大象传媒

I was thirteen in 1939 and lived in a village called Kornelowka. There was a lot of German bombing and our parents told us not to go out in the open.

In 1941 Polish partisans in the woods near Kornelowka killed a German. So German soldiers came to our village and ordered us all to gather in one place. They said the whole village had to assemble - anyone who stayed at home would be shot.

They made the men line up in a row and siad, "If you don't tell us where the partisans are, you will get killed." Some women began screaming and the Germans said, "If you scream, we'll shoot all of you." Then they started shooting the men. Some of them started to run. About a dozen were killed. It was horrible and we had to stand and watch it. The families of the slaughtered men had to collect the bodies. No one was allowed to go to the Burial except for one member of the family.

A few weeks later the Germans discovered that one of the partisans came from a local farm. They called us all together again. It was in a lovely spot outside our school. Again everybody had to be there. They pulled out some of the men and told them to search the partisan's farm. His wife and baby were already sitting on the branch of a tree with the other villagers. The men came back - they had found nothing. So the Germans made them sit in a circle. Then one of the soldiers shot the wife of the partisan and then beat his baby to death with his rifle. Then the soldiers took their pistols and shot the men who were sitting in a circle. We had to watch and say nothing.

The rest of the men, including my father, were taken to a Concentration Camp. My mother tried to get him out. She went to the solicitors to see what she could do. The response was that if my brother went to Germany as a worker, my father would be allowed to come home. So my brother went to Germany and my father came home.

After that my mother and father and my sister, Bronca, who was thirteen and I were taken to the nearest city, Zamosc. By this time I was fifteen years old. When we got there my parents were pushed to one side and we were pushed to the other. The Germans only wanted the young ones. We had nothing with us - no spare clothes, nothing.

We were piled into a wagon. They pushed in as many of us as possible. I remember people praying. There was only a little window in the side of the wagon and people were shouting, "Move away from the window, we can't breathe."

We were moved from place to place. We were sleeping in barracks and sitting in halls. Some people were going mad. My sister and I sat close together. One day we were outside in a sort of courtyard - I think it was in Lublin. Somebody said "There is a woman on the other side of the wall, calling your names." It was my mother. She had found out where we were and followed us. She had brought us a bundle of clothes and some clean underwear. We started crying and I tried to lift my sister to catch sight of her. My mother called over the wall, "Stick Together, Stick Together."

Later they tried to separate us - they needed thirty people and we were the thirtieth and the thirtyfirst. They tried to pull us apart but one of the German soldiers let us stick together. We were lucky really.

We were very hungry - I remember once we were able to steal some swedes and we divided them up. Once we were put in a large room with a shower and told to strip off. We knew about the Concentration camps and we thought we were going to be gassed. When water came out, we wept with happiness.

At last Bronca and I arrived in Bremen and were set to work in the Hospital there. First we had to work in the kitchens, peeling potatoes. Later we began to collect plates and do the washing up. The German ladies were very nice - they gave us sweets and asked us why we had come. We told them we had been forced to come and they said "That's not what we were told; we were told that you WANTED to come. " At times we would cry and cry. It would make us feel a little better. At least, we thought, we aren't watching those killings any more.

We were very lucky. Some of the girls we had been with were working outdoors and they were starving. We slept in a part of the hospital. On one side of the room were six Poles - Bronca and I were the youngest - and on the other side of the room were six Ukrainians. A German lady looked after us. She was very nice to us.We had to wear the letter P on our clothes and she would go around at night making sure that we'd left our clothes in such a way thet the P was showing because sometimes the soldiers would come around to check.

After the capitulation she was scared and asked us "Tell them I've been good to you..." and indeed she had been.

During the night there would be bombing and more bombing and we had to take shelter in the cellar. On one occasion part of the Hospital got bombed and one of the nurses ,who had run back to bring the operating trolley, was killed.

The Americans arrived in Bremen and they brought chocolates. The Red Cross looked after us as displaced persons and we stayed in camps in Bremen and Osnabruck. We received fresh clothes and dried food. Bronca met a Yuogoslav and got married to him. My mother did not know if we were alive or dead. Some people went back to Poland ..and then they returned to the camps. I had the chance, as a single person, to put my name down to go to England. My sister could not come because she was married. I left her in Germany and a year later she and her husband emigrated to Australia.

When I arrived in England a lady and gentleman came to pick us up. We came to Rawtenstall and I began to work in a mill.
I met my husband in Rawtenstall. I never saw my father again. And I did not see my mother until 1963 when I went to Poland with my children. It was still not safe for men to go and my husband did not come with us.

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