Halina Olszewska
Class 7
Elementary School no. 9 in Kielce
My most memorable moment from the German occupation
It happened towards the end of 1944, when the Germans took ultimate revenge on the Poles, burning, shooting, and hanging them. One afternoon I learned from a friend who worked in Hendryków [Henryków] about a great German crime. Just behind the factory, a gallows built by the Germans stretched out its arms, and on it were hanged [illegible] Poles, with their hands tied behind their backs; [their] caps lay to the side, at the base of the gallows. Their mouths were [illegible] and their eyes open. They died with honor. When the Germans were hanging the last man, he shouted: “Long live Poland.” They died the deaths of great heroes.
This sight was very shocking to me; I clenched my fists involuntarily, and the eyes of many Poles flashed angrily at the German thugs. I will never forget that moment and the most shocking sight in my life.