PDA

View Full Version : Mandolins in the Polish resistance 1944



Neil in New Cross
Sep-17-2004, 2:31pm
I came across this interesting tale from 'The Recollections of Witold Górski – 1944 Warsaw uprising'(for some reason there is a mistake on the page and it says 1994 - but clearly it's about 1944):

"I was involved in transporting guns, in a mandolin.., a stringed instrument vaguely similar to a guitar. The notes it produced when played under such circumstances were atrociously off key. The conductor of the streetcar I was riding with my illicit cargo was in on the secret. When he sensed that the streetcar was about to be stopped and searched by the Germans, my dreadful playing gave him an excuse to grab me by the scruff of the neck and throw me off the vehicle. Tbat way, while the Germans were searching the streetcar passengers for weapons and contraband, I was able to walk calmly by. Further on, there would be a street musician playing a similar mandolin. It was to him that I was to deliver the gun by somehow swapping mandolins".
More at:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/info-poland/exhib/warsaw/wg.html

Anyone know of similar tales or other unorthodox (non-musical) uses for a mandolin?

Neil