Al’s journal entry 22 January 2020
Day 2 / 22 Jan AM: 27 degrees F PM: 29 degrees F
Cloudy all day, wind, rain, snowflakes
Kobylice to Glogowek (19 mi)
Packed up tents and headed up the road
Chilly, overcast - walked along country
roads - generally quiet but thought
about what it must have been like here
in January 1945 with 4000 prisoners
stretched out walking in 10 degree F weather
refugees and Wehrmacht and SS
moving west ahead of Soviet offensive -
must have been chaos on the road in
the snow, wind & cold, going through a
Polish village saw an old barn falling
apart and wondered if that was one the
prisoners were forced into at night. Stories of
a thousand in a barn, lying on the floor trying
to keep warm - nothing we are doing comes close
to that but walking here makes us think.
Thinking also about Dad’s sense of humor and
what prisoners pulled on to keep going - friends,
luck, faith - lots to dwell on
