Seen from the side. Their weiss nicht? Those times are long gone

During the conscription, pale fear fell on the young boys. Few were willing to wear gaiters, wasting two years, and then the time of service was systematically shortened to 18 months, a year, until its suspension.

In the old days, there were privileged professions that exempted people from military service. Alternative military service was also possible. Some wanted to “drum it” to get it out of their heads, while others were left to take care of their future on their own, i.e. avoiding the “war”. And what funny stories you could hear from draft boards about the behavior of recruits who wanted to become unfit for the army. The common denominator is “ich weiss nicht”, to paraphrase the saying of Hudej from CK Dezerterów. Translating into ours, it was smoking a fool, a method for a pacifist, colour-blind, not to mention more sophisticated ones. They were able to inflict pain on themselves, so as not to go to the war.

The military had their ways. They healed the deaf or treated the colorblind. When the pretending deaf man was leaving the commission, suddenly there was a call that he had forgotten his army book. He turned around and clapped. A person pretending to be color-blind was told to sign a piece of paper with a red felt-tip pen, and he took it and blew it again. Oh, that was in a galaxy far, far away.

Now, young people see the army as a chance not only for a good job, but also for development. It makes me wonder what modern young boys could think of ways to escape the army if they lived in the old days?

Young Poles are now aware of the difficult times they live in. I am thinking about the war in Ukraine, and military service is a form of preparation for every possibility.

And no propaganda and harassment of those who previously disarmed Poland, and in the difficult moments of the “hot border” near Belarus, spit on the uniform will not change it. One would like to quote the end of Captain Wagner’s dialogue with von Nogay, from CK Dezerterów, slightly modifying it for the Polish reality.

It is important that the young generation is still faithful to the principle: God, Honor, Homeland.