110
PARTISAN REVIEW
capes. She encountered villains and rescuers- bus drivers, police–
men , doctors , prison guards , teachers , and fellow fugitives . A suitor
in the underground army was killed in a reprisal roundup . She spent
a sickening social evening with drunken blackmailers. She became a
welcomed guest and friend of a courageous priest in Ryki. In late
July
1944
she returned to Radosc just before the Polish uprising
broke out in Warsaw .]
• • •
We believed we would have to stay in Radosc until the
end of the uprising , but after a few days a small unit of the Russian
army appeared in the town . Whether it had become separated from
the main forces or was a reconnaissance unit was probably a matter
of no military significance. For us, however, it meant liberation.
With the Russians in Radosc and the Germans still holding their
position in Miedzylesie , the enemies were separated by only about
two miles of dense forest.
When a neighbor ran down the road shouting hysterically,
"The Russians are here!" we could not believe it. At first we thought
she had gone mad . We ran to our balcony. And there we saw them,
the first Russians! Our liberators!
The exchange of artillery fire begarl almost instantly . A few
Russian soldiers entered our house , asking about our presence
there . They were friendly and polite; however, they advised us to
leave Radosc at once. It would become a battlefield and we could be
hurt or killed . Then they started to entrench themselves in our
garden.
When our neighbors in the Baptist house across the road were
also advised by the Russians to leave , our small party of four was
joined by one of them - a man carrying an infant. The mother had
been wounded in the first hour of the crossfire , and the Russians had
driven her to a military hospital. The baby was unbelievably ugly,
grotesque .
It was hot. The famous August sky-clear and bright, often de–
scribed in the literature of this period - enabled the German planes
to fly 10w over houses and living targets . We walked through the
open fields looking for a village where we could stay for a while and
rest. On our way we met more Russian soldiers. Here and there
bombshells burst over our heads .
Danka, Celinka, and I did not react at all to these explosions,
