Helena Niczyporuk
Class 6
Wisznice, Włodawa district, Lublin voivodeship
21 June 1946
Memories of the German occupation
This happened in July 1944, when the occupier rolled up their fascist banner and retreated to the west. The loud bang of cannons could be heard from far away. The German army came to our village and set up their artillery. Long rows of carts and wagons stretched on a muddy wide road leading to sunset. A terrible hurricane of war was approaching our area with every minute. People were terribly afraid of the very concept of war, not to even mention the approaching front lines.
The cannon fire, which we could hear, grew louder and louder. We hid everything in the shelters. We took our belongings with us and at dusk we went to aunt’s place near the woods. It was a bit safer there, but next day in the morning the soldiers came in droves and took our horse. We asked them not to take it away, but those bastards did not listen to our pleas at all. When the German troops withdrew from our village and the Soviet troops entered, we returned home. The windows were broken from the bangs, and the field was destroyed by the tanks and cars.