Tomasz Misztal
Class 4
Public Elementary School in Józefów
Lipsko commune, Iłża district
20 November 1946
Memories of German crimes
Seven years have passed since the Germans attacked Poland. I was two years old at the time, so I did not understand what it meant, but I felt it was something horrible. Everything was sad and gloomy. In the evenings we could see the glow of fires and hear the thunder of bombs and the whistle of bullets. Nobody wanted to say anything. People were sad and pensive. The Germans were driving around [freely] as if our lands were theirs. They stole whatever they could: grain, horses, cows, milk, pigs, and, eventually, even people. They caught them, executed them, imprisoned them in camps and took them do Germany. As a result, the guerilla was created in the forests. In retaliation, the Germans burned down towns and cities.
Warsaw was one of those cities both in Poland and abroad that were completely destroyed by the Germans. We got used to being scared. The Germans took away our books and gave us some boring “Ster” magazines to study. Many of our teachers were sent to prison. The Polish youth was terribly exhausted because of the constant hiding. When the Soviet and Polish armies were approaching the Vistula River, the Germans started deporting people. This lasted for six months. Finally, in January 1945, the Germans fled in fear and disorder. Words cannot describe how happy the youth and the elderly were after the enemy had left, so terrible were the crimes of the Germans.