piles, dead tired. Therefore, we did not reflect on the uniqueness and unusualness
of this lair; it even seemed entirely natural to me. But that night, there
was no rest. Nobody slept a wink. I felt so cold that I shivered all night long
as if in fever. I could even hear the chattering of the teeth of the person lying
next to me. But the worst was the drone of the aircraft, [circling] non-stop [8]
somewhere in the vicinity. So I lay there with my eyes open, shivering from
cold and fear, waiting for the dawn as if for salvation.
In the morning we bought milk and cottage bread from the farmer’s wife.
We washed ourselves by the well and we felt a little better. Our friends had
already left, so it was a while before we found a farm cart. The farmer agreed
to take us to nearby Lutomiersk.¹²⁰⁰ On the way he told us about carts departing
at night to help the retreating detachments and about aerial combat, the
charred remains of which we saw in ditches and on the fields. But a hundred
times worse was the sight of children on the side of the road. Having lost their
parents, they walked to and fro or sat on stones. They did not even cry. They
only stretched out their hands for food. We threw them biscuits, which we
had taken from home, from the cart and the children grabbed them greedily.
Here and there we saw scattered groups of people walking. Mothers were
weeping loudly, looking for their children. Having lost their relatives, many
people were looking for one another.
After riding for about an hour and a half we reached our destination, that
is, a tiny settlement consisting of a market square and four streets. There was
a dreadful racket, chaos, and commotion. Nobody knew what to do. The settlement
was swarming with refugees. We were immediately drawn into the
general maelstrom. Everybody gave us different advice. For now, we ‘camped’
in a backyard. We sat on our belongings, passively waiting to see what would
happen. My father was actively trying to obtain some news. The wildest
rumours were circulating among the people and one did not know whom or
what to believe. In the end, we surrendered to some disturbed person’s persuasion. That total stranger was begging and entreating us to move for our
own good into a summer cottage a kilometre from Lutomiersk.
The ‘move’ did not take long and so we accommodated ourselves in one
of the cottages, built along a sandy road and forming what at another time
would be an attractive summer resort. We put straw on the floor and we began
1200 Lutomiersk (Łask County).
