CZESŁAW ROMANIUK

Class 6a
Parczew, 17 June 1946

My experience from the war

This happened on the outskirts of Parczew. Once, some German cars drove up. The Germans surrounded the suburb. The people were very frightened. Some fled into the field in order to hide from the Gestapo men. The Gestapo men herded the people into one of the homesteads – all those who were there thought that they were going to be executed, but the Germans just checked their identity papers and ordered them to disperse.

And then a German standing outside the village saw two small girls who were grazing cows. The Gestapo man brought them up, thinking they were Jewish – one looked very much like a Jew. The German asked her whether she was Jewish, and she replied that she wasn’t. He hit her in the face, and she fell to her knees and begged him not to beat her. The Gestapo man ordered her to take off her clothing. She started to run, whereupon he fired his gun, wounding her. She ran into the hemp growing by the river. He tried to find her but was unable to, and so he went back to the field to stand guard. When the people returned and said that the girl was actually a Pole, the Germans took her back home in a car.