MIECZYSŁAW JAROSZEWICZ

Mieczysław Jaroszewicz
Class 5a
Wisznice, 19 June 1946

My most important wartime experience

One day, when the Germans retreated, I went to the forest. There were already a lot of people and cows there. I didn’t see anything that was going on in Wisznice, but I heard cannons and machine guns firing. It was very scary in the forest – planes were flying high above the trees. I thought we were going to die, but God had mercy on me and I’m still alive.

As the evening approached, all the people who were there in the forest were sheltering from the rain. In the evening, we were chaining cows to the trees so that they couldn’t go anywhere. When it was dark, I went to the shelter to sleep. It wasn’t a comfortable sleep, but at least [it] didn’t rain on my head. I fell asleep right away.

I woke up at 1 a.m., got up, and it was still raining cats and dogs. I left the shelter and saw the fires all around us, but it was raining and I went to the shelter again to lie down and sleep until the morning. When I got up in the morning, I found out that the Germans were no more – only Polish and Russian troops were there.