Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Very close relationship I had with my father.
Mr. JENNER. Now, did you then leave Poland?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No. Then I tried to--I did not like the country
very much, Poland. We became Polish citizens, but I didn't particularly
feel at home there. I learned the language. But it didn't feel like
home. And I decided to go to study in Belgium, and asked for permission
to go to Belgium, and the Polish Government refused me the permission
because I was close to the military age. So I volunteered for the
Polish Army.
Mr. JENNER. Now, I would like to go into that. Go right ahead.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I volunteered for the Polish Army and chose the
cavalry and was sent to the military academy in Grudziondz. Well, it
was a famous military academy in Poland where the Polish nobility
displayed their ability to ride horseback. And I was able to get to it
because I volunteered--I was 18 years old. I graduated from there.
Mr. JENNER. Excuse me. May I ask you this; Would it have been possible
for any young man your age at that time, let's say, if I may use a
reference, peasant, which you were not, to have volunteered for the
same position or division in the Polish Army?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. There were some exceptions. Most of the people
there were members of the aristocracy, Polish aristocracy, and German
aristocracy, who happened to have estates in Poland. But we had some
exceptions. But they did not survive later on. They were eliminated,
not because of the snobbishness, but it was a pretty tough training,
and you needed money to be in that school. You had to have a uniform,
you have to have your own horse.
Mr. JENNER. Now, where did you get the funds to finance it?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, my father had this estate, sales of land
from that estate, and he also was--now, this I forgot to mention about
my father. He started originally as a professor in the gymnasium, then
became a government official with the Czarist government. So he was
always--always liked to teach.
Mr. JENNER. You are taking us back to Russia for a moment?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Back to Russia for a moment; yes. So now his
profession as a government official was no good--neither his experience
as a director of Nobel Enterprises was not much good. So he became a
professor and a director of the gymnasium, the Russian gymnasium.
Mr. JENNER. That is the high school?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. High school, in Wilno. You know--where the
immigrants send their children. And he was director of it for a number
of years. I don't remember what exact years. I guess until 1929 or
1930. I didn't go to the same school, by the way. I went to a different
school.
Mr. JENNER. You mean you went to a school different from the one in
which he was teaching?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; in order not to be under my father's--not
supervision, but also that school did not give the rights in Poland,
by the way--did not have the rights in Poland to go to a university
in Poland or to serve a short military term, because it was a refugee
school, conducted in the Russian language. So I went to a Polish
school, had to learn the Polish language, and finally graduated.
Mr. JENNER. Did I mention Polish as one of the languages of which you
have a command?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. And, therefore, it was very important,
because the military service for the people graduating from nonaccepted
schools was 4 years, or something like that, and for the ones who
graduated from the official school it was, I think, a year and a half.
Mr. JENNER. Now, how long were you in the military academy?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. A year and a half.
Mr. JENNER. And this would take us, then, to the middle of 1931.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. 1931; yes.
Mr. JENNER. And you had reached what, if any, rank in the military
service?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I reached candidate officer--sergeant candidate
officer, an intermediate rank between an officer and noncommissioned
officer. The highest you can get after you get from the military
academy.
Mr. JENNER. Just before as in this country you are about to be
commissioned a second lieutenant?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right. Except that you are not completely
a soldier--you are not a noncommissioned officer, you are not a
commissioned officer. You are about to be commissioned a lieutenant.
Mr. JENNER. I see. All right. Now, you didn't pursue that?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No, no. It was just a reserve. You see, it gives
you a reserve rank which you can pursue by going back to maneuvers, and
pursue that.
Mr. JENNER. Now, there are some indications that you did return.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Now, tell me what you did in that connection?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, I went to school, then to Belgium--I was
free now to go to school to Belgium. And I went to Institut Superieur
de Commerce a Anvers.
Mr. JENNER. The translation of that is the institute of higher
commercial studies, Antwerp, Belgium. When attending the institution of
higher commercial studies in Antwerp, you returned to Poland, did you,
from time to time?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. In connection with your summer maneuvers?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And what was the requirement in that connection?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Just to come there when they called you, and go
with the Army--summer maneuvers, summer exercises. I think I did that
twice. I don't recall.
Mr. JENNER. And this was still in the cavalry?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Still in the cavalry.
Mr. JENNER. Were you ultimately commissioned?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; always stayed a sergeant.