Man is Wolf to Man
Surviving the Gulag
Chapter One
September 1939
Early in the morning on September 1, I was drawn out of sleep by
a penetrating, high-pitched whistle lasting several seconds and
ending in a distant, thunderous explosion. I'd never heard such a
sound and snapped upright.
Sleep and terror slowly loosened their grip, and I was able to
think. I'd been up late the night before with my family; my
girlfriend, Taubcia; and several friends talking and listening to the
radio. My father had closed his dental office early in the afternoon
and appeared, pale and nervous, to tell us that Nazi invasion was
imminent. He'd heard from one of his patients that Marshal Rydz-Smigly,
chief commander of the Polish armed forces, had put all
units on full alert for war with Germany.
All afternoon we switched back and forth between Radio
Warsaw, French Radio, Radios Kiev and Moscow, and the Polish
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