Class 5b
Wisznice, District of Włodawa
19 June 1946
My wartime experiences
In 1939 the war with the Germans started. The Germans were shooting at planes and destroying them. One plane crashed at the end of Rowińska Street and a building burned down. We were all hiding in a trench. My mummy got very scared. I took two pictures from home and hung them up in the trench.
Throughout the war the Germans were very bad enemies of Poles. They would round people up and send them to Germany. And they imposed terribly high quotas.
When the Germans were withdrawing, the village leader ordered my daddy, who had a sick leg, to leave on a cart. During the German withdrawal we were at home without daddy. We dug a larger trench, in which we slept. Our cows wandered through the corn; we let them do so because we were afraid that if our barn caught fire the cows would be unable to escape. We ourselves were unhurt, but the Germans stole everything that we had in the house.
A week later daddy came back on another horse, for the Soviets had taken his while he was on his way. We felt better when daddy was with us, and a bit safer. The next day I saw Soviets driving up in trucks, this was in 1944.