Jan Korniecki
Class 6
Wisznice, Włodawa district, Lublin voivodeship
21 June 1946
Memories of the German occupation
As we all know, every war is a difficult experience. During the German occupation, which lasted from 1939 [to] 1944, the Germans took revenge on the Poles by imposing large quotas and contributions, and if somebody did not manage to deliver the goods, they were taken to Auschwitz, Majdanek or [other] concentration camps. Young people were taken to Germany for forced labor, while school children were forbidden to learn geography and history. A terrible tragedy took place in Wisznice [in] 1943 – thirty men were shot by the horrible German gendarmes.
Eventually, in 1944, our allies drew closer. On 23 July 1944, the front line moved through our village. It was on Sunday morning, there were already many Germans around. I took our horses into the woods, I let them graze in the meadow and came back on my own. When I returned, I saw the Germans digging trenches as quickly as they could. At 4 p.m. the battle started. Three cannons, which were set up next to our home, kept firing. At 6 p.m. the Germans withdrew.
The next morning we saw our allies coming from the east. They brought us a free, independent, democratic Poland, and I believed that soon the whole country would be free.