Józefa Goroszewicz

"When the war broke out, I remember … we were to go to Nowogródek from the school for a meeting, we were already finishing school but we had to come for a meeting. And my father, I will never forget, would never let me go: the war, why should you go? But we were told, I should go … And I did not obey him and I went to that school. I came running to the school … and … there was no one, silence … and somebody told me: what are you doing here? There is no one here, the war started. So, I went back home. And I was walking along the street where the parish church stood, and I could not get through, the camps. My God, I was running …"

"We were registered for going to Poland, but my father thought it over: no, I won’t go. Because he was in Germany, and they were sending to German lands. And he would say: the time will come when they will expel from here. And he says: I won’t go! We won’t go anywhere, we will stay on our own property – he would say – do what you are supposed, and that’s it!."

"They did not manage to take us away to Russia, but they did take away many people to Russia in 1939. I will never forget it, his name was Tur, he was so rich and he would often say: I have enough of everything for my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren and my great-great-grandchildren. But it so happened that it was not enough for him alone, they came and took him away to Russia."

"We married in a church, father Kołosowski married us. And, at that time, you could not get married [at a church], they would not let you. So early in the morning, at 8;00 a.m., so that not many people could see us. There was a britzka, one of our acquaintances had it, and he drove us, we took some people with us, the witnesses, as they say. And we came to get married and then back."

"In the past, when there was Poland, we would not buy bread; we would bake it ourselves . Our mum did it, she used to baked bread rolls for the whole week. And I will never forget it, it was already after 1939 when the Germans were at our homestead, our mother brought them food and always gave them something to eat, because they were hungry. And our mother never let them get away without giving them a piece of bread. And we had enough pork fat and bread. And I remember when there was not much bread left he came, and the smaller [kid] said: how come, we gave our bread away, what are we going to eat? Children, it will be enough until tomorrow, and I will bake a lot of bead tomorrow again, and that man was hungry and he should be given."