Edward Kozłowski
Class 7
Elementary School no. 5 in Starachowice
Iłża district
30 November 1946
Memories of German crimes
In 1939, the German-Polish war started. The Germans robbed, burned and destroyed Polish houses, monuments and property of both rural and urban population. On 28 May [1941?], locked train cars full of people were standing at the Oświęcim station. Auschwitz! A horrendous, twisted name of Oświęcim was to become one of the most infamous places on Earth. Hundreds of thousands of people died the saddest, most painful death in Oświęcim. What is the Colosseum, soaked in the blood of a couple hundred people, compared to the appelplatz where hundreds of thousands or even millions died? In the Colosseum people died for their faith, in Oświęcim the blood of martyrs is mixed with the blood of those who greeted death with curses and their executioners with hatred. The blood spilled in Oświęcim symbolizes the unity of people, it expresses the essence [?] of the world: tares among the wheat. Humanity would have perished long ago had it not been for those who give their lives, tired from overwork, for others. Life for life. In 1945, the Germans suffered an unexpected defeat. Poland regained its freedom with the help of the Russian army, which entered the Polish lands [?]. We survived the cruel war! We lived through hundreds of concentration camps. The enemy [?] strove to break us, but they failed. The tortures, the millions of zlotys thrown at us to bribe us, futile promises, it was all for nothing. We are the nation of an indomitable spirit! We are the knights of Virgin Mary!
Nobody will take away what runs in our blood. We have suffered a lot, but we have not strayed from the path. The war brought a lot of evil: sectarianism, drunkenness, theft, but we will fight the sins. Poland must be Catholic!