Krystyna Rafalska
Class 4
Elementary School in Jagodne
Jagodne, 20 November 1946
My most memorable moment from the occupation
I had lived through such [terrible] times during the occupation. In the first year of the war, when the Germans [?] came to Poland, [our] fathers fled across the Vistula out of fear that they would be taken captive [?]. Townspeople fled to the countryside fearing the bombings. The bullets whistled over [?] our heads. In the second and third years of the war, German units marched through our country, and planes were flying and dropping bombs. The Germans carried out round-ups and took people to work. The last round-up was the worst, because when there was no father in the house, the gendarmes threatened the family with weapons [?], saying that they would take them all to Germany. On the last night, the Germans were in our house. They had a telephone and listened, but at 11 p.m. the Russians answered them. They quickly took the telephone and other indispensables and fled to the Polish station, as the Russians were coming closer. They got in the car, but it didn’t start, so they took another. Near the school they set fire to a car with ammunition and fled. In the morning, Russian troops came to our village.