European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

I was at least a little above the level they were used to meeting in a regular fighter.

A peasant boy would only look on in horror once he was caught.

Once I discovered the effectiveness of the rosary, I was more than happy to continue carrying it.

I related this story two times after that and it always worked.

…Those were the little guys; they were still learning how to read.

I had a hidden bunker in school.

A plank that would lift up and I could hide under it.

Some woman would run over from the village, under the pretense of being a teacher.

All men my age were either with the Partisans or in camps.

There was almost no one, except if the parents were so sick that someone had to take care of them.

Suddenly this German appears at the window.

They had come from the other side, not through the village.

Actually the unit went through the village, all but this one German.

I presume he had the task of checking this isolated house, which was the school.

He leaned on the window ledge - it was spring so it was open - on his submachine gun, looking into the classroom.

My blood froze.

I admit it first occurred to me that this would end in tragedy: these poor children were going to be victims.

That I myself would be seemed perfectly logical.

The children had already witnessed the burning of their village. They all began to scream and cry like mad.

It had always been taught that in the dangerous event of Germans coming, the plank to hide under should be lifted.