War-themed school essays (1945–1946)

Abstract

The main goal of an article is to analyze the war memories which were written in 1945–1946 by young Poles (aged 10–16) from Kilecczyzna and also Warthegau (Warta’s Land) region. These children’s works relate to the war atrocities, violence, and other kinds of war cruelty, with a part of the war memories depicting underground education, which was very popular during the WWII in Poland occupied by the Nazis. The children’s memories and also their pictures are evidence or token of their traumatic experiences, which were demonstrated by the young authors in different ways. The analysis of these children’s works based on the microhistory and also the bystander notion (Raul Hilberg). Thanks to these notions, the author of the article grasps the ways of the depictions of children’s traumatic experiences, which focused on several following subjects: father’s arresting, starvation, the Nazis’ cruelty towards young and adult Poles, the picture of a brave guerrillas, Red Army’s soldiers as liberators, and a secret education.