Лєслав Нітка

“When we were boys we got into the airfield for arms and ammunition. There were brick factories – they were built such as hangars for raw brick. And the Germans have done there any stores, I remember accurately. Because we pulled out from there mainly ammunition. Boys, what do you want here? I don't know how I survived at all, but I was little then. I went to the first class in 44-th, I was seven years old, still the war lasted – it ended when, in the 45-th – I was eight years old. And in mine eight, nine, ten, eleven years there still was a lot of these weapons, you should only have a wish to find it. But boys always have such wish – that's why we looked for it.”

“In 1939 I was liberated for the first time, in 1941 – for the second one, in 1944 – for the third one and in 1991 – for the last one, but that time form everything. I was baptized in Saint’s Antony church. I lived on Pushkina str., now it is Chuprynka str. But then it was Pototsky str. – gymnasium named after Queen Yadvìga, my father was a warden of this building. Now there is a city hospital N5 there, but before war there was a female high school named after Queen Yadvìga. In 1939 when we were liberated by first soviets, we were evicted. They made a hospital there. We were evicted from the building and father was arrested as an enemy of nation. Mother with me, I was three years old, were living in strange places. And so we lived until the second liberation.”

“Second home down the street, there was a location of the Ukrainian police (auth.-str. Pototskiy). They rampaged through greatly. My parents had documents that do not give the right even to Germans to detain them. She came to Lviv, the train was delayed, they seized her (auth. – the mother), started to drag. And a German stood up, fascist. Stood up, disbanded them, and she ran away. The territory, where we lived, was locked on the key. She was still young, and she scaled over the fence and escaped. The second time she was raided by the Germans already. Direction of the hospital (auth. – in which the father worked) took any measures, but these were the doctors, and that were from SS. As we have, secret service with the police is not in contact. And she was led to the Janiwsky camp. She told me, I know that the whole night these Germans, Austrians, my father were thinking about how to help her. And it turned out that she rescued herself. She and other women were walking together. And there a big truck stood, such diesel truck, as I understand with a long base. Convoy sidestepped it and they went like this: the convoy from the left side was going close to them and from the right side went on the sidewalk around the truck. And they (mother and the other woman) hided under the truck, this was at night. They waited under the truck and then returned in some way home. They had no document, that’s why they went through dark places in order not to be caught by some patrols. And she came home – this was the second time and the last.”