Tadeusz Iger
It took me a long time to decide to write about all of this, because it is so difficult for me. My father, a Communist by conviction even before the war (already then he belonged to the KPP, the Communist Party of Poland), used to tell me, “Son, you can be proud that you belong […]
Janina Hincz-Kan
We were returning from our work detail extremely exhausted. The guards were walking with their dogs, somehow unusually calm. The sun was setting bloodred and threw its golden rays on our gloomy faces. It was November 1944. My aching feet, wrapped in rags, were splashing around in shoes full of holes that I had bought […]
Ignacy Goldwasser
Borysław had 13,000 Jews. The Ukrainian population gladly welcomed the Germans entering our town. Right away, on the second day, the Jews felt the yoke of their enemy. The Ukrainians, mainly peasants from the countryside, attacked Jewish properties and began plundering. After the plundering, they started a pogrom. Armed with scythes, shovels, axes, pitchforks, and […]
Maria Gaber-Wierny
I have with me bitter memory I have my smile that doesn’t lie I know that nothing can crush me any more In the days to come Jonasz Kofta I come from a poor Jewish family. I was born in Kraków in 1929. I lived with my parents on St. Wawrzyniec Street—in a room plus […]
Marian Finkielman
It is very difficult to write about oneself, especially when one’s experiences were so tragic. When the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, I was eleven years old. During that memorable September, my father was killed in the siege of Warsaw. Thus from the very beginning of the occupation, Mama and I were left […]
Ilonka Fajnberg
I constantly invoke in my memory my family home, the small bed with netting, and above it, in a silver frame, a large portrait of a smiling child with two small teeth showing in front. During the day the house empties, quiets down, and during the evening it fills with people. There are no other […]
Edmund Rudolf de Pellier
We were children of happiness and joy, my twin sister, Ida-Joanna, and I. Our mama—Luiza, née Sprecher—had a degree in pharmacy, while Papa —Jan—was a physician. Our mama’s family was among the wealthiest in Lwów. We had many factories, hotels (including the famous Hotel George), apartment buildings, movie theaters, etc. The Sprechers were also active […]
Irena (Agata) Bołdok (1)
[We are publishing two memoirs by Irena Bołdok. The second one can be read by selecting “Irena Bołdok (2)” in the “memory” tab] I constantly feel as if I am about to see my father, sister, family All the time I am waiting for someone familiar to suddenly appear. My father’s name was Henryk Likierman. […]
Henryk Arnold
I was born on July 18, 1930, at 3 Szkarpowa Street in Lwów. My mother was Fryderyka, née Beigel (b. 1910), and my father was Leon Arnold (b. 1910). My maternal grandparents were owners of a restaurant in Lwów. They died relatively young, leaving orphaned, in addition to my mother, her two brothers, Jakub and […]
Wilhelm Zienowicz
I, Wilhelm Zienowicz, was born in Wilno as Wilinke Fink, son of Jakub and Riwka, née Menkin. My father managed to escape together with me from the ghetto in our native town of Butrymańce in Lithuania on the night between the seventh and eighth of August, 1941, several hours before the liquidation action began there. […]