-
Zofia GruszczyĆska
- The University Press of Kentucky
- Chapter
- Additional Information
70 Out of the Inferno loss of her child. The worst thing I remember were the moans I heard from the secret hiding place. The Frackiewiczs often helped Jews. In May 1944, Mr. Frackiewiczs 's daughter, Hanka, brought to us in Woznik a Jewish woman and a child, Adasia, who was four years old. The mother and son lived with us for about six weeks. When the Germans prepared the village for deportation, the two had to leave for Warsaw. I do not know what happened to the child. Gniewaszewska completed her secondary education in Poland after the war. She is now a retired postal worker. ZOFIA GRUSZClYr\JSKA Beginning in the fall of 1941 and continuing through the winter and spring of 1942, the Germans brought Jews to the camp in Szebniach. Poles, Gypsies, and even Soviet prisoners were also brought there. One day, old man Kiwa came to our house and said to my father: "Wasik, I came to say farewell because pretty soon we will all be together. The Germans say that Jews should go to the Promised Land. They are making camps and deporting large groups of Jews there." In the fall of 1942, the head of the village received an order to supply horse transport for the Kiwas, who were to report with their packed suitcases at the registration depot in Brzostka. Our Kiwa left with his family, and we never heard from them again. In Brzostka, Jews were loaded into heavy trucks, vulgarly known as budy (doghouses), with their belongings. All types of baggage were sent on different heavy trucks. The Germans told the Jews that they were going to a registration depot in Szebniach where they would receive their luggage and then wait for a transport to the "Promised Land." The trucks with the people never reached Szebniach. Four kilometers outside Szebniach, they turned left to the Warzycki Woods and there they were put into trenches, killed, and covered with quicklime . After this massacre, the Germans had a drinking bout in a villa at the end of the woods, in the village of Ber6wka. From the Kiwa family, only one son was saved. His name was Herszek. When the Germans surrounded his house in Kaczoroway, 71 Zofia Gruszczyr'lska he jumped out a window. He found shelter at the home of a friend from childhood days, Rozalia Kurc, a widow living with her two children near the Smarzowski Woods. There Herszek lived in the barn, coming out only to get fresh air at night. He also at night made contact with a few other people who lived on the edge of the Sobczyk6w Woods. Rozalia had a hard enough time feeding her own hungry family, so Herszek risked his life by wandering at night in search of food. If Herszek is still alive, I believe he is in New York. Fisiek and Mechcio, the sons of Moskowa from Grudny, ran away before the raids. They too lived through the war with Polish friends. When their mother came to collect the family, she hid with neighbors. There she lived, for several months, but during the raid for Jews early in the spring of 1943, she tried to escape from her hiding place and was shot. Her two youngest children, Sianda and Nusiek, were sent, like Kiwa, to the registration depot in Brzostka. One day at the end of summer in 1942, I was returning from my sisters in Jaso .... On my way to the railroad station, ... as I neared a place where the street led up a hill, I heard a sharp "Halt!" A German with a helmet on his head pointed his rifle at me and threatened my way. In my childish simplicity, I did not realize the danger. I was only thirteen years old. I turned and followed a path leading to Glinik. I got to a hill where old one-story houses with gardens were separated from the market place of the city by a wall. As I came to the houses, I heard women screaming and children shrieking, and over them the yelling and cursing of Germans. I walked along a narrow path between two homes, where the wooden gate from the street was closed. I saw blood under the gate. My veins froze. In the marketplace were several heavy trucks into which Germans herded the Jews-women, children, and old people. Jewish men who were able to work had been arrested and sent away earlier. Feathers were flying from...