Anna Dziurska
Class 4
The most memorable moment from the occupation
After the arrival of the Germans to Poland, the murder of Poles began. Poles were shot, hanged, burned, caught and transported to Majdanek, Auschwitz and other camps. In the last year before the departure of the Germans, there were terrible round-ups of young people. The youth hid in forests, bunkers and various hiding places.
One morning a roundup was expected. Young people hid wherever they could. A lot of young people hid in the bunker in my neighbor’s barn. The Germans jumped out suddenly and noticed one person entering the barn. When more Germans came to the barn, they started looking for young people. Unable to find anything, [the Germans] called people to throw away hay and straw. They themselves, flying like mad, wanted to set fire to the barn. The commissioner of the factory, a German, heard it. He came running with vodka and offered it to the gendarmes. He promised them on his honor that there was no one in the barn. But one gendarme did not believe him and kept searching. He sought and found. They took them out of the building and stood them by the fence to be shot. Thanks to the long entreaties of the commissioner, they were saved from death, but a car arrived [and] drove them to the trenches.