European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

They did not look horrible, they were brown,

the smell was disgusting, it was such a hot day, August, in the middle of August in 1944.

We always had a scarf on our head to cover our hair and protect it from the smell,

the smell which was in Majdanek. After coming back from Majdanek we put our clothes onto the balcony.

We lived in barracks, men together with women.

Then we saw loads of shoes taken from the people who were going to die.

Little children’s shoes, male and female shoes, some clothes, and we had to write down everything.

Then we finished going to Majdanek and two or three times went to some forest,

I do not remember the name of it,

but we went to a forest where people were murdered.

They were thrown down into a big ditch and were buried in the way they had fallen down.

When one of those ditches were dug up,

we saw a mother holding her child,

or a couple.

All documents were taken from their clothes and we were trying to check who was who.

Liberation

Right after the Soviet army came, Helena went to Vilnius straight away

and as a doctor she was mobilized. But at the beginning in Vilnius there were still Germans.

The Russians occupied all Vilnius and lists of Poles

were made who could and would like to work in the offices of PKWN in Lublin.