JERZY KUCHARCZYK

Class 4
Primary school in Białka

The life of Poles during the German occupation

The Polish-German war broke out in 1939. Germany beat Poland and enslaved her. They stormed villages and towns.

Grześ lived in a half-collapsed house in town. He was 18 years old. His mother had died years before and his father had joined the partisans. One time, [Grześ] went out into the street. Gendarmes with guns in their hands were running around the street. Clearly they were looking for someone. Grześ saw someone suddenly run into the street. Grześ thought it was a partisan. The gendarmes, having seen the partisan, started to chase him. The partisan saw that they were chasing him and he ran out of the town and into the forest. Grześ wanted to follow the partisan and join their ranks. A gendarme caught him. Then Grześ got angry, grabbed a stone lying on the ground and threw it at the gendarme. The gendarme fell down and shouted. His comrades came running. They caught Grześ and put him in prison. He was going to be shot the next day.

The next day, an escort of two gendarmes took Grześ to the execution site. But before they got to the place where he was supposed to be killed, he managed to get free and escape into the forest. He met partisans in the forest. The partisans gave him a gun. Grześ was happy with his gun.

One time, Grześ went into town in the evening. Someone [gave] him [away]. The gendarmes came running. They fell on Grześ like a pack of dogs. Grześ took out his revolver and started to shoot. He kept shooting until he was out of bullets. Several gendarmes fell, but the rest of them got to him and stabbed him with their bayonets. They left Grześ where he had fallen. Partisans came at night at took Grześ’s body. They buried it in the forest beneath a spreading oak tree.