Mieczysław Kozakiewicz
Class 6
Wisznice, Włodawa district, Lublin voivodeship
21 June 1946
Memories of the German occupation
On 1 September 1939, Germans invaded Poland. After destroying the Polish army, they entered Poland, despite the fact that the Poles resisted – albeit not hard enough. The Germans took over the whole Poland like the Swedes did in the past. They struck an alliance with Russia, but soon they started fighting each other. I saw Russian planes falling down in flames. One day a whole regiment of German cavalry came to our village. People [were] scared because they thought that [the Germans] would burn down the whole village and shoot people to death.
In 1940, the Germans ordered my dad to work felling trees in the forest. In 1940, when my brother died, dad did not go to work, and the forester gave him a fine. The police came by in a few days. After a search that found nothing, they wanted to take mum to jail in Wisznice.
In 1945, when the Germans were retreating, an important event happened. When I went out to the yard, I saw the Germans fleeing. Some senior soldier, probably an officer, came to us and started screaming something in German, then he grabbed a pitchfork and started digging up potatoes. Then, nine more Germans came and dug up whatever they could. At noon, a car with Ukrainians came to our yard. After a while, two Ukrainians came in. Dad asked if there was going to be a battle, and they said there will be, albeit a small one. I went out on the road and saw the cannons the Germans had in tow. Mum and I went to see my cousin who lived by the forest.
When the Germans were leaving, they put the cannons in ditches near our buildings. When we went to my cousin, the Germans opened fire. Dad stayed home, one of the Germans got in and started robbing our belongings. Dad joined us in an hour, he could not handle the sound of five cannons that the Germans were firing next to our home.