Stefan Leśków

"We were leaving for Poland after all, but we were not repatriated (...). Anyway, mum agreed, and they said (...) that we don’t need to take anything, we’ll get everything when we get there (...) because: “People, there’s no need to take anything (...) small luggage”, they said: “Take malenki chemodany”. Mum took two blankets, (...) some things since we were supposed to get everything after we arrived, that’s what they said. (...) we took small luggage (...)."

"(...) It was around seven o’clock already, and it was getting darker. Uncle came back (...), he came, untied the stallion and was finishing untying our mare when three of Bandera’s soldiers came out of the forest, about 60 metres away from us. Uncle saw them and said: “Stefan, quick!”. And he grabbed me by the leg, I was wearing shorts and a shirt because it was August… he put me on the back of this horse, this stallion (...) it bolted, and they shouted: “Stij!” (...) they had (...) machine guns, auftamat (...) pepeshas (...). And when I jumped on that horse and the horse bolted, but at the same time, he yelled stij in Ukrainian and shot a burst at me. I heard a whizzing sound from the right and from the left, and at that time, my horse was hit twice in his hind thigh and got terribly frightened (...). It started galloping forward. I was holding on to the mane because I had nothing, no reins, only a piece of rope, nothing else (…). Well, when the horse came home, about 7 kilometres away, I was (...) all bloody, because I was sitting closer, and the closer you get, the worse it is – it was softer at the back."

"(...) In [19]41 (...), it was extremely difficult to buy anything; it was difficult to find a job. In the summertime, my mother was training things, (...) she sold things on Rogatka Łyczakowska. (...) Somewhere around [19]41, these Soviet shops were called co-operatives, and you could buy things there. (...) Mum wanted to buy something so that she could have a dress and something else for my sister. She ran into NKVD officers there, who were on the lookout for people who bought things cheaper in order to resell them at a higher price (...). And they detained my mum. She was trying to explain the situation, but she didn’t know Russian, so they decided that she was guessing. (...) they arrested my mother, and the lowest penalty for speculation was six months. (...) She had served three months already, it was [19]41, and the Germans were already invading. The Russians rushed all (...) these prisoners (...) to the station and loaded as many as possible into freight cars. In any case, they packed up the women and transported them deep into Russia (...)."