on Saturday, 9 September. We lay down by a railway junction, and most of us fell asleep. Soon, however, we were woken by a Polish fighter plane, followedimmediately by German bombers. We ran from the railway junction, whichgot heavily bombed. Again, we hid out in a peasant’s house. We encountered other Jewish refugees, who got on our nerves. Some laughed abnormally, convulsively. They told us about groups of Jews who had perished, and predicted the same end for us, too. It was hard to be with them. All the time, German aeroplanes were circling above our hut, which was not far from the road. We were at our nerves’ end, unable to eat. People wounded in the air raid came in. The peasant’s ducks fell dead before our eyes, hit by machine gun bullets. Towards nightfall there was an encouraging incident: a German bomber, flying with two others, crashed to the ground, apparently owing to engine failure, and burned up together with its crew. After that, calm set in.
It was Saturday evening. We continued on our way. The road was strewnwith shot-down telegraph poles and cables. We also saw a dead Polish soldier, dead horses, and abandoned Polish weapons. We were approaching Międzyrzec. All along the way, everything was ablaze. Peasants’ huts and woods were burning. From the stalls and stables we could hear the cattle bellowing, cows and horses. We reached Międzyrzec. There, too, houses were burning. No one was putting the flames out. The police contingent had left. In the police station were some policemen who had fled from other places. We headed for the bakeries to get bread. We were in luck and got some. We considered it impossible to remain in the town even for a short while because we didn’t want to risk being there during the day and getting bombed. Besides, we had already decided to move only at night. We left Międzyrzec. On the way,the same scene: peasants’ houses and woods on fire. In the distance we heard the first cannon fire. Apparently, the front was not far away at all. Again, wespent the day at a peasant’s place. It was very hard to get water. The wells hadbeen emptied by troops and fugitives. We were so thirsty that we drank mud. We headed for Biała Podlaska,258 intending to rest there. We reached Biała.
