The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1914-10-20
IN THE PATH OF WAR
Bennington Man Gets Letter From
Father in Poland

| Inc letter is from MT. w elcnmdn
| father whose home is in Poland In
| the town of Lodze where Julius
| Weichman was born and lived until
| he was II when he came to this
country. Lodze is in Russian, Poland
between the German frontier and the
city of Warsaw. The Germans in
| their advance on Warsaw passed
through Lodze and the letter from
Mr.. Weichman, ST., tells of their
coming. The letter as translated in
to English is as follows
Lodze, Poland. Sept. 6, 1914.
Dear Son: You are certainly wor-
ried, why this time have kept you
waiting for an answer TO your letter,
but be sure it is not our fault, because
your letter to us has been delayed on
the way for more than a MONTH rea-
son being it not coming through Ger
many, but by way of Sweden to st.
Petersburg and to us.
The reason for this is as you must
already know, we are at war with
Germany. Surely you are anxious to
know news about the war? We can
assure you that there is lots to write
you about and do not know what part
to write. You no doubt know that
We are right In the middle of the war
center The whole OF the fighting in
this section is done around our neigh
borhood. All factories and business
are shut from the day when moboli-
zation was declared. making no work
possible. 1t is in general no money
iC be had.
People here are going hungry, even
those that have money. Banks are
closed, people have not the price to
buy piece of bread 1t is impos-
sible for us to write you more of this
horrible war! The only thing left for
us to do now is to pray to God TO
spare our lives as he has done till
now, and hope that our Dear God will
bring an end to this terrible unmen.
tiOnable war. Dear son you surely
do not want more news about the war
itself.
But you | am sure know more
about il than we here know. You of
course read the American newspap
ers that the German army had
pretty near captured the whole of
Poland, even Lodze and Zgeicx. In
Zgeicz a German force of 1900 stayed
about one night and that was only
because our soldiers had run away.
They were afraid of the Germans.
The mayor of Zgeicz. (Zgeicz is a city
20 minutes from Lodze by electric
trolley carl the whole police force
with chief of police, postmaster. gov
eminent telegraph manager all lett
Poland, taking with them the records
and books OF city.
When the Germans came in town.
they took command OF city, station
ing their own men at city hall. They
burnt all stamps at postofilce. Then
they entered all monopoles. Cmono-
poles is the whiskey business which
is under the Russian government
took away all monies found there, all
bottles OF whiskey they broke and
emptied into the street
Instead of police the citizens of
zgeirz organized corps of local
militia to protect the inhabitants. We
all here thought that Russia gave to
Germany. Poland without any resis.
lance
The German army come in through
three different sections in three
weeks and they had already captur-
ed all Poland. One company OF Ger
mans went from Kalischfrack, to
zgeirz another went from Alexan-
drovia boundary line to Chentstchoy
by the cities OF Kutna. Lentschltz.
Crontka. Blovna and in Glovna. the
company met part of the Russian
army consisting OF Dragons and
Cossaoks and so in Glovna. Strickot
and beyond Zgeirz a bloody battle
was fought. The result OF this battle
saw the German soldiers retreating
from Zgeirz. Lodze and Petikor to
Chentsechor on the boundary line in
to Kalisch.
Also In Peekor and in S'Arnovitz
bloody battles were fought resulting
in the Germans retreating toward
Chentstekor where they made
strong position for themselves anu
are still there and now the Russian
Police have retreated.
What later will be no one can tell.
But dear son you cannot imagine
the worriment and fear we had
when we heard the German forces
we're advancing toward Lode. What
they done to kalish you no doubt
know but what ever you know of
their atrocities it is at times worse
and for this We all hope they will
lose the war.
To protect ourselves from any
German onslaught we organized a cit
liens committee instead Of the Germ
an head at city hall. when the Rus
sian police returned the Polish inhab-
itants OF the city told them that the
German and Jewish citizens had vel
coined and entertained the German
soldiers. This false statement near