Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust

Zdzisław Szymczak

166 Out of the Inferno operation. Through our contacts in the Home Army, we supplied the family with false papers. Since Home Army meetings were held at our flats and we had Jews staying there, Zofia and I had to keep the caretakers of the buildings on our side. We must have succeeded, because we were never denounced by anyone and we survived the war. After the Warsaw Uprising, Szomanska was imprisoned at Zeitheim, which was liberated by the Soviets in 1945. She escaped from the Soviet occupation zone and made her way to Italy; from there she was evacuated to England. She attended the Sir John Cass College of Art. In 1981, she was honored by Yad Vashem for having rescued Jola [Schulzinger] Hoffman. ZOZISlAW SZYMCZAK Before the outbreak of the war in 1939, I worked in Warsaw. Being a student at the Warsaw Polytechnic, I was a member of the Communist party, which was dissolved in 1938. During this time I had many friends and acquaintances of Jewish background who, during the time of the occupation, found themselves in the ghetto. This does not mean that my help to the Jews during the occupation was limited to people of leftist backgrounds. I was motivated above all else by humanitarian sentiments. The aid that I orgaIlized for the Jews had a three-fold character, first of all moving Jews to safe places. Often through my mediation, people found shelter with partisan units. The point of contact for moving Jews was my own residence at 15 Granica Street in Warsaw. During the occupation, nearly 100 people passed through my apartment . To avoid provocation of the Germans, those Jews who came to my home first called upon people whom I knew and in whom I had confidence. That same day or the following day, the Jews were moved to other apartments in City Center, Powisle, or Wola. These apartments were speciaUy prepared with secret tile stoves on rollers, in the event of a German search. The Jews were also moved often to the apartment of my in-laws at 43 I