HAPPINESS IS BENNINGTON AND THE USA

l, Mieczyslaw Lipiec (known to Bennington, Kansas as Metz) arrived in Bennington with my parents Roman and Helena and my sister Danuta in October 1949 due to the generosity of Walter and Kathryn Baugh.
All four of us were born and raised in Poland until we were all arrested by the Nazi soldiers in 1943 and transported to Germany for slave labor. We lived under the Nazi occupation in Poland from 1939 to 1943. Mother was a homemaker and a full time Mom to Danuta and me. Father was a blacksmith and he just finished building our new house and his own blacksmith shop. I was going to school in our town of Dyle, Poland but only up to 1939. We were not allowed to go to school during the Nazi occupation but Father was allowed to continue his blacksmith work because the Nazis needed good blacksmiths.
One morning, the Nazis surrounded our town of Dyle. We were all ordered out of our homes and shops and were marched out into a field. Then they started loading us up into the big army trucks. My parents and Danuta were loaded on a truck and the soldiers held me back. I was screaming and kept trying to get to the truck. The soldiers kept pushing me back and yelling at me, as they would kick me or hit me with the butt of a gun. My parents and I were all screaming and crying. As the trucks started to pull away, I bolted through the line of Nazis and ran after the truck. My Father leaned out of the truckbed, our outstretched arms met and he pulled me up into the truck. I'll never understand why I was not shot in the back at this time other than THERE IS A GOD and he had plans for me. We arrived at the first of two concentration camps that we were processed through in Poland  This first camp was Zwierzyniec, which is not far from Dyle and we stayed here for 2 nights In the morning we were loaded into railroad cattle cars and transported to the second concentration camp, which was at the Rotounda in Zamosc.  The doors were not locked on these cars, so some people jumped off the train and escaped into the forest, which was only a few feet away. We arrived at the Rotounda and put under heavy guard since some had escaped enroute. First everyone was HEAVILY dusted with DDT for lice and other infestations. We had DDT in our mouths, eyes, ears and noses because they just dumped that powder on us. The males and females were then separated and guarded by police dogs. Next, we were marched into two different buildings and were ordered to strip naked. They closed the doors behind us and we stood there fully expecting to be gassed to death. Instead of gas, water came out of sprinklers, but we still didn't trust the Nazis that only water would continue, however we did start to wash ourselves. Afterwards we were marched (and escorted by the police dogs) in the dark to the barracks, armed guards were posted every few feet. We stayed here for the night and we slept in the bunk-like beds that were lined up in several rows in the barracks. The guards came in and ordered everyone into the beds and people just leaped on to the beds and there were piles of people in each bed. Someone picked me up and heaved me on the bed right on top of people and I don't know how many were under me. We were fed thin soup and a piece of bread at these camps




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