Józef Jaszczuk
Class 7
Wisznice, 19 June 1946
My most important wartime experience
It was 1944. When I got up in the morning, I saw through the window [that] there were cars, tanks and troops in our yard. I immediately said that we needed to get our things out, because the troops were there. We dug a trench and hid the pigs. Then we took our cows and chained them in a meadow near the forest.
When I was going home, I saw people running away to the forest with rifles, followed by Germans on horseback. When I ran home, the Germans took our horse and we took everything and went to the forest, to the farmer there. And on the road there were cars, and the Germans were cooking in our house. While we were with the farmer, the girl went to their neighbor to borrow a spade, and there was a German [there] – she ran back, but he thought there were partisans there, so he ran over to my dad and wanted to kill [him]. Then he ran to our home and dad ran away. When we came home, there was one house burned down and a blown-up tank.