Not far from the famous Niepokalanów (the place where Mały Dziennik¹⁶¹
is published), we saw a large herd of stray cattle. There was no trace of the
cowherds. All around the cattle there were many chickens, turkeys and
other fowl. We wanted to spend the night in the open, [3] rest in the ditches,
and set out again a few hours later. The ditches were full of people and
we found room for ourselves with great difficulty. After only half an hour, we
decided to move on, to avoid freezing. We had no provisions with us. We lived
on what we could get from the local peasants. We had to walk 2 or 3 kilometres
off our road to get food in the villages. It was easy to obtain milk, eggs, cucumbers, but much harder to get bread. The peasants wouldn’t take any money, and when they did it was groszes. It was also easy to get somewhere to sleep for the night. In that respect the peasants treated Christians and Jews alike.
As we approached Błonie,¹⁶² we decided to get some sleep first so that we
could cross the town and the railway bridges quickly. In the evening we found
ourselves in a hamlet, where a householder took us into his own room and let
have the beds. We slept until 1 o’clock and set out again. When it grew light, we
heard many explosions, but we were already far from the dangerous stretch
and were walking along side roads. When we were nearing Warsaw, my friend
decided to visit his mother, so we all went together to Piastów.¹⁶³ The old lady
was very happy to see us. At midday on Friday we were in Piastów, where
we were told that the railway staff had gone to Warsaw. The following morning
we would find out which way to go to Warsaw. At 7 o’clock the next
morning I went into the garden and heard a commotion on the nearby road.
I saw the vanguard of a German motorised division heading towards Warsaw.
It turned out that they had taken another road than we expected and had
overtaken us. A few hours later, we heard a similar commotion on the other
side of the road and saw another motorised division on its way to Warsaw.
By then, the railway staff had managed to get back from Warsaw to Piastów.
They told us it was possible to get to Warsaw on byways, but it was impossible
161 (Polish, Little Daily) Polish Catholic, strongly anti-Semitic periodical issued during the years 1935–1939. It was circulated in 137,000 copies on weekdays and in 225,000 copies on Sundays. Its editorial office and printing house established in 1927 were located in Niepokalanów (Sochaczew County).
162 Błonie (Warsaw County).
163 Piastów (Pruszków County).
