Zofia Jóźwik
Class 4
Podole, Bełżyce commune
12 June 1946
What happened in Podole
The Germans came to Podole just after midnight. They set up their machine guns in the fields and waited until dawn. Then they went from house to house, stealing eggs and chickens. They said they had come for the chickens, but nobody believed them. After an hour they took all the boys from the village and lined them up near Skraińsko [?], and later they were checking their IDs. Those who were on their list went to the right side. On the left side were ten strong men, whom they took to work. My dad was among those men. When they were leading the men to work, I thought that they would all die, and I was crying a lot. But they took the men into a house where there was a hideout, and ordered them to dig there. They killed one man from that house. They also took a girl from that house, beat her badly and later took her to prison. They burned the whole building down, killed the cow and the chickens, and prepared a feast for themselves. Those who were on their list were taken to prison.
They kept the men in prison for two weeks, beating them mercilessly. They later took them to Bełżyce and executed them behind a pharmacy. But one man survived, raised his head and asked whether the Germans were still in Bełżyce. When people told him that the Germans had already left, he got up, washed off the blood and went on his way. The deceased were buried in one grave. It was hard, living with the Germans.