Maria Krokowska

" We saw how the Czortków prison looked like when the Soviets left and the Germans came. Firstly, they had difficulty in opening it because the gate was propped up with beams. They had to jump over the wall and it wasn’t so easy. Finally the Germans opened the prison and said to us – “Go ahead people, come in!”. When the Soviets took the prison over from the Poles, according to their custom, they put the speakers on the four corners of the prison wall and played music 24 hours a day. Thus whatever happened inside we never knew. Even if somebody shouted through the window, we weren’t able to hear anything. What turned out to be that – there was nobody inside. There was no living soul here! No man. „Where are the prisoners?” – we were asking. However we knew there were hundreds of people! From then on they went down to the basement. They found a dead guard and started to excavate. They went upstairs and it turned out there were rooms top to bottom full of parcels. Parcels that people sent for prisoners. Everything was stored there and the prisoners got nothing. Thus Germans started to dig up more and more. The courtyard and basements were full of bodies in various conditions. The German employed Jews, ( -Forgive me God but they deserved it, there were the firsts that appeared in the NKVD!- ), so the Jews were digging and searching. After that, the burials were arranged. It was summer –heat! July and August – extremely heat. They had no coffins so the bodies were put in some kind of boxes made from wood, covered with lime ( in emergency of plaque). And all of this was buried behind the cemetery. The Jews kept on digging and searching".

"When I was a child, until 1939 my life was very simple: school, home, school, home, etc. All clear. That’s how it was. I was eight or nine years old. When I was ten, the war started and then life under the shade and on the lead was really over. I had to admit it. My father wasn’t at home so my mum bent over backwards to get some food. I had a free hand, I was at easy. The first Russian words I ever said was ( - I feel embarrassed to tell you.. - ) was – “tawarisz daj diengi” – give me some money – That what I said to a Russian soldier. They used to give us kopeck willingly! Kids are kids, no shame. In general, it was a really good time for me as I had lots of freedom. At the same time, mum struggled to make a living. All of a sudden, she was forced to be a mother and father in one and had to do everything at home. The Soviets were really nice people and the soldiers were nice. They often let us keep a gun for a while or even shoot it. I was shooting so many times! – We were allowed to do whatever we wanted, it didn’t matter if we were able, or not. That’s how it really was. We also discovered the town in this time. Serot river divides the town into two parts – Czortków Górny and Czortków Dolny. I attended school on my side. My friend, a boy in my age, attended on the other side. There were two primary schools so kids didn’t have a walk long way to get to school. In 39 and 40 we visited the other side of the town many times and we were walking through the mountain, more and more… Besides that, school children from both sides started to be mixed in schools so there was no more classification. Life really changed. Perhaps more tragidy because we started to experience the war. But it was a kid point of view so it must have been a bit different than grown-ups. I would probably see it much differently now. Nevertheless, Dear God – in was unlike in those times. Afterwards, the Russian soldiers were accommodated in our house. Our home was quite big so they stayed with us. Dear God – no later than the Russian soldiers came, so did their families join us well. They had their job… It was unavoidable, the war caused that things..."