyone

near the case because this is a very serious matter.

My home was searched twice.

Including dumping drawers,

unscrewing table legs, in the search for items stolen from the plant.

After all these experiences, I fell ill.

It was decided that the nenrous shock that I went through

should be treated in a psychiatric clinic.

While I was in the hospital, I was summoned

to the Party’s control commission, but I was unable to go because I was ill.

Later, after my release from the hospital, l was expelled from

the Party in absentia for the theft of public property.

The investigation continued, actually, nothing was going on with it.

lwas looking for work, I could find none, I looked, wrote, travelled...

Everywhere, after initial talks about hiring me,

it would turn out that the position had been filled.

At the same time, I filed with the minister for a change of opinion.

I even had an audience with the minister.

The minister, of course, stated that he has no bias against me,

that the matter will be cleared up,

ordered the control department to immediately look into the matter,

But nothing was happening, there was no opinion issued.

I turned to the main board of ZBOWID as a combat veteran

to report what situation I was in,

I remember that colonel came

to first secretary comrade _ to inquire about the matter,

to see what is going on.

He told him openly that they have indisputable evidence

that I am a thief of public property and there is nothing further to discuss.

I found out about this.

I then went to the attorney general to report a crime,

because the investigation was taking over a year by then.

Of course, the attorney general responded

that they sent appropriate notice to the prosecutor,

for inappropriate action and to finish the investigation as soon as possible.

And in fact, it was finished. They submitted the accusation to the court in Swidnica.

For the crime of I don’t remember which paragraph but in any case,

for the theft of public property.

There were, however, some people in Swidnica who were on my side,

they told me that the sentence has already been passed in the committee.

So I took advantage of being on the jury

and the case had to be transferred by the regional court to anotherjurisdiction.

It went to Walbrzych and the judge

questioned me as to who I gave the radio to at the plant.

I stated that this is an unpleasant matter for me,

that I paid for the radio,

and I did not wish to involve important people in the trial.

Thejudge then told me that this would not be in my favour.

And that he saw no reason not to name the persons.

I then told him that the radio was taken by the first secretary

of the plant committee and given to the first secretary of the county committee.

Additional witnesses were called. Of course they asked the secretary

whether he took it, he denied doing so before the court.

That he absolutely did not take the radio.

But they also called an economics department employee,

who stated that the secretary of the plant committee, comrade

came to the economics department

to have this radio written off as damaged.

The court ordered a confrontation.

During this confrontation,

and this was very unpleasant,

not only did the economics department employee confirm it,

but added also that the secretary of the plant committee took

not only that radio but also coffee service, crystal vases, crystal ashtrays,

some heaters, a number of small items which were supposedly for the committee.

Twenty Chinese pens, and so forth.

He even took window drapes.

Of course, I was completely cleared of all charges,

fully acquitted, without any questions even.

Prosecutor did not stop there.

He submitted an inquiry to the regional court in Wroclaw.

Against the advice of professional lawyers,

I submitted another

complaint against prosecutor _ to the attorney general.

My lawyers said that this will only hurt my case. But no, l was not worried.

The attorney general ordered the inquiry to be withdrawn, so there was none.

In this situation, I wrote a letter to the minister of remuneration

and social matters,

that I am unemployed,

the employment office will not register me,

arguing that people with a higher education need not be registered

since there is such a demand and so many job openings

for them that there is no need to register,

but factories unfortunately did not wish to hire me.

As a result of different kinds of interventions by me,

as well as the fact that at that time, similar cases

were going on in Swidnica, involving other people,

an investigation was initiated into the county committee secretaries,

as a result of which, all were removed from their positions.

l was regarded as the author of all these cases,

and because of that, l was considered public enemy number one in Swidnica.

That was when the attacks on me began.

Even more persecution than before.

All my life, l have hunted, this was my hobby,

and it happened that l was shot at while hunting.

At first I did not realize they were shooting at me, just thought that

some idiot in the woods is shooting along the line.

The second time, everything pointed to the fact that this was intentional

shooting at me. I had to stop hunting.

So I was shot at twice, beat up three times,

so I stopped leaving home at night,

only during the day, I would return by a different route,

only my wife knew where l was and what time I would return.

My home was harassed under different pretexts,

The telephone would ring at different times of day and night.

l was often forced to unplug the phone.

l handled it all until the moment they started attacking members of my family.

l was then forced to escape from Swidnica.

And so, having two diplomas,

twenty years work experience,

I could not find work, l was unemployed for nearly six years.

Despite the fact that I looked for work in dozens of places, nationwide.

And regardless of the position.

| escaped to a place I found by accident, near Warsaw,

| work here, I live in a rented room.

Being over 50 years old,

I’m trying to finish my doctorate,

I’m a PhD. student of economics,

Working here on the outskirts of Warsaw, and I am starting my life

completely from the beginning.

I lost my entire life’s work.

l have to admit that I don’t know how to live,

what is the best recipe for living.

Whether to live life intensively, with gusto,

or to sleep through life.

I am not able to answer that question.

I think for me, the most important thing

is to have a clear conscience.

That whatever we went through,

in some way that is in agreement with my own self.

I’m sure I lived intensively, I’m sure I made lots of mistakes,

I’m sure I have a lot of fiaws...

And it happened that I was domineering

and uncompromising,

maybe even conceited, sometimes.

I’m sure there are many people who have grievances against me.

Maybe I was

not diplomatic enough,

in my practices and decisions...

It’s hard for me to say.

I don’t know.

“A certain man told the story of his life. Independent of subjectivism and fragmentary delivery,

this man and his state exist objectively. One should take these facts into account

as they are multiplied by social phenomena."

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translation: Piotr Strzelecki