Czesława Wałkiewicz

"It was the end of the word. The end of the road. There were five large barracks where they kept us in. Everyone found a little corner for themselves. One barrack had allocated beds the others just two entrances, first and second one. On the both sides of the barracks there were bunks with wooden bolster on beds, long corridor in the middle and a brazen stove so we could cook. Just then typhus spread. We had a gamekeeper, he was kind of a guard. It was forbidden to leave the place without permission. It was eight kilometers to the next commune. The place was divided into parts – eighth kilometer, sixth kilometer and then third (this was a commune) and etc.. There were barracks on the third kilometer, on the 6th there was a canteen and a few more barracks and then on the eighth kilometer were only five barracks. At the eight kilometer the typhus was started. Hell started here. They put all of us together there… Lice…and everything were there. People started to suffer. They turned one barracks into a hospital. The people were dying in numbers! Me and my mum were also suffering. Dad and my brother managed to avoid it in some way. Me and my mum were down with an illness but finally in some way we managed to recover. Immediately the Poles found some small hill covered with birches. They set up the cemetery there. They started to bury the deceased. The crosses were made from birches. Soon, the whole hill was full of crosses. People were really dying in numbers! We had no medicine. Everything was taken for the war effort. Only one nurse was there, but what was she able to do …? Those that survived – survived, those that did not, they went on the hill. Shortly after, they made a shop, and started to bring some food ( we had to eat something, we had no food, no money, nothing). They used to bring some pearl barley in the sacks and bread also. They made a list of families and family members – the amount of grain and other food per person. We had to go there to collect it. One of our ladies was serving it. If we went quite far away, first we would meet the gamekeeper to ask for permission. He lived in a small house which was some kind of dug-out. After that, we could leave the place. If somebody asked on the way we had to have had permission with us. We then came back to the barracks".

"We had servants at home. For example for harvest time, often fifty, sixty people were coming from the mountain. Everything was cut with a sickle. There was no scythe, so we had to cope with a sickle. There was lots of work in harvest time. People were sleeping in a haystack. They used to bring some clothes or took some from us. This is how they were sleeping. Two or three people often stayed to prepare food, dinner or something… The same people used to work every year. For every day activities we had permanent servants. Mum wasn’t able to cope with everything at home. She used to stay in the kitchen, or with the kids. The cows had to be milked and groomed and the pigs had to be fed. Everyone had their own duties – with cows, horses and pigs. We kept people for help because we would never manage to keep the farm in good condition by ourselves. Most of those people were Ukrainian families. Mum and Day weren’t bad for the people. They paid as they should. Mum helped them a lot – they often got fresh milk to take home. We had milk and everything else! A lady who used to help, always took some milk or bread, butter or lard. When pigs were killed, we put fat into the barrel and we salted it. Nobody used to melt it. We kept salted pork fat in barrels and people would take it as they wanted. I can’t say that my parents ever exploited anybody. People were fine with the job. That’s why everyone craved for work. If we had any odd jobs, it was enough to let them know and they would appear. Sometimes they also were buying things, and Poles as well. Often, Ukrainians married Polish women or Poles married foreigners. There were mixed marriage there. Ukrainian people sown the fields with the flax and the hemp. Then women spun, made hand-knit cloth and sewed at the end: clothes, and finally made embroidered shirts. Every woman had their own embroidered outfit of clothes ready for church".