Jadwiga Pikiel [?]
Class 6a
Public Elementary School in Wąchock
Iłża district
Memories of German crimes
Poland suffered terrible tortures during the five years of German slavery. On the first day of invasion, [the occupiers] burned down towns and villages. They were deporting the men to camps. They were also rounding up [?] the women and taking them to camps or for labor in Germany. At the camps, Poles suffered terribly from hunger, overwork and abuse: they were beaten, poked and insulted. The Germans used other methods of torture as well. They erected gallows and forced people to watch other Poles being hanged. Hearts were aching at this cruel sight. The Germans were displacing people from towns and villages, which they later destroyed. They carried out roundups. They deported the men for labor in cold and sealed train cars. They organized manhunts in the woods, where the partisans were hiding to fight the Germans and liberate their homeland. There are many graves in the woods and fields. The families don’t know where the partisans are buried. In 1944, the Germans started a war with the partisans in Warsaw. The Poles were outnumbered, so the Germans won and demolished our capital. The residents were deported to Germany or displaced. The Germans destroyed all the ancient monuments. They did the same in Kraków and other cities. They tortured the Polish people for a few more months. Finally, in 1945, the Germans retreated from Poland under Russian bombardment. In January, the Germans fled to their territories and Poland is free again.