WIESŁAWA

Wiesława
Class 5b
Elementary School no. 5 in Starachowice
Iłża district
15 November 1946

My most memorable moment from the occupation

[Illegible] February 1944 at 4.00 a.m. I was awakened by an unusual scream. [I was asleep?] and I got very scared. Five gendarmes came for my daddy. The rest of them surrounded our house. The Germans ordered daddy to get dressed and one gendarme hit him in the face. When the Germans took my daddy outside, I saw a lot of men. My mom, brother and I were crying. The Germans took all the captured people to Starachowice and [illegible]. After a few hours, the Germans marched them all to the station, ordered them to get on a freight train and transported them to an unknown place.

We were very miserable when we returned home. A few days passed in distress and sadness. One day the Germans came again for daddy. Mommy told them he had been already taken. They didn’t believe it and wanted to shoot my mummy. When my brother and I started crying, [one German] wanted to kill me with a bayonet. But later the gendarmes gave up and went away. After a few months, daddy came back home, but he was sick.