In late August this year I was an invited speaker at the IGCP710 workshop in Krakow. It was memorable, as far as I was concerned, because the venue was the AGH university n Krakow, in the building where Eddie Polak, one of my first geophysical mentors, studied during the four years that preceded the invasion of Poland and the start of the Second World War. I was able to imagine him in his time there all the better because he had left me with a typescript of his memoirs. In this blog I record everything he had to say about this period of his life.
Eddie was brought up in the town of Nowy Targ, the gateway to the Tatra mountains. Inevitably, he became an amateur mountaineer and skier and, equally inevitably, one possible option for him after he completed high school was to continue his education in Krakow, a city once Poland’s capital and just 60 kilometres to the north. There, higher education was dominated by the Jagiellonian University and the Mining Academy, the Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza, the forerunner (and site) of todays’ AGH. He does not explain In his memoir why he chose the Mining Academy in preference to following his elder brother Stefan into the Jagiellonian and a career in law, but those of us who knew him later would agree that it was the right choice. Eddie was an inspirational geophysicist; he would have been a terrible lawyer.
Eddie had been second in his class in the results of the Matura in Nowy Targ, but Krakow was a different matter. There were 450 applicants for the 90 places in the AGH, and his application lacked the supporting points given for military service or experience in mining and metallurgy. He did, however, have an inside track; one of the professors of mathematics (the Professor Hoborski, whom he mentions in the extracts below) had been his mother’s guardian after she was orphaned in her late teens. Whether that was important is uncertain, but of the 50 students admitted that year to the Mining Department, he came in at number 37. A very respectable position for a student from what was then a very rural area.
In writing his memoirs, Eddie combined his memories of his life as a student with commentaries on the developing crises that led up to the Second World War. These I summarise briefly, in capital letters, in the appropriate places, and I end with Eddie about to return to Krakow, where he was called up and took part in the battles against the Germans around Przemysl. When Polish resistance collapsed following the Russian invasion from the east, he was captured but escaped and eventually made his way to France and then to the UK, where he joined the Polish airborne regiment. However, his background in mining led to his selection for a possible paratrooper drop tasked with preventing the German army destroying the Polish coal mines as they retreated. That drop never happened and he saw no active service.
After the war, Eddie went to work for the National Coal Board in the UK, and that is where and when he became a geophysicist. In 1954, frustrated with the Coal Board’s refusal to allow him to begin a PhD (they feared it might ‘start a precedent), he left the UK with Betty, his very English wife, for Australia and joined the Geophysical Branch of the Bureau of Mineral Resources.
But that was all in the future, Where his student days are concerned, I will let Eddie tell his own story.
‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
The syllabus of the studies at the Mining Academy was divided into 48 subjects given in 4 years, twelve a year. At the end of the first year you had to complete at least five designated exams and to complete all the laboratory and colloquial work. The next year again 5 designated exams from the second year and the rest of the first year. The next year the same, and the fourth again. This meant that at the best to get the absoluterium, the student needed at least four and a half years. Even when the year was not satisfactorily completed the exams passed and the laboratory work done were not lost and a student could take some subjects from the next year providing the total number did not exceed twelve.
1934
Our studies were done in two buildings. The main one contained lecture rooms, libraries, smaller laboratories, administration and the students’ amenities. It was a new building, in volume the biggest in Poland at this time. It was located in the Aleje Mickiewicza. The second building, housing most of the laboratories, was located in the suburb of Podgorze on the other side of the Vistula River, about five kilometres away from the first building. We normally walked from one building to another, but the studies were arranged so that a student spent at least half a day in one place.
The main buiding of the AGH in Krakow, which has changed remarkably little sonce Eddie’s time. The figure above the portico is of St Barbara, the patron saint of miners. Source: https://www.agh.edu.pl/uczelnia/multimedia/zdjecia-do-pobranie/, author Maciej Talar.
The walk took us past the Old City, below the Royal Castle Wavel, across the suburb of Kazimierz, with houses from the time of Kazimierz. We had a stopping place, “Pod Krzyzkiem” {under the Cross) serving mead since 1410, the year of the Polish victory over the Teutonic Knights on Grunwald Fields. Our lectures started always at 8 a.m. and finished at 12 noon. We had either a light meal at the students’ cafeteria or sandwiches brought from home and then we worked till at least five p.m., once per week till 8 p.m., Attendance was compulsory with a roll to be signed. Then I normally returned to my room where I prepared my dinner or went to the students’ cafeteria for a meal.
MUSSOLINI INVADES ABYSSINIA, AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS IMPOSES HALF-HEARTED AND INEFFECTIVE SANCTIONS ON ITALY.
The first semester of 1934/5 was disappointing for me, as I soon realised that my preparation for higher studies was not good enough. It also included chemistry and machine drawing which my patience could not afford. I spent quite a lot of time to catch up but with all the lectures and practical work not much time was left for serious study. But I still took part in social activities, as normally most people do, when they leave a provincial town for the city. Our students’ association had a box at the National Theatre and I attended many plays and operas. The box was for six people, we in miners’ uniforms, the ladies in evening dresses, we mixed with other people, we had a lot of fun. The second place we often visited was the light music theatre Bagatelle where we went to hear songs on the actual political scene. Then we went to the Bizantz Café where we had our evening coffee listening to the orchestra. About once a month we went to have a little more than enough vodka. We generally visited two places, a small pub in Grodzka Street, famous for its white sausages and baked beans in onion sauce, or the second one in the basement of the old burgher’s residence, where we decorated the cellars with miners’ insignia , barrels etc and printed on the walls the verses from Polish songs from mining areas.
1935
At the end of February Professor Hoborski, during our fortnightly dinner, told me that I should concentrate on other subjects and forget about two examinations in mathematics that year. The reader in mathematics and lecturer in analytical geometry believed that I might just scrape through the examinations and this was not good enough in our position.
I took his advice and in June and in September 1935 I passed four out of five of the required examinations plus two others. The marks were rather low but I had also completed all the laboratory work and colloquia from the first year of the study. I was therefore allowed to take some of the subjects from the second year.
NEW POLISH CONSTITUTION APPROVED, GIVING ALMOST TOTAL POWER TO THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT. DEATH OF PILSUDSKI. GERMAN TROOPS OCCUPY THE RHINELAND.
1936
The end of my second year of the studies at the Mining Academy saw me fallen a little more behind the program and I had to make a major decision. When I write this 54 years later, I have in front of me my record of studies and I am building around it a sequence of events. I had the choice of either to stay in Krakow and go on as before, or to return to Nowy Targ with all the material required for study. I chose the second and I was granted leave of absence for one semester and stayed home.
SPANISH CIVIL WAR BEGINS
1937
At the beginning of 1937 I returned to Krakow to study. I stayed at the Mining Academy Student’s home in Gramatyka Street. It was about 25 minutes’ walk to the main building of the Academy, all across grassy land, rather marshy. Only one other building was there, housing some of our professors. As I was lonely in a single room and of course it was much cheaper, I moved into a four bed room. Two of my companions were further advanced in their studies after starting the studies one year earlier than I. One of them studied metallurgy, I do not know what happened to him. The second became Chief Mining Engineer in Communist Poland and the vice-minister of mining. He was very friendly towards us when Betty, Ian and I visited Poland in 1966. The third froze in the Pyrenees, in his attempt to reach the Polish Army in Britain.
Soon after my arrival I passed three exams and I enrolled for some subjects of the third year. It was with some difficulty that I adjusted myself to the rigours of studies. I was 22 and generally university students were more mature than in England or Australia. The minimum age of entry into the university was 18 and many students did their compulsory army service before starting their studies.
For all students who did not serve in the Army before joining the universities, compulsory service in the University Legion was introduced. For two years every weekend we had infantry military training. We had lectures, parades and exercises in the field. I saw many parts around Krakow for a radius of 30 kilometers. It is a lovely countryside, very wooded with small limestone hills, with little creeks and the huge Wistula River. In Spring full of flowers, of fruit trees in orchards or small gardens. In the region of Nowy Sacz and Tarnow the plum trees lined the roads. Anybody was allowed to pick the fruit as long as the branches were not broken. During the vacation we went into this district for our yearly camp on the bank of the Poprad River near Rytro. The camp lasted a fortnight and the idea behind it was to put a large group together (about 600 men, from four universities) and give them very intensive physical training, including a march of 60 kilometres in one night and a day.
CHAMBERLAIN BECOMES UK PRIME MINISTER WITH A POLICY BASED ON SEEKING ACCOMODATION WITH THE DICTATORS. UNREST IN POLAND AS THE GOVERNMENT BECOMES MORE DICTATORIAL.
The end of the third year in the Mining Academy showed quite a considerable advance in my study. I completed all subjects from the second year of study, though not all the examinations, and also I had done some from the third year. I was happy with my progress and looked forward to the next two years to get the absoluterium and to start working on my thesis. The certainty that my studies were going well gave me peace of mind and therefore allowed me to enjoy my freedom. I had a nice vacation spent mostly in the Gorce and Tatra Mountains. I was specially interested in the construction of the funicular railway on the Kasprowy Wierch (wierch = hill). During the stretching of the steel cable between two hills the anchor gave way, and the line went out of control down the slope cutting a swathe through the forest, but there was no loss of life. This was my last vacation when I was completely free, for the next year I had to go down the mine to do practical work.
In September I returned to Krakow and found lodging in a private house. I was then induced to work in the Students’ Association of the Mining Academy and became a member of its Control Committee. The work there was not very time consuming, about three weekends in a year to make inventory of the two shops owned by the Association and the monthly meeting to check whether the praesidium was working according to the rules and that the decisions of the general meeting were carried out. I was still engaged in political work, but more in the relations between the youth organisations leaning to the left. I was still a deeply committed member of the centre with a little to the right attitude. but the tide of change seemed to accelerate.
GENERAL STRIKE IN POLAND. POLICE USED TO BREAK UP DEMONSTRATIONS, KILLING 45 IN NOWY TARG.
1938
The year started well for me, as during the Christmas holiday I had done a lot of study so that I soon passed two examinations and I started to work much harder. I had completed a lot of laboratory work, so concentrated on examinations.
Also I committed myself to spending more time with the Student’s Association. At the Annual General Meeting I was elected chairman of the Control Committee, which demanded more time from me and I had to be present more often in the Association’s offices, and my social work also increased. But my presence in the political work was not required so often as lately there had been a marked increase in the number of students of the university coming from rural areas. I had very good relations with other members of the praesidium of the association and my path crossed theirs on many occasions during the war and afterwards.
HITLER INCREASES PRESSURE ON AUSTRIA AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA. IN BRITAIN, ANTHONY EDEN RESIGNS IN PROTEST AGAINST APPEASEMENT. GERMAN ‘ANSCHLUSS’ WITH AUSTRIA. PARTIAL MOBILIZATION IN POLAND. BRITISH AND FRENCH GOVERNMENTS WARN HITLER THAT THEY WILL SUPPORT CZECHOSLOVAKIA.
In June 1938 1 started my long vacation at home. The end of the fourth year of mY study was not as successful as I had expected. International events, internal politics and the decreasing production of industry in Poland put additional financial stress on us. Poland realised that she would shortly have to make a decision either to fight or to surrender to the demands of Hitler’s Junta.
PARTIAL MOBILISATIONS IN RUSSIA, ROMANIA, HUNGAR AND BELGIUM AS WELL AS POLAND.
1939
I returned to Krakow early in January and worked in a hurry to advance my studies. We knew that war was inevitable and would come within about two years. This was the period I needed to complete my studies and to get the title of Mining Engineer. I had done so far four and a half years of study. But I also had to do practice in a coal mine. I decided to do this in June-August 1939, by which time I would have to pass 7 examinations as well and do my practical work and attend lectures.
The threat of war hanging over our heads affected also my political and social life. Our political life was rather subdued, with no action possible, as the government was holding on to power by hook or crook, so I spent more time on visits to the National Theatre and the Bagatella, a light theatre, where we applauded a singer on its stage when we heard the refrain of a drinking song.
Wait, before the month is over / We will drink together in Berlin.
CHAMBERLAIN MEETS HITLER IN MUNICH. GERMAN ULTIMATUM TO CZECHOSLOVAKIA
We spent many evenings in a café, over a cup of coffee watching the people dancing but I did not join them. Slowly the number of my friends dwindled, as they were called to their units. The Polish Forces numbered 800,000, general mobilization was still not ordered. We worked hard at our studies and the universities gave us more opportunities to pass our examinations (the system was that we took the exams as we found we were ready for them). During the General Meeting of the Students’ Association I withdrew from the management.
DISMEMBERMENT OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA BEGINS, GIVING POLAND A COMMON BORDER WITH HUNGARY. GERMANY OCCUPIES BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA. GERMANY SIEZES MEMEL FROM LITHUANIA. ITALY OCCUPIES ALBANIA. THE ‘PACT OF STEEL’ IS SIGNED BETWEEN GERMANY AND ITALY.
Meanwhile, I arranged to start my undergraduate practical work at the beginning of June. Half my time would be spent on all aspects of running a mine, the other half on investigating palaeontology. The coal mine where I was to work was new, just starting production at one face. Called Szyby Jankowackie (Szyby = Shafts), it was intended to produce ultimately 6000 tonnes per day. The mine was connected with a major older mine by 6 km long horizontal tunnel, along which I was to investigate any fossil content.
I arrived there on the first Monday in June, travelling via Katowice to Rybnik, where I boarded the colliery train. Arriving at 4.30 p.m. I was met by a newly qualified engineer. in charge of ventilation. I was lodged at the visitors hostel in a single room, which had its advantages. I was given a yellow helmet, indicating my status as a newcomer, to be assisted where necessary – the miners wore black helmets, the staff white.
During the next week I was shown the layout of the mine. There were three levels in the mine, which was based on the horizontal principle, with horizontal roadways, the coal worked above the roadways and then transported along the roadways to the shaft. I soon found my way around.
Each day began at 6 a.m. After breakfast I walked to the shaft, changed into pit clothing, prepared my notes for the day and, like most of the workers, spent a few moments in the chapel at the bottom of the shaft. Then I spent about four hours walking along a roadway, inspecting the sides and roof for signs of possible rocks containing fossils, which I prised out from the solid rock. On a good day, with a heavy bag, I would put the bag on wagon full of coal, to be collected later. For lunch I usually chose a secluded spot, if possible with a stream of fresh air. Switching off my electric lamp I would stay in complete darkness and tomb-like quiet for about half-an-hour before resuming my collecting. After 3 p.m. the rest of the day I had free, after packing the samples I had collected during the day. I spent the time quietly; reading newspapers, going into Rybnik for the occasional glass of stout.
The newspapers reported lack of progress in the talks between the Western Powers’ and Russia. We did not know that at the same time Russia was negotiating with Germany too. The British Government agreed to a loan to Poland of £8 million Sterling, by means of which were bought French tanks, which arrived at the port of Gdynia. British Hurricane fighters only reached Rumania, where they remained in their packing-cases.
Meanwhile l was completing my work at the mine, intending to leave on September 2nd.
I completed mg collection of rocks, nearly one-and-a-half tonnes, all sorted, indexed, labelled and packed. I also had separately 6 samples which i intended to take myself to the Department of Palaeontology at the Mining Academy. I had also finished a 60-page report, complete with plans and statistics. I was very pleased with the report. I wonder whether anyone ever read it.
Eddie’s escape route, from his memoir. He and some companions walked across the Polish border into Slovakia, where they took a taxi to the Hungarian border. This they also crossed on foot. before travelling by train to Budapest. Permitted only a brief stay in Hungary, he crossed the Yugoslav border, again on foot, with 63 other Poles, and went by train to Zagreb, where the Polish consulate arranged for travel by train across Italy (then still neutral) to France. He noted that in the Yugoslav border region there was a 50 dinar ‘prize’ for anyone denouncing a Pole crossing the frontier, but it was never claimed.