Wiktor Szołtysek, San Basilio, 24 September 1944

"How a man’s fortunes can change. Not that long ago I was wearing a German uniform and enjoying leave. Four months have barely passed since that time. I experienced a lot during the four months and now I’m on guard again, but this time in the Polish army, this time with great honour and a sense of duty.

We’re patrolling, walking around long white rows of tents with a colleague. The evening is fine with a new moon in the sky. I can’t help thinking about my family in Silesia. They must be worrying about me, not aware that there’s really nothing to it. On the contrary – I should be worrying more about them. God willing, I’ll see them again…"

From the memories of Henryk Skrzypiński

Wspomnienia ucznia – żołnierza Szkoły Karpackiej w Sarnano

“Professor Nikon was our beloved commander, always busy, inseparable from his camera. Together with the student Ryszard Kaczorowski [...] he was the co-founder of the Older Scouts Circle of Wandering Torches in Amandola and Sarnano. Lieutenant Nikon, until the end the Carpathian School remained the supervisor of the scouts. [...] Our colleague scoutmaster Wiktor Szołtysek, a Silesian from Mikołów, easily gathered a group called the Highlanders.”

Emeritus professor dr hab. Alfred Sulik

“In the historiography of Upper Silesia concerning the Second World War, a book by Wiktor Szołtysek entitled “On Both Sides of the Front” is a very important and interesting publication. […] A study worthy of distinction amongst wartime diaries…” 

Danuta Lubina-Cipińska, Wojna Wiktora Szołtyska,  miesięcznik „Śląsk” Nr 7, Lipiec 2008, str. 34-37

„Out of approximately 220,000 soldiers fighting in the Polish Armed Forces, nearly 90,000 were refugees from the Wehrmacht, mostly Silesians. In Germany, a firing squad was waiting for the Wehrmacht-deserters. And yet they fled to go to the Polish army because their hearts told them to"  

Michał Smolorz, Dziadkowie z Wermachtu,  Polityka – nr 22 (2758) z dnia 2010-05-29; s. 67-69

„Crossing the front line had a tragic side effect - fratricidal fights. The graves of Monte Cassino say a lot about this. 160 soldiers from Upper Silesia are buried at the Polish war cemetery. [But] about 200 of them are buried at two nearby German cemeteries. Silesian-Silesian fratricidal fights took place throughout the entire Italian campaign, also in the Ardennes, in France, on the route traced by General Maczek's division, [and] in the air battle for England.” 

Jan Szołtysek, Toronto, 22 March 2019

„Thanks to this diary, the memory of my father came to life again, and he appeared in a completely new light for me. I managed to decipher more difficult fragments of the book, and moreover, I discovered some fascinating puzzles, to which I found the answers only after interviewing his sister Marta and… Mrs. Jolanta Siewior, daughter of my father's wartime sweetheart. Thanks to the diary I achieved a deeper awareness of my cultural roots and identity.”