Julian Pawelec
Class 6
Elementary School in Seredzice
Seredzice, 15 November 1946
My most memorable moment from the occupation
For me, the most memorable moment from the occupation was when the Germans searched for partisans in the woods next to our village. A river ran alongside our village. An informant walking by noticed that partisans came to the river with buckets to get water. He called the German gendarmerie. By 10:00 a.m. there were a lot of Germans. They started a fight. The Nazis used bigger weapons, but they couldn’t beat the partisans who fought bravely till the end. Although there were more Germans, they fell one by one every minute. Two of them lay in our yard. One was hurt and the other one was dead. The irritated Germans started taking revenge on vulnerable people. Two occupiers burst into our home, weapons drawn. They were looking for partisans in the bed and under it. We were scared because my brother was lying under the other bed; lucky they didn’t look under that one. When the Germans went out, my brother slipped out, white as a sheet; he wasn’t able to speak, he was trembling all over. We wept with him. Members of one family sheltered from bullets in the basement. One German looked in there, saw the host and said he was a partisan; then, without any explanation, he shot an innocent man. Many other people died just as unfairly. The partisans fought until the evening without yielding. Because of their rage, the Germans torched houses at the end of the village and retreated. They made themselves comfortable in our homes, they ordered people to kill hens and cook meals for them. The women had to make it quickly, but the gendarmerie punished us anyway; they devastated houses, robbed, stole anything they could. During this time, the partisans pulled back. The next day, many German tanks drove by again, but there were quiet. The Germans pulled back to their stations then. The sound of poor, broken people crying and whining filled the air.