class 6a
Sławatycze, 14.06.1946
My wartime experiences
When word spread about the war, many people left town. Shelters were built throughout Warsaw. On 1 September 1939 I heard the first shots, and German planes appeared in the sky and began to attack Warsaw. People fled to the trenches. My mommy, grandma and I hid in the shelter. The raids were very frequent and [that] lasted for a few days. On the seventh day the district where I lived was demolished.
We left Warsaw on that same night. We walked for a long time and finally we reached Stoczek. The town of Stoczek was burned to ashes. We lived there until 30 September, and then we returned to Warsaw.
I saw great devastation on the way. Warsaw had been turned into a huge cemetery. The house where we had lived was half demolished. After we rebuilt it we lived [there] until February, and then we went to our family in Liszna, a village on the Bug River.
In 1944, when the front was approaching, we dug a shelter and stayed there, with bullets flying over our heads. The Germans and the Soviets fought on the other side of the Bug. I could clearly hear the Soviet soldiers shouting, Poddaysa! [“Surrender!”] The Soviet troops entered Liszna shortly after. They had cars, tanks and various cannons.
I am a child of Warsaw, and I’m terribly sorry that the enemy destroyed it so much. Every day I send up prayers to the Mother of God to let us rebuild it and for me to be able to return there.