Józef Mondzik
Class 5
Elementary School in Jagodne
Iłża district
Jagodne, 20 November 1946
What do the mass graves say?
After five and a half years of war the Polish lands are covered in graves. Small crosses can be encountered at the roadside crosses, in the woods, basically everywhere; they symbolize the persistent and heroic fight of our people. Every little cross reminds us of a nameless partisan dying from a German bullet. Every cross in the forgotten parts of the forest symbolizes the partisans who fought for our freedom.
We can now say that we are Polish people. But during the war it was punished by deportation to the camps, where thousands of people were killed. They were buried in graves without even a small cross or burned, and their remains were scattered on German fields. Little crosses on soldiers’ graves can be seen near the roads. Their bones are scattered along all the roads of Europe as a symbol of their march to victory. Our whole country is like a massive graveyard of a nation that fought for its freedom.