Class V
Piekoszów, Kielce district
The most memorable moment from the occupation
We were captured on 1 September 1939. The Germans treated us very badly. They took people with them for the smallest offense and filled prison cells with them; many were shot. I remember 19 July 1942. At 3.00 am, Germans surrounded our house and began to knock on the door, because we were still asleep. When we opened the door, they told dad to dress and took him with them. A few minutes after the Germans left, there was a shot. Our dad was killed by a German bullet in the forest, not far from our home. We were left alone with mom. The memory of this terrible moment and this German crime will never fade in my heart. We, three children and our mother were left on a two-morgen piece of land. Mom works so hard to raise us now. Our dad was killed by the Nazis, but there are the remains of German tanks and many of their graves in our fields and roads to this day. In January 1945, the Germans fled from us, defeated by the victorious Russian army.