European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

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.

So one child charged forth to lift the plank where I should hide under.

I quickly pressed it down again and picked up a Partisan handbook we had compiled.

Although these children were very young, I just opened the book and told them to open their books on the same page.

The text happened to be Ivan Cankar’s ‘Cup of Coffee’. It was by all means for higher levels.

I told the best reader to read, but he said a few words and began to cry again.

The German just kept on watching and watching.