The bridge over the Main

the long version

When the war effort drained Germany of manpower, thousands of young Polish men and boys like Stanislaus were marched at gunpoint into trains that would take them to labor in the Nazis' fields and factories. Barely a teenager, Stanislaus arrived cold, friendless and penniless in Germany. His first sight of the Bavarian village where he would toil included the bridge over the Main. He had no idea of the painful memories it would bring him, of how he would cling to the bridge as Hitler Youth pummeled him into jumping into the river below, or how he would warn Allied units that the bridge has been sabotaged. Trapped with no hope of escape and beaten mercilessly for the slightest infraction, Stanislaus always stood up for himself and spoke his mind. That strength helped him survive and helped him burn every detail into his memory.