MARIA BATOR

Maria Bator
Class 6a
Public Primary School in Wąchock
District of Iłża

Memories of the German crimes

I was in Wierzbnik [at the time]. When I reached the market square, a terrible thing appeared before my eyes. In the market square there was a large gallows on which the Germans were preparing to execute 16 people.

There were a lot of people gathered around the gallows and they watched this horrible crime. Ah! How terrible it was! To this day the image still appears before my eyes. The torturers did not care. I also saw a photograph of a similar atrocity. In this picture, a priest was hanging between the hanged men and the gendarmes were standing laughing next to him. It did not end there. The enemy was taking our men to Auschwitz, Dachau, Majdanek, where they suffered terribly and were cruelly murdered. The enemy was killing people, not caring that there were orphans left behind. Although I was [still] a child, I really felt all this when I heard how terribly the enemy was tormenting our compatriots.