-
The Story of Adam Paluch
- Northwestern University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
225 First Name: Adam Also Known As: Jerzy Janusz Dolebski Last Name: Paluch Date of Birth: May 3, 1939 City of Birth: Sosnowiec Country of Birth: Poland As told to Henry Stark The Story of Adam Paluch Adam Paluch My name is Adam Paluch, but it was not always so. There are those who say I was born in 1942; others say I was born in 1939. I am a strong, athletic male: a former part-time professional boxer and wrestler. But the paperwork says that I was a girl. I was taunted for being Jewish before I knew that I was Jewish. I was told that I am the child of a childless woman. I was told that my search for my identity was hopeless —that I was “digging in the ashes.” I went to Israel to find my roots, but I found them in America. I am not playing a game of charades. I want only to point out that my life as a Holocaust survivor was unusual, to say the least. It was comical, tragic, serendipitous, average, and extraordinary. There are things that I did that I’m proud of and other things that I regret. But to tell my story, it is easiest to divide my life into three periods: Beginnings—1939 to 1944; Postwar—1944 to May 1995; New life—May 1995 to the present. Beginnings (1939–44) This part of my life is very hazy. Years ago while visiting the Majdanek Extermination Camp with my son, I had a flashback: this was the place where I was taken as a child. Are there records that prove that I was at Majdanek? And if I was there, why 226 Out of Chaos didn’t the Germans kill me? Was it because I was going to be a part of their “medical ” experiments? A shard of blurred memory: the liberation by the Red/Polish Army, followed by time in an orphanage. But if I was in an orphanage, shouldn’t there be a record? Then adoption by Jan and Leokadia Dolebski, a childless Catholic couple living in Lublin. They claim to know nothing about an orphanage. Fortunately, as I get older, events come into focus and are easier to remember. The rest of the story will be easier to tell. Postwar (1944–May 1995): The Search Begins My name is now Jerzy Dolebski and I ask my adoptive parents where I came from. When I am nine years old, I suspect that I wasn’t their child because I didn’t look like the rest of the children, and, in addition, I was circumcised. They are full of inventive answers. My adoptive mother tells me that I was born out of wedlock (shsh!). My adoptive father tells me that I was found in an abandoned building, and I have a Yiddish keppele (Yiddish head) because I am smart. There is talk that I was plucked out of an orphanage (there is no record of this). My adoptive grandmother says that I am a znajda—a foundling, which is bad, real bad. It implies in the Polish culture that you were unwanted, even as an innocent child. My adoptive mother is angered and refuses to speak to her mother after this comment. I am told that I was born in 1942, and a “birth certificate” is drafted on October 15, 1944. Strangely my “birth certificate” says that I am a girl. Starting in 1945, the Dolebskis proceed to have six children in the normal way. I realize that I am different from them—they are blond and fair-skinned; I am dark-haired and swarthy. I am circumcised and their boys are not. A passing Jewish woman, a neighbor and friend of my father, once tells me, “Do you know that you are a Jewish child?” She knew because my parents told her. Is there such a thing as a Jewish child? A Christian child? If you are a child raised by a Jewish family according to Jewish customs, that makes you a Jewish child. If you are raised by Christians according to Christian customs, you are a Christian child. If I am a Jewish child, where are my Jewish parents? In October 1945, the Dolebskis move to Lębork, where I am enrolled in grade school. There the kids call me obrzezaniec—the circumcised one. I understand that I am different from the other boys. Even my younger brothers are not circumcised. But what does being...