Class 6a
Polish Public Primary School in Radzyń
My experiences of the war
The first day of September 1939 was a day which shook the whole Polish nation. On that day the German hordes flooded Poland, destroyed the army, the soldiers, the nation and families. That day will remain forever in my memory as something terrible which stayed with us for years with that constant fear of the fate of our loved ones, our parents’ constant fight for our daily bread.
I was still a small child on the day the war broke out, but my parents’ expressions and their behaviour gave me to understand that [something] terrible and extraordinary had happened. Suddenly leaving with bags and bundles, the complete destruction of our home and the loss of our closest relatives whom we will never see again. The miraculous saving of our lives which I put down to the sacrifice of my parents, and finally the modest long-term shelter in Włodawa.
We were woken by artillery fire on the night of 22 June 1941. A new war, new fear. There was only the whistling of bullets overhead. We spent the whole day in the shelter. But we survived that too.
Next, months passed during which I saw the terror in my parents’ eyes whenever the Germans drew near. The news from the prisons and the camps wore down the nerves of not only the older people, but I also suffered, seeing the pain that good Poles had to carry in their hearts.
We came to Radzyń in 1944, but the war followed us and a few months later we had to go into the countryside because the German-Soviet front was drawing in once more. The bombarding of towns, tracks and villages, the boom of exploding bombs. Radzyń in flames. One day the castle was burning, another day this district, the next day another. Corpses – always someone wounded or dead. Constant wearing on nerves.
Finally, the happy day of 22 June came. We were free – the Polish-Soviet army proudly entered the town. Polish banners flapped, the song Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła [“Poland is not yet lost”] rang out. The hated enemy, defeated, ran back to his own country, followed by the victorious march of the strong and powerful Polish-Soviet army.