Jadwiga Kondratiuk
Class 7
Wisznice, 19 June 1946
My most important wartime experience
One morning, when I got up, I heard loud gunshots. I ask my mum what happened, and she started telling me that the Germans were running away, so I quickly got dressed and ran to my neighbor to see what the Germans were up to. Every step I took, a bullet flew over my head. The Germans ordered the neighbor to leave his home, because they wanted to burn it down, but in the meantime the commanding officer gave them the order to run away as fast as they could.
When I went out on the road, everywhere I looked, there were burning houses. I could hear the rattling and the sound of plane engines over my head. There was nothing to do all day long. I was walking around, visiting neighbors and looking at Germans packing up and running. In the evening, I climbed the heap, I looked around – and then I noticed the Soviet army coming with their tanks, on horseback and [on foot.]
The Germans wanted to conquer the whole world, but they were defeated for a thousand years.