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I was 15 when the war broke out. The outbreak itself didn’t make any special impression on me. So a war broke out, [that’s it]. I saw my first plane on the first Tuesday of the war. 1st September was on Friday and on Tuesday the low-flying plane appeared, [the townspeople] said it was a German one.
The atmosphere in the town changed when the war broke out. The Germans didn’t reach us, they only got to Lwow, and our town was about 200 km farther or maybe more. Well, the mayor ordered not to raise the prices, by no means, or to hide food. When the Russians entered [the town] [10] nothing actually happened. They probably used different routes and the town was a bit out of the way. So I don’t remember the soldiers marching into Mielnica. They came on Sunday, 17th September. The Jews already in the early morning knew the Russians crossed the border. I think they’d learned it from the radio. Early that day, at 7 a.m. three vees of heavy planes flew by, heading for the Polish-Romanian border. You could see the red stars, they had to be flying low.
At about 9 a.m. [a group of Polish soldiers], our boys from the town and Poles from the neighboring villages as well, ran across the fields with their rifles and rushed into the baker’s. They took some bread and set off again, heading for Romania. I think they didn’t even show up at their homes. I’m sure two of them came from our town.
Dziubinski, the math teacher, had a sidecar motorbike and he rode up to us. I think he wanted some gas. I don’t remember it exactly. He said, ‘Get on, Samuel, we’ll go to the border, you’ll help me out there.’ I rode with him down to the river, to Dniester. Nothing was happening there yet, it was still quiet, there were no Russians. He rented two boats, right, [loaded] his heavy bike in them and we crossed [the river]. Afterwards he asked me to go on with him. I was [only] 15, I didn’t want to go and eventually came back home. He drove on. I don’t know what happened to him later.
Around noon two trucks full of soldiers, Russian infantrymen, drove past our house. At the same a Polish biplane landed. I saw it all, I was nearby. The Russians were driving along the street when the plane crossed it and landed moments later, 400, maybe 500 meters away from them. All the kids, the youngsters ran over there. It turned out the plane was Polish. There was no gas anymore [The pilots ran out of gas]. The plane taxied away a little and that was it. They arranged to get some horses and rode to a [nearby] estate; there were probably some combustion-engined machines there so 20 minutes later they had their gas. They turned over [the propeller] and took off. Why the Russians didn’t notice the plane? I don’t know. At that time I didn’t think [about what was happening]. It didn’t concern me yet.
The atmosphere in the town changed when the war broke out. The Germans didn’t reach us, they only got to Lwow, and our town was about 200 km farther or maybe more. Well, the mayor ordered not to raise the prices, by no means, or to hide food. When the Russians entered [the town] [10] nothing actually happened. They probably used different routes and the town was a bit out of the way. So I don’t remember the soldiers marching into Mielnica. They came on Sunday, 17th September. The Jews already in the early morning knew the Russians crossed the border. I think they’d learned it from the radio. Early that day, at 7 a.m. three vees of heavy planes flew by, heading for the Polish-Romanian border. You could see the red stars, they had to be flying low.
At about 9 a.m. [a group of Polish soldiers], our boys from the town and Poles from the neighboring villages as well, ran across the fields with their rifles and rushed into the baker’s. They took some bread and set off again, heading for Romania. I think they didn’t even show up at their homes. I’m sure two of them came from our town.
Dziubinski, the math teacher, had a sidecar motorbike and he rode up to us. I think he wanted some gas. I don’t remember it exactly. He said, ‘Get on, Samuel, we’ll go to the border, you’ll help me out there.’ I rode with him down to the river, to Dniester. Nothing was happening there yet, it was still quiet, there were no Russians. He rented two boats, right, [loaded] his heavy bike in them and we crossed [the river]. Afterwards he asked me to go on with him. I was [only] 15, I didn’t want to go and eventually came back home. He drove on. I don’t know what happened to him later.
Around noon two trucks full of soldiers, Russian infantrymen, drove past our house. At the same a Polish biplane landed. I saw it all, I was nearby. The Russians were driving along the street when the plane crossed it and landed moments later, 400, maybe 500 meters away from them. All the kids, the youngsters ran over there. It turned out the plane was Polish. There was no gas anymore [The pilots ran out of gas]. The plane taxied away a little and that was it. They arranged to get some horses and rode to a [nearby] estate; there were probably some combustion-engined machines there so 20 minutes later they had their gas. They turned over [the propeller] and took off. Why the Russians didn’t notice the plane? I don’t know. At that time I didn’t think [about what was happening]. It didn’t concern me yet.
Period
Location
Poland
Interview
Samuel König