were Jews, they received us very well, giving us food and drink and letting us sleep in their barns, all at no cost.
We reached Tomaszów Lubelski shortly before the curfew. It was a very dark night. I had the address of a relative, but it was difficult to find him in the dark. Therefore, we asked several Jews to let us stay with them just for one night. We pointed out to them that it was nearly curfew-time and that we were strangers and refugees, but not a single Jew would let us remain withthem. We finally reached my relative’s home, where we stayed the night.
Towards dawn we heard heavy shooting. We decided to leave quickly to avoid being caught in the cross-fire.
We immediately set out on the road to Zamość.379 A German patrol stopped us on the way. We showed them the przepustka. Then they searched us and, finding nothing suspicious, took nothing from us. [10a] They told us to leave the area quickly, because there would soon be a heavy battle with Polish partisan troops. Naturally we obeyed them.
Ten kilometres from Zamość, we were again stopped by a German patrol and searched. They took our wristwatches, money, belongings, and a camera which a comrade had on him. Then the gendarmes detained us and led us into the courtyard of the church in the village of Łabunie.380 There werethousands of people held there, Jews and Poles. We had to sit down on the ground like everyone else.
In the evening, everyone was crammed into the church. As students from an agricultural school, we were given a priest’s room in which to spend the night. There were some gendarmes there, real murderers and criminals, who beat and insulted us. There was also a good gendarme who interceded. At hisrequest, a few nurses gave us bread and milk.
