a wood. Returning Poles warned us that there were infiltrators in the wood who attacked people and robbed them of everything they had. We walked through the wood in mortal fear. We saw a bloodstained shirt on the ground, perhaps belonging to one of their victims.
We didn’t get us far as Ratno,262 which is 35 km from Dywin. We stayed the night with a Polish osadnik,263 who cooked us a meat soup for a packet of makhorka. We slept on straw. [10] We reached Ratno in the morning. There were dead horses, broken telegraph poles, and burnt-out cars lying on the road. It had been bombed the day before. A few Ratno residents had been killed. We decided to stay in Ratno for a couple of days. Some of us already had torn shoes, others had blisters on their feet. The kehilla gave us the women’s section of the prayer house belonging to the Trisker Hasidim.264 We spent twonights in Ratno.
One fine morning, we learned that the Red Army had crossed the Polishborder. A few aeroplanes with five-pointed stars appeared over the town and showered it with leaflets in the Polish language (incidentally, full of mistakes). The content was as follows: “Polish soldiers! The Red Army has crossed the border and is occupying the country to free it from the lords and masters. The Polish government has fled to Romania”. In conclusion, the Polish troops were called upon not to resist the Red Army. It was signed “Commander of the Belorussian Front, Komandarm 2nd Rank Konovalov”265 and dated 17 September 1939.
Meanwhile, the Polish authorities were still in control of the town. Polish military units drove through, fully armed and in good order, which still made a good impression. Officers were recruiting fleeing soldiers into the legion that was being formed in Romania. A stream of troops, mainly officers, headed in that direction. It all didn’t last long. Signs of chaos and anarchy began to appear. The police issued an order to surrender all weapons on pain of death. They also issued a false communiqué saying that the
