JANINA SADOWSKA

Janina Sadowska
Elementary School in Lubienia
Lubienia, 17 November 1946

Memories of German crimes

When the German occupiers entered Poland, they began to oppress the Polish nation in various ways. People were indignant and formed various [illegible] groups against the German army. They made raids and killed some Nazis on the roads. The most memorable moment for me was the death of my uncle, who was taken away with the Warsaw insurgents. His death was a very difficult experience for me. From that moment, I could not look at the Germans and asked God for the defeat of the German nation. My uncle also took part in the uprising. At the beginning I could hardly bear it, but there were more and more such accidents, and although it was very sad, we quickly got used to them. We heard about various accidents not far from us. One village was completely burnt down together with the inhabitants. Individual houses were also set on fire, and a family was shot in our village. The Germans also gathered people in the square and shot at them with machine guns or dug a hole and ordered them to go in, and when everyone had entered, they started throwing grenades so that human bodies were splashing at a distance of a few meters from the pit. Many people were also gassed. This is how thousands of our sisters and brothers who shed innocent blood got killed. The Germans tortured Jews in the same way. They forced them onto trains and drove them away, so that not a trace was left. However, God did not allow the Germans to continue taking revenge on us. They suffered a horrible defeat. The graves of our countrymen were all over the forests. Now many corpses have been dug up and buried in the cemetery, and the unknown have been left and their graves have been restored. We honor and respect the graves found in forests.