Janina Bielak
Class 5
Elementary School in Krężnica Jara
My memories
In 1944 I was still a little girl, I was only nine years old. I attended third grade and knew exactly what it meant to be in German captivity. Then 22 July 1944 came. The sounds of cannons reached our village. The frontline was getting closer and closer, and with it, the fear of the fleeing German soldiers. But there was also the spark of hope that our homeland would be released from the hands of those barbarians. We saw German cars driving through the village, people were hiding in their houses and cellars when that happened. That day was hot, and the Germans were in a hurry. The harvest season had already begun, sheaves were lying in the fields. The Germans were staying in our village, Krężnica Jara. Fear took over everyone. We saw a horrible thing happen: the Germans brought a couple dozen Poles and they wanted to execute them by the Bystrzyca River. Those people were from Parczew, taken from their homes so that Germans could kill more innocents. Some of them were kneeling and begging for their lives, but the Germans knew no mercy. One of the captured men gave a sign to escape, some prisoners started running simultaneously, but the Germans had their rifles. Shots were fired and 25 prisoners were killed on that field, leaving behind bloodstains in the grass. Some of the captured managed to avoid death, but the rest of them were buried in a mass grave at our cemetery. A cross was placed on the site of their death. Flowers and wreathes show that every Polish heart remembers those who died for our country.