Irena Sadowska
Class 6
Wisznice, Włodawa district, Lublin Voivodeship
21 June 1946
Memories of the German occupation
War is a terrible enemy of the nation. We have just survived a horrible war with Germany. The very memory of the German occupation is enough to make one’s heart tremble with fear.
In the beginning, when the Germans invaded our homeland, they treated Poles well, but that did not last long. They ordered us to hand over radios and guns, and those who refused were tortured or killed. Poles suffered a lot, and with every year there was more and more injustice. When the Germans felt the whip falling on them, they built huge ovens in Lublin, in which they burned people. The most horrible thing was when the planes flew over Biała and Brześć, because it was night time and there was a horrifying fire. Poles endured all this suffering with patience, although they felt hatred [to] the Germans. They harmed us the most when they killed my father in 1943.
But the time has come for these villains. In July 1944, the front line drew closer to us. The Germans were running around like angry dogs. One Sunday, on 22 July 1945, at 4 p.m., we heard the loud bang of a Russian cannon. We were all scared and took the more valuable things from our home to the trench. We returned home, but it was impossible to stay there, because our windows shook from all the gunfire, so we left for the trench.
A very unhappy night came for the German army, and they had to retreat further to the west. The night was dark, but it was lit up by exploding shells and burning settlements.
But soon came a joyful and cheerful day. The hated Germans were no longer around, and we only heard some conversations in a foreign language. The Russians came, and the front line was far away, only the muffled bangs of the cannons could be heard in the distance. Once the German front had passed, the Germans put a landmine on the road, because they expected Russians to go that way. That was not the case, as a German car hit the mine and blew up. There was no trace of the troops from that car, and only some metal pieces were left behind, far away from the road. Even though one house burned down, God saved all of us. Only my unhappy dad was shot by those nasty Krauts.