Anna Lankof
Class 5
Elementary School No. 5 in Starachowice
Iłża district
14 November 1946
Memories of German crimes
I was six years old when the German horde invaded Poland. I was very scared of them [all]. The first thing I remember is the shortage of bread. People had to queue in front of bakeries at night to get half a kilo of bread. But that is not all. Worse things [such] as arrests [and] the hanging of people began to happen.
I remember when one day the Germans led Poles down Piłsudskiego Street for execution. This handful of Poles was a very sad sight. They were emaciated, beaten, and shackled. [The occupiers] beat the arrested unconscious and set German dogs on the children to rip them apart. Round-ups and deportations to camps [happened every day]. The Germans came up with various ways of tormenting Poles. A moment I remember very well was the arrest of my daddy and his abduction by the German gendarmes.