Władysław Majchrzyk
Class 5
Elementary School in Brody
Iłża district
7 November 1946
Memories of German crimes
During the five years of occupation, the Polish people suffered a lot. At the beginning of the war, the Germans took men captive and starved them until they passed out from hunger and fell to the ground. The Polish Red Cross took pity on the hungry and gave them food. The Germans deported whole cities and villages and brought in their own settlers. On the Feast of St. Martin, when we were walking to the church, we saw the deported people freezing; it was a heartbreaking sight. And it all happened because of the German enemy. The poor, defenseless exiles were wandering around the world like sheep without a shepherd. The German enemy took our innocent people to gallows and murdered them with cruel brutality. What terrible torment the Polish people has to endure in Auschwitz and Majdanek for defending their country! Their life was miserable; they were given food only once a day. Our starving nation suffered terrible martyrdom while falling to the ground.
When these emaciated Poles were still alive, the Germans beat them and mistreated them like dumb brutes, and after they died, their bodies were burned in giant furnaces. The German tormentors arrived at villages and committed horrible crimes: they set houses on fire, burning people alive. Women and children were thrown into the fires while men were taken into the forests and executed. Near the end of the war, the enemy kidnapped men and took them do Germany. The Germans went from one village to another, looking for men, who would hide wherever and however they could. The enemy took the captured men to the frontline to dig trenches, so that more Poles would die. Poland was victorious with the help of the Red Army, and we regained our freedom.