How Ipswich tailor Jan Biela escaped Nazi occupied Poland

Those are the words of Captain Jozef Biela, from Ipswich, who's father Jan, escaped Nazi occupied Poland after being held in a concentration camp.

Jan Biela would serve with the Polish Air Force, which was based in Britain after the invasion and settled in Ipswich where he lived out the rest of his life.

Jan Biela flew with the Polish Air Force, based in East Anglia (Image: Newsquest)

But before finding his home in Suffolk, he was captured in 1939 during the invasion of his country and taken to a military prison before being transferred to Stutthof Concentration Camp. 

In 2022, a 99-year old former secretary to the commandant at the camp, Irmgrad Furchner, was convicted as an accessory to over 10,500 murders.

This year, she lost an appeal in what could one of the last Nazi trials, it was this news that urged Captain Biela to share his father's story.

Before 1940

Jan Biela was born in 1917 in Jaroslaw, Poland. He left school at 14 and trained as a tailors for six years before leaving for a large tailoring firm in Gdynia in the north of the country in 1937.

Jan Biela (right) before the invasion of Poland (Image: Newsquest)

On September 1 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and Gdynia fell within a fortnight.

Men of all classes were either shot or taken prisoner. Jan was taken to a prison outside the city, before being transferred to Stutthof in January 1940 at the age of 23.

Imprisonment

When he arrived at the camp, Jan and his fellow prisoners were instantly beaten. His prisoner number was 8031.

Jan (fifth in from right) being arrested by the Gestapo (Image: Newsquest)

The conditions at the camp were horrific, prisoners died during the winter as the clothes were inadequate, they died of starvation or were executed. They slept on straw beds which was rife with lice and never changed. 

Jan was regularly beaten, tortured and whipped whilst at the camp.

Stutthof hadn't been completed by the time prisoners started arriving and so they were forced to build many of the camp's buildings, Jan's job was to pull the heavy carts full of building materials. 

An estimated 60,000 people were murdered at the camp (Image: Wikimedia commons)

In April, Jan contracted dysentery and collapsed whilst working. Knowing that if he wasn't fit to work he would be killed, he forced himself back to health after three weeks.

On August 22, Jan was released from the camp into forced labour. Owing to his training as a tailor, he was made to work in Gdynia, where he made uniforms for the Nazis. 

He was extremely weak but knew that if he didn't work hard enough he would be sent back to Stutthof.

His son Jozef said: "He had a job to do and that kept him alive."

Escape from Poland

In 1943, Jan Biela made contact with local sailors in Gdynia who would inform him when a Swedish ship would arrive at port. 

On May 16, he was given word that ship would be arriving that evening and dressed himself in laborers clothes posing as someone supplying the ship with drinking water.

Jan then jumped into the coal hole of the ship, knowing that the coal would musk his smell when dogs searched the ship before it left the port.

Jan Biela's passport (Image: Newsquest)

After four days, he surrendered to the captain of the ship, who radioed Stockholm. The captain was ordered to continue on. 

Upon arriving in Sweden, he was detained whilst the government contacted the Polish consul, who supplied him with passport. 

He was sent to recover from his illness in Hassela, before arrangements were made for him to fly to Britain. Jan arrived in Britain the next year where he joined the Polish Air Force, stationed at RAF Coltishall. 

Jan was placed on a strict diet during his recovery (Image: Newsquest)

Life in Ipswich

After the war, Jan settled in Ipswich and started his own tailors in the centre of town. He was made a British citizen in 1960 and remained in the town until his death in 1986 at the age of 69. 

He married his wife Irene and the couple had one son, Jozef.

"My father found life in Ipswich really difficult," Captain Biela said, "He struggled with his nerves,"

"He couldn't relax because Stutthof camp was always on his mind and the atrocities that he went through.

"My father could never relax or be normal, he had nightmares, waking up during the night sweating."

Jan outside of the gates of the camp in the late 1970s (Image: Newsquest)

Jan Biela visited the camp in the late 1970s but didn't speak about his experiences, only sharing it with his son when his life was nearing it's end. 

His son said: "He kept it to himself, it was only when he was dying did he tell me,

"I am really proud that I listened to him so I can pass on his story,"

Jan Biela was posthumously awarded war medals from the Polish Air Force that Captain Biela proudly wears in his fathers memory.

Captain Jozef Biela wearing his father's medals and his own (Image: Newsquest)