“And we as children were running after them. They gave us sweets and just said: ‘Esesovci [SS men]...‘ as they called them .... ‘they will also come. Run, hide! They will shoot whoever they see!‘”
“My father went somewhere [to look for a house] and they gave us a big house in the German colony. Germans lived in the colony and then when they fled from Ukraine, their village stayed [empty]. Their houses were empty. The houses were empty where they lived. So, they sent us there to settle it.”
“They then marked the houses with a cross in Poland. [They marked the houses] where the Ukrainians were and whom they should shoot dead. Do you understand? There was a cross on every house. Poles carved them for people, for Ukrainians and said: ‘If you do something...‘ the Polish neighbours said ....they will carve a cross for you.‘ So we ran away.”
Jefstavij Oleksijovyč Adamčuk was born to Ukrainian parents on the 8th of January 1937 in the village of Wólka Kraśniczyńska in Lublin Voivodeship in Interwar Poland. He experienced Nazi occupation of Poland in his native village between 1939 and 1944. His family moved to Kherson Oblast in Southern Ukraine because of ethnic exchange of citizens between Ukraine and Poland, after the liberation by Red Army in 1945. However, because of poor conditions, they left Southern Ukraine to Rivne Oblast in Volhynia and the family settled in an originally Czech house in the village of Moskovščina. Jefstavij Oleksijovyč than worked in the Soviet Armed Forces in the Chukchi Peninsula and after his return, he worked in a firehouse in the town of Dubno. He now (2020) lives in the town of Dubno in western Ukraine.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
