downstairs, in moments of raids, quite frequent. [2] We ate dinner in the restaurant, which was open as usual. In the evening, I bought two boxes of sweets, tobacco, and cigarettes. We slept at school, taking turns. In the morning, the mood was already hectic. Art Department officials come. There is no car for us.
Zavoutch says, “Comrades, we will go on foot. We’re leaving in half an hour”. Over to the dormitories, to pack our things. Our entire property can fit in a backpack but we are not going to leave it here. Two female friends find us. We run to the school. Along the way, some obstruction, they are giving away free bread at the bakery. The school is empty, there is no one there. We go to the flat of our two friends. We are packed up. We have two backpacks, briefcases, with a suitcase. We go out into Pierackiego Street (Krasnoarmeyska). There are five of us. Two girls and the two of us – Warsaw residents, we do not leave anyone behind, with light hearts and an absurd lack of concern, we move on to God knows what adventures. The fifth one, the youngest (from Białystok), is leaving his sick mother in the city. His elder brother is at university in Lvov. His father – on holiday in Kiev. The clock on the corner of Kilińskiego Street shows that it is twenty to ten.
At that moment, a German air strike forces us to flee to the nearest gate. Bombs are falling on the airport, […] some minutes later we move on. The heat is horrible […] uninterrupted lines of civilians without […] vehicles full of troops. Slowly […]. We go out on the road. You can see some people […] living. They say that people are dying en masse on the road […] the right hand side, one can see clouds of smoke rising from the airport […]. The road splits. Army tanks, civilians […] to the right. We – to the left. The road is sandy, aside in the shade of the forest. We change […] suitcases. We begin to feel the inconvenience of luggage, […] a coat in hand, we are extremely burdened. People go […] relatively few. One resident of Łódź […] wants to join us. We do not wantanyone’s company. At some point, I feel faint. [3] We rest for about half anhour in the forest. Slowly, I recover. We move on.
The road turns to the right. There is a dead horse to the side. Tanks go past us. There are so many of them and they are going so fast that we have to wait a long time to be able to go to the other side of the road. We go into the military training ground, because I do not want to go along with the army. After several metres, we are confused and scared. We hear anti-aircraft guns firing. German planes are flying over our heads almost constantly. We are afraid to leave the woods. Slowly, we sneak into some barn. There, we lay
BIA ŁY STO K AN D THE WESTERN BE L ARUS [ 11] 113