P4 Escaping death

Narrator: Kazimierz Cichoń
Reporters: Joanna Cichopek, Marta Barzak

When the World War II broke out I was 19. When the Germans were going into our village everybody was getting away.

My brother and I were escaping on the bikes towards Częstochowa. We arrived not in Częstochowa, but in Wisła. There we were captured by the Germans and they took us to Jędrzejów. We were held near the school. We spent there a few days. One day the soldiers made us line up and they ordered us to march. They shot every tenth person. They ordered us to dig a large whole and to bury the bodies there.

After a few days they took us to railway station. I and my friend were lucky because we escaped during the marching. We came back home on foot. I also remember when in 1942 the German Army went into my house and took me to the detention house in Węglowice. In the morning they took us on forced work to an ammunition factory in Germany. We had to work very very hard for twelve hours a day. I have never forgotten those days.