Class 5b
Zwierzyniec, 13 June 1946
My memories of the German occupation
I remember September 1939 well. The Polish army was retreating, preceded by crowds of civilians walking along the road with their bundles. They were all running away in dread from the Germans. Planes growled during the day. They were bombers, so almost everybody fled Zwierzyniec and ran into the forest and only came back to their houses at night. It was like that until the Germans came to Zwierzyniec. Then everything calmed down, but only to all outward appearances. We heard about arrests from time to time.
In 1943, the Germans started to evict the surrounding villages and put the people in camps. The Germans hounded crowds of people – tired people with little bundles in their hands – down the road. It was a horrible sight: crowds of people being driven like cattle against the backdrop of the burning village of Wywłoczka. It was the worst in Sochy. Planes bombarded the village. All of Sochy burned. Nearly 500 people were murdered.
Typhus and other horrible illnesses ran rampant in the camp. People didn’t have any fresh water or food. The barracks were infested with insects. Then the Germans ordered the people interned in the camps to hand over their children to the Committee.
It is difficult to describe what the evicted people went through. Some returned to their burned-out homes, others were transported to death camps. The arrival of the Polish and Soviet forces freed us from the Germans.