Class 6b
Public primary school in Radzyń
My experiences from the war
I was six years old when the war started in 1939. All the bells in Radzyń rang when the Germans declared war on Poland. I was small then and I didn’t know what it meant, but I was very afraid when I found out about the war.
The bombing started on 1 September. German planes flew over and destroyed everything. We took shelter in the bushes in a nearby meadow then. The bombing didn’t last very long, but lots of people were killed. The German army came after the bombing stopped, looking at us maliciously.
German families started to come later and then some Poles were kicked out and the Germans took their places. The round-ups and arrests began after that. It was the men and the youths that hid the most then. The Germans arrested my dad, but he was released after seven months, but others were taken to Majdanek and Auschwitz, including Ft. Drelowiec. And the Germans did whatever they wanted with the Poles until 1944. On a rare occasion, we heard that partisans had blown up a car carrying Germans or something like that.
There was mayhem when the Germans left Radzyń in 1944. The Germans knew that the Polish army was approaching so they fled however they could. Those who couldn’t escape took shelter in holes and basements. The shooting could be heard getting closer at night time until one Sunday the Polish army came into Radzyń. When the soldiers and the guns came, everyone ran out to welcome them.
There was no bombing then, but mines put down by the Germans started to blow up when the army left to go and pacify other places, and later the bombing started again. We left the house and went to take shelter in the bushes growing a stone’s throw from our home. That night was particularly horrible and the German planes were still taking turns dropping their bombs.
It was only in the morning, when the bombing quietened down, that we left for the country. We saw lots of abandoned weapons and several wounded on the way. After we reached the village, we dug a shelter and stayed in it at night out of fear that the enemy might start bombing here too.
The planes started dropping bombs again the next night. Those bombings went on for the next few nights. Later, when the town had returned somewhat to normal, we went home. And that was the end of my experiences.