Wiktor Mostek

"The Germans executed my dad and my sister but my life was saved by a German soldier. In 1942, I came down with typhus. It was the time of the occupation so we had no medicine, nothing. As I fell ill, I was forced to hide myself from the Germans. If they found anybody suffering from typhus they would take them into the hospital where people died. Sick people’s houses where covered with wooden boards as the Germans were scared that typhus could spread. I had a temperature of 42 degrees Celsius, I felt faint and hadsome red spots on my body. My mum didn’t know what I was suffering from. People had no idea what it was. They applied vinegar to my body vinegar because nobody knew what the illness was. Finally, they learned it typhus. My mum asked a nun for help, saying her son was dying. The nun brought a German doctor. And the German came and did not denounce! He sat on the edge of my bed (because the house was clean and neat) and administered me some new type of medicine – red Streptocyd. I got better immediately, right before their eyes".

"I remember very well – I still have those associations in front of my eyes – We were working on the field, near the train station. The planes bombarded the village Baranowice and were coming, back flying above the station. They flew so low that I was able to see the German pilot’s face! They were shooting at the same time. Luckily, nobody was injured. This is what I remember from the war. What else do I remember? I remember when the the German planes flew to Słonim. Near Słonim was the Polish airport and the polish planes were taking off from here as well. Polish planes were ( I am not sure how they are called in Polish) they looked like some kind of double-wing planes. I remember Polish soldiers shooting from the plane from the machine guns and by mistake they shoot not the German but their own Polish plane! I remember us running there to see what happened. I remember the plane landing. The pilots were alive but the plane was damaged. I saw the planes in Poland but just a few times. When the Soviets came, the planes above our heads were a usual thing".