Maria Chrust
Class 6
Elementary School in Piotrków
12 June 1946
A roundup (from own experiences)
It was in winter, during the German occupation. One day the Germans came by cars to our village. They needed a lot of men for hunting. A plane was circling over the fields. People went out to the road to watch the plane descend and rise again. Then some frightened man came running away from the Germans. The news spread in the village that the Germans had come to catch people.
One group of Germans was coming from one end of the village, the second from the other. Lost and scared people hid wherever they could. The Germans went from house to house and took the men. They herded them to one place and ordered them to sit in the snow. Only the women and children roamed the village, crying because their brother or father had already been taken. [When] someone wanted to escape into the field, the plane would descend and fire at him from a machine gun. Two men died such a death. Fear spread over the village.
They marched all the men they caught in twos to the cars. Only the children and women were seen walking to say goodbye to their fathers and brothers. The Germans took the men to the cars and drove them to prison. Mothers and children cried on their way back. The sun was setting. Only lamentation, crying, and emptiness remained in the village.