Wiesława Bodera
Class 4
Mirzec, Iłża district, Kielce voivodeship
15 November 1946
My most memorable moment from the occupation
It was 8 September 1939. I was still small. I was only four years old, so I remember very little. On that day, 8 September, the Germans appeared in our region. They were a vindictive and unmerciful people to the Poles. The Germans arrested Poles. They deported some to their own country, for hard labor. Others were hanged on gallows, thrown into concentration camps and mercilessly murdered. They also shot whole families. And the saddest and most memorable time for me was this. It was 13 September 1944, when the Germans took my father to dig trenches. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, 7 a.m., when the Germans came and took him away. We didn’t know where. When we later found out that [he had been assigned] to dig trenches, we wrote letters and described how things were for us. My mother was sick, we were short of food, there was no money. I stopped going to school. The school was occupied by Germans. It was very sad. They also occupied other schools. They took away the books and the teachers. And also our headmaster. They forbade the singing of Polish songs in church. They harassed the Poles in various ways. Until their last moment came. It was 17 January 1945, when the Polish armies united with Russia and drove the cruel enemy out of the country.