Zyndranowa
38-454 Ropianka, Poland
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Landmines were everywhere

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The heaviest fighting for the Dukla Pass was just raging in the vicinity of the villages Zyndranowa and Barwinek. Josef Bürger was a soldier of Svoboda's army at that time. His duties included the clearing of the area of the villages abandoned by the retreating Germans from landmines. The cleared houses were then used for the accommodation of soldiers. Josef Bürger recalls his dangerous tasks: "landmines were everywhere. You couldn’t open the door or step on the stairs. Landmines were in the stove and even in the village stream! Indeed, once a soldier stepped on the stairs, it blew up and tore off his hand and foot, and as he fell on the ground, another landmine went off and blew off the other leg." Josef Bürger then worked in the rear as a driver. He delivered ammunition to the front lines and transported the wounded to medical centers.

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Josef Bürger

Josef Bürger

Josef Bürger, a retired warrant officer, was born in 1923 in Chlum u Křemže. He grew up with his widowed mother, his brothers and sisters. Although the family had a large farm where he had to work, he made an apprenticeship as a plumber and locksmith. However, he wasn’t allowed to complete his apprenticeship because in April 1943, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht (his grandmother was German). Josef Bürger received training in Germany and France. During this rigorous training, Josef Bürger met Rudi Reidl, with whom he then shared a very similar wartime experience. He was assigned to the eastern front to the Dnieper River, where since January 13, 1943, he was in action fighting the armies of the Soviet Union. Josef Bürger decided to run away from the Wehrmacht and to join the Red Army. However, he was captured by the Germans after an unsuccessful attempt and marked as a military deserter. Thanks to the chaotic situation on the Eastern Front, he eventually managed to escape, even though he was slightly wounded in the shoulder. He joined the Red Army on February 5, 1943, and one week later he was already fighting alongside Soviet soldiers as a signalman and a machine gunner. After various twists and turns of fate, he managed to get to the Czechoslovak army of General Svoboda. He went through training in Sadagura. He was then assigned to the machine gunners of commander Pagáč, trained the Volhynian Czechs and then transferred to the mechanized company. As a backup driver, he participated in the Carpathian-Dukla operation, delivering war material and carrying away the wounded or dead. After crossing the border and taking part in the fighting at Barwinek and Svidník, he got to Liptovský Mikuláš, where the troops had to destroy their personal records as a German siege was imminent. Josef Bürger thus lost his notes from the fighting. Via Vsetín and Kroměříž he got to Prague. In 1946, he was demobilized and henceforth worked in a number of blue-collar occupations in the Větřní paper mills, where – among other things – he was able to make use of his plumber apprenticeship. In 1983, he retired and is currently on a well-deserved rest in Český Krumlov.

Zyndranowa

Available in: English | Česky

Zyndranowa is a village on the border of Poland and Slovakia. It currently has a population of c. 140. The village has a church and a museum of folk culture. In 1944, the area surrounding Zyndranowa was the place of fierce combat between the Soviet army – later Svoboda’s Czechoslovak army – and the German Wehrmacht: known as the Carpatho-Dukla Offensive.

Zyndranowa

On this place

Landmines were everywhere

Landmines were everywhere

Josef Bürger
We slept on amputated arms and legs

We slept on amputated arms and legs

Jozef Citterberg
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