Władysław Karol

"Them, Jews! They were in real trouble, as people used to say. There were many Jews in Słobódka. There were Jewish shops. And they were right away... They would sew such pieces of cloth on them, the letter “J” for “JUDA”. With such a yellow stroke “Ju” at the front and on the back, and they were walking and then driven to the Ghetto in Braslaw and executed by firing squads there. They suffered such a fate. At the site where they were executed there is a Jewish cemetery now. Some of them ran away, that’s true. But, this way or another, they were caught later. People were hiding them, but they could be also executed, both the Jews and the hosts for keeping the Jews. Not in Słobódka but in the villages, there were such houses and in the forest. There were places they were hiding but they were finally executed, caught. There were various shops. There were various shops and materials, such various materials. They even sold them at that house, you could even have a nice suit made. Various materials, imported foodstuffs and spices it was called, seven or eight shops in Słobódka. And the Jews were in real trouble! They were executed by firing squads without trial. When you were a Jew, Jude, then, Jude kaput! O, gut gut and Jude kaput... Well pogroms. Who did pogroms? The Germans only did pogroms..."

"I felt like coming here. I did not stay in Poland. Because there was not much order, either. There was no order at all after the war. Home Army soldiers on their own, Ukrainians on their own, and Poles on their own, and there was fighting all the time. I do not know when it all ended up there. I cannot say. And I came here. I came back here in 1947. (...) Because my family was here with me and we though we would go to Poland, and they would not let us go later on. If I had stayed there I would have lived there, and, thus... They would not let me go later on. I wanted to leave, but they did not let me go. It was not so easy to go."