"They did not manage to take us away to Russia, but they did take away many people to Russia in 1939. I will never forget it, his name was Tur, he was so rich and he would often say: I have enough of everything for my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren and my great-great-grandchildren. But it so happened that it was not enough for him alone, they came and took him away to Russia."
"We were registered for going to Poland, but my father thought it over: no, I won’t go. Because he was in Germany, and they were sending to German lands. And he would say: the time will come when they will expel from here. And he says: I won’t go! We won’t go anywhere, we will stay on our own property – he would say – do what you are supposed, and that’s it!."
"In the past, when there was Poland, we would not buy bread; we would bake it ourselves . Our mum did it, she used to baked bread rolls for the whole week. And I will never forget it, it was already after 1939 when the Germans were at our homestead, our mother brought them food and always gave them something to eat, because they were hungry. And our mother never let them get away without giving them a piece of bread. And we had enough pork fat and bread. And I remember when there was not much bread left he came, and the smaller [kid] said: how come, we gave our bread away, what are we going to eat? Children, it will be enough until tomorrow, and I will bake a lot of bead tomorrow again, and that man was hungry and he should be given."
"We married in a church, father Kołosowski married us. And, at that time, you could not get married [at a church], they would not let you. So early in the morning, at 8;00 a.m., so that not many people could see us. There was a britzka, one of our acquaintances had it, and he drove us, we took some people with us, the witnesses, as they say. And we came to get married and then back."
"It’s not up to a man who is good or who is bad, a German happens to be good, a Russian good or bad. And there was a German for us… three years, such a family, and they would not even take postavka from us. Three years passed, and I will never forget my father saying: ‒ what are we going to do if they want us to pay for three years? But the war broke out and we did not pay anything. We lived alongside Germans, there was enough of everything, that is why they did not take anything from us. My father worked as he used to and we lived like that. Three years they did not take any taxes from us, because the family was so large."
"When the war broke out, I remember … we were to go to Nowogródek from the school for a meeting, we were already finishing school but we had to come for a meeting. And my father, I will never forget, would never let me go: the war, why should you go? But we were told, I should go … And I did not obey him and I went to that school. I came running to the school … and … there was no one, silence … and somebody told me: what are you doing here? There is no one here, the war started. So, I went back home. And I was walking along the street where the parish church stood, and I could not get through, the camps. My God, I was running …"
Józefa Goroszewicz. Born 19 March 1929 in the village of Brecianka near Nowogródek (now Navahrudak). She had nine brothers and sisters. Józefa Goroszewicz’s father was a blacksmith who ran his blacksmith’s shop with a few journeymen. In Brecianka Józefa Goroszewicz completed three forms of a Polish primary school and attended the fourth form in Horodeczna near Nowogródek where the whole family moved in 1938. She continued her education during World War II in Nowogródek, where she first attended a Soviet school, then a German school, and, then, after 1944, a Soviet school again. She graduated from a two-year medical college and started to work at a hospital in Nesvizh, where she met her future husband. At present, she lives in Nesvizh.
