Is this really happening? Seventeen-year-old Jozef Benarz stands quietly in his parents' living room in Brzesciany, Poland, listening to the angry Nazi soldiers telling his parents they are going to take his father away to a forced labor camp in Germany. He knows in his heart the aging abusive father who raised him will not survive imprisonment during WWII. He tells the frightful men they can take him instead of his dad, much to his mother's horror of possibly losing her oldest child. From that day on, his life will never be the same. He will endure inhumane and degrading treatment at the hands of the Nazi Gestapo. Bombs will explode near him and he will see lives disappear before his young eyes. Before his ordeal is over, he will be sent to the front lines as a human shield to protect the men who have tortured him in many ways. Prayer in God will eventually bring him through the hardest days of his life. One day he will be free and go to America and his dreams will become a reality.
My Name is Jozef Bednarz: Memoir of a WWII POW
Is this really happening? Seventeen-year-old Jozef Benarz stands quietly in his parents' living room in Brzesciany, Poland, listening to the angry Nazi soldiers telling his parents they are going to take his father away to a forced labor camp in Germany. He knows in his heart the aging abusive father who raised him will not survive imprisonment during WWII. He tells the frightful men they can take him instead of his dad, much to his mother's horror of possibly losing her oldest child. From that day on, his life will never be the same. He will endure inhumane and degrading treatment at the hands of the Nazi Gestapo. Bombs will explode near him and he will see lives disappear before his young eyes. Before his ordeal is over, he will be sent to the front lines as a human shield to protect the men who have tortured him in many ways. Prayer in God will eventually bring him through the hardest days of his life. One day he will be free and go to America and his dreams will become a reality.