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181 Maria Zag6rska transition shelter in my apartment for periods lasting from several days to several weeks. Wolinski, who had a remarkable career in the Home Army, was highly regarded by both Polish and Jewish leaders in the underground conspiracy. Educated in law, Wolinski lives today in Katowice, Poland. MARIA ZAGORSKA During the time of the German occupation, I lived with my husband and three children in the Bielany section of Warsaw. We lived at 78 Szreder Street, next to a German airfield. From 1942 to the moment of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, eighteen people of Jewish background passed through my home. One of the rooms in the apartment was occupied by the Polish poet Tadeusz Holender. Mrs. Kott, whom we knew before the war, came to live with us in 1942. She came to Warsaw from Lw6w. During her stay with us, she used the certificate of my sister-in-law, who was of Tatar descent. In 1943, Mrs. Kott had a dangerous experience on a journey to Skierniewice, near Warsaw, where she was stopped as a Jew. The Germans brought an anthropologist of Jewish background and, on their orders, he gave her the required examination, which turned out negatively for her. Her life was therefore saved. Mrs. Kott lived with us right up to the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. After the failure of the uprising she went through Lomianki, to a village, and later to Krak6w. For some time, Danuta Grossfeld stayed in my apartment. She had been recommended to me by my friend in Gdynia. Mr. Tenenbaum and his wife and father-in-law also lived with us for several months. They turned up in my apartment in 1943, immediately after fleeing from the Warsaw ghetto. They were all dressed in white aprons-the uniform of physicians-which were indispensable to fool the ghetto guards. Kitel, Tenenbaum's father-in-law, was very stained with the fresh blood of his wife, who had been shot by the Germans during the flight from the ghetto. For several months, Janek Wilk, a thirteen-year-old Jewish boy, also hid with us. When asked by neighbors about his descent-he 182 Out of the Inferno had a very Semitic appearance-I replied that he was my nephew. To camouflage the fact that Wilk was Jewish, he accompanied my family to Mass in the Catholic Church. Despite these precautions, bad neighbors threatened to report me to the Gestapo for hiding Jews in my apartment, so early one morning in 1944, we conveyed Janek and Tadeusz Holender to the home of Mrs. ZoXotarew on Ikara Street. Several times during the occupation, Jews spent several nights in my apartment after having been recommended by acquaintances. Later they went to the homes of my friends. My friends and I organized these secret removals. One of those who never refused to hide a Jew was the Polish writer, Jan Dobraczynski. False documents for Jews had to be arranged, sometimes even a Catholic wedding. This was necessary for Jews who hid under assumed names and rented rooms in the same building where I lived. During the Warsaw Uprising, my husband and I found ourselves in various insurgent detachments. My unit, commanded by Konstantin RadziwiXX, was taken prisoner. I had served as a liaison officer. After the liberation of Warsaw in 1945, I returned to my apartment which, except for my husband's library, I found utterly despoiled. Mrs. Kott survived the war and departed for the United States. I maintain constant contact with her. Janek Wilk also survived the war and lives at present in the German Federal Republic. Fluent in several languages, Zag6rska worked as a translator for the Union of Polish Writers. Ten years ago, she was honored for rescuing Jews during the war. She now lives in retirement. JANUSZ ZAORSKI In 1939, I was evacuated with my family to Wilno. We crossed the Lithuanian border after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. Since we were refugees, the Soviets automatically interned us. Because I was seventeen years old, the Soviets permitted me to live outside the internment camp and to continue my studies at the local gymnasium. From the beginning, I took an active part in the Polish underground movement, carrying messages back and forth between my father, who was commandant of the internment camp in Wilkowiszki, and the ...

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