Helena Sidor
My wartime experiences
It all happened on 3 September 1943. A few cars [with gendarmes] came to Stępków. They surrounded the village and gathered people in the square. Nobody wanted to go, many people escaped. Nobody knew what the Germans wanted to do. People thought they would never come back. When the Germans gathered all people in the square, they ordered the men to stand in one line, and the women in another. Then they started to ask whether the residents were providing shelter to bandits. [At the end] they said that if they heard about any bandits in the village, they would come and murder everyone. Then they let people go. It was a very scary day. When people came back, they were so terrified that they were unable to work.