Class VIb
Łopuszno, 15 October 1946
The moment we best remember from the years of the occupation
On a beautiful sunny day in September 1939, the Germans entered Łopuszno. They were dressed in green uniforms, and had swastikas on their caps and rifles slung over their shoulders. Polish songs and the national anthem fell silent. Tears flowed down the faces of Poles, burning as if trails of sparks, and our faces were clouded over. We Poles hid where we could in order to avoid the Germans.
An immense sadness grew in our hearts when we learned that German soldiers had entered Łopuszno. The gendarmerie were stationed in Łopuszno in a large building which was the property of squire Dobiecki. The Germans hung up their swastikas and stabbed the Polish eagle right through with a sword, defiling it.
Thus began German rule. The German occupation was a very difficult period for schoolchildren. We had nowhere to study. We had to leave our large school with Venetian windows and large, spacious classrooms. This was handed over to German children, and we were forced to study in mean rooms, damp, cold and full of dust – which we breathed in together with our teacher. A German swastika fluttered above our school. The Germans demanded that we hand over the books from the school library. They did not get all of them, however, for our class teacher had them in her care. She handed out the better books to the children, who were instructed to look after them, while those books that were torn and had no covers were packed up and sent to the Inspectorate in Kielce.
Beneath the building of the gendarmerie were dungeons, in which defenseless Poles – who loved their homeland – were imprisoned. Not a day went by without the gendarmes bringing in a Pole and placing him in the dungeon, which was half flooded with water. The cries of the prisoners could be heard far around. Even today still you can see the blood of tortured Poles on the walls. The martyrs were taken to the nearby forest, where they were executed by firing squad. Blood soaked into the beloved Polish soil, and the graves told of the sacrifices made by Poles for their beloved homeland.
More and more graves sprung up every day. Some people were executed by firing squad in the forest or in fields, while others were deported to camps, for example to Oświęcim, Dachau and Majdanek, where they were tortured and killed, and their bodies burned in furnaces. The gendarmes would come to [missing fragment] take the Polish youth for forced labor to Germany, thus gaining their revenge. The gendarmes burst into houses with lists of people whom they were instructed to arrest.
In November 1945, a solemn ceremony was held in Łopuszno – the burial of 20 Polish patriots who had fought for the homeland. They had been killed by the Hitlerites, the Gestapo men, and now their bodies were exhumed from the holes that had been hastily dug in the forests. A fresh, large mound was raised at the cemetery, and upon it was erected a large oak cross, surrounded on all sides by wreaths. The ceremony then took place, which [missing fragment]. This solemn occasion is engraved in my memory and heart, and I will remember it for years. It was a terrible moment when the gendarmes took [missing fragment] from Łopuszno, robbing, beating and setting their dogs upon the defenseless nation.
One day Gestapo trucks drove through Łopuszno and headed straight for Skałka. They surrounded Skałka and herded everyone into one of the houses, which they then doused with kerosene and set ablaze. Only those survived who hid under the bulrush in the ponds. One girl covered herself with the icon of the Mother of God, and the Mother of God saved her. Those people witnessed this German crime. Not only Skałka was burned down by the “Hitlerite gang”, for other villages and cities shared its fate – and all this for helping the partisans who were in the forests. [Missing fragment] Poles suffered terrible persecution during the German occupation.
In 1945, the German swastika was crushed. The Germans were driven out of Poland by Poles and Russians. A new Poland is being created, full of life. May God help her!