European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

I was in shock.

Then I had to step over these partisans. He made me step over the dead people!

One of them was not dead, yet.

He begged to be shot again and was looking at us pleadingly.

I had to step right over their heads.

I still remember these eyes.

Whenever I see blue eyes like these somewhere, I remember this man.

I do have a problem with that; I cannot forget that.

Then they took me inside to the two old farmers and my cousin.

One of them just wanted to shoot us and burn the house down.

Another one said: “You shouldn’t do that.

The partisans have to be buried, everything cleaned.

In two hours time a patrol will come and there mustn’t be anything showing.”

And they did that.

The farmer buried the partisans and the farmer’s wife cleaned up, wiped the blood up.

It was hard for her to mop all that and she cried hard, kneeling in the blood.

My cousin and I were totally shattered.

The farmer’s wife said: “You stay indoors and don’t go outside.

Don’t you tell anybody what happened.” We didn’t.

If somebody told us to keep something to ourselves, we did.