The video was recorded by the Pilecki Institute as part of the "Witnesses to the Age" project.
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Our today's interviewee:
Aniela Petz (born in 1934), as a child from the Zamość region she was a victim of a brutal pacification of Skierbieszów carried out by the Germans on 27 November 1942. Together with her entire family she was sent to a transit camp in Zamość. Her father was taken deep into the Third Reich to perform forced labor. The mother and children were deported to Żelechów in the Mazovian Voivodeship, where they were put up in the houses which used to belong to Jews. The living space was very cramped with several families living in each of the houses. The children would go to the nearest farms and beg for food, which wasn't always met with a kind response - the German propaganda had misinformed the locals that they were children of criminals. Some time later the locals found out the truth and the Church joined them in supporting the displaced families. After a while, Aniela's mother moved to her sister's place in Chełm and got a job at a farm which belonged to a Volksdeutscher named Pióro vel Pero. She helped out during harvest, working beyond her strength. When she asked the farmer about her nephew (who had been murdered for joining the partisans), she received a very brutal treatment. She managed to survive and return to Skierbieszów after the Red Army entered Poland, but her home had been completely destroyed. Thankfully, Aniela's father returned from Germany. The family had to live in the open air. Extreme poverty led to many complexes which tormented Aniela Petz and other children of the Zamość Region for a very long time.
Copyright by Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego.
12 ноя 2020
