Class 5a
School No. 2 in Hrubieszów
Hrubieszów, 14 June 1945 [sic!]
My wartime experiences
In 1939 the war with the Germans started. They wanted to conquer the whole world. At the time I lived in my family home in Mieniany, lovingly cared for by my parents. My parents were not farmers. The Germans, wanting to murder us Poles, incited the Ukrainians against us, and they treated us Poles terribly.
I was unable to go to school, for there was no Polish school in Mieniany, only a Ukrainian one. I was taught at home.
The Ukrainians and the Germans attacked villages, killing and cruelly torturing their inhabitants, and burning down the buildings. Such incidents became more and more widespread. My mother became very worried by all this, and she fell ill and died. The number of incidents in Mieniany increased, and we could not sleep in our homes, only in various shelters, cellars and in the forest. Since this was autumn and there was a slight frost at night, I caught a cold and fell ill. I was then sent to Hrubieszów, while daddy and my sisters remained in Mieniany.
Hrubieszów was unknown to me; I longed to be back in my family home, with daddy and my sisters. There were many partisans in our house. I went to Mieniany often, but only for the day. I was surprised by the changes that had taken place in our home.
One day the Polish partisans burned down a large number of Ukrainian villages. It was then that one of my sisters joined the partisans, while the other two, along with daddy, moved to Hrubieszów. Many of those who returned to fetch some of their belongings perished. Shortly after, the Ukrainians burned down Mieniany. We left for Krasnystaw and remained there until the liberation of the Polish lands.