MIECZYSŁAW MAKARUK

Mieczysław Makaruk
Wisznice, Włodawa district
19 June 1946

My wartime experience

In 1939, the Germans declared war on Poland. Soon they won and in 1940 the German- Russian war began. The Soviets bombed Polish cities, and the Germans came to our homes. Just a few months later, they went to fight their war. They fought on Polish soil.

In Wisznice, there were gendarmes who killed people, arrested and jailed traders, and sometimes they even murdered them. They were walking from door to door, looking for meat – when they found any, the owner had to pay a fine. Then, there were the “catchers” who snatched young people to be deported to Germany. Later, the gendarmes attacked the Jews.

In a few months’ time, the Soviets started driving the Germans away. When the Soviets were in Horodyszcze, the Germans started firing from Dubica, but the Soviets did not return fire. I went into the woods. I was in the woods all day, and at night I slept in a trench. On the second day, when the Germans were gone, the Soviet troops went by all day long.