Krystyna Kot
Class 7
Wisznice, 13 June 1946
My most important wartime experience
My most memorable wartime experience was the bombing. On 18 March 1943, at 3 p.m., a great and terrible moment started – the bombing of my home village. A terrible and unexpected experience for all people. We all hid wherever we could. Bombs and bullets fell from the sky like hail. There were burning houses all around us, people cried and moaned. Our whole family scattered everywhere.
The first one-hour raid passed. We all walked home hoping that [it was] over. But no, it wasn’t over. Half an hour passed, and the planes came again, and the horrifying moment started anew. My siblings and I escaped into the field, where we hid under a potato mound. I have no idea where my parents might have been at the time. We sat there trembling with fear, thinking about our death. We did not have the slightest hope that any single one of us would be saved. But we did not die – the entire village was saved. The planes went crazy, flying in various directions and firing their cannons. We could not hear anything but explosions, rattling and tremors. All around us there was this thick, suffocating smoke. This terrible moment lasted three hours, but no one was killed. All the people came out alive, despite the German fire.