I escaped from the Nazi camp with God‘s help
Stáhnout obrázek
Emil Stebel was born on March 24, 1928, in a Polish evangelical family in Hrádek near Jablunkov. He came from a family of 12 children. The parents had a farm in the mountain settlement called U Rykaly, and his father also worked in the ironworks in Třinec. In September 1939, when Těšín Silesia was occupied by the Nazis, Hrádek became part of Germany. The family refused to be registered in the list of Germans called Volksliste and continued to claim Polish nationality. Two of his older brothers had to go to Germany for forced labour. The whole family was threatened with deportation to Germany. At the age of 14, Emil had to start working on a farm in Jablunkov. In January 1945, the Gestapo arrested him for buying a stolen watch. He suffered for a month in the interrogation and labour camp in Myslovice near Katowice in Poland. He worked in a group of prisoners that disposed of unexploded American bombs. He managed to escape when the prisoners were being transported from the camp to Germany because the Soviets were approaching. For the last two months before liberation, his parents hid him in a cow barn at home. He worked at Třinec Iron and Steel works as a warehouseman until his retirement. In 2021, he lived in his house in Hrádek.
