Oto końcowa część książki. Dla autora cześć rodzinna, dla mnie część podsumowująca rok pracy. Zerknąłem na kalendzarz i wyszło rok i 12 dni. Pewnie gdybym nie zrobił sobie wakacji, to bym się wyrobił szybciej, ale ze względu na zmiany w życiu, musiałem sobie zrobić przerwę. Nie mniej chyba nie ma lepszej metody, żeby trochę poćwiczyć z angielskim:)
Tekst jest traktowany jako integralna całość, można go cytować, ale zgodnie z prawem z podaniem źródła, tzn. autora książki i jej tytułu, osoby udzielające wywiadu, no i tłumacza amatora:). Tłumaczenie jest moje (z pomocą Google Translate), dlatego jest pewnie w nim dużo błędów:), pro publico bono, całkowicie bez wynagrodzenia.
National minority - Jews
Maj. Czesław Kayzer pseudonym Cezary
First commandant of the Skierniewice District ZWZ - AK (codenamed Sroka) (later major) born on 1900 - died 1990
In the section describing the area, 6,500 Jews residing in Skierniewice in the pre-war period. Most of them were involved in trade, working in small, dirty shops. Some of them engaged in cottage crafts, such as watchmaking, fine tailoring, and above all, sewing cheap hats. Their families were large, their children dirty and malnourished. The few Jewish intelligentsia were polonized, but didn’t hide their origin, but didn’t reveal it too much. The Jewish intellectual tried to adapt to the habits of the Polish intellectual and emphasized his Polish citizenship. His attitude towards his compatriots - poor Jews - was demonstratively indifferent. He, intelligent only use Polish. There was little Jewish intelligence in Skierniewice - a doctor, lawyer and several wealthy merchants.
When the war broke out, all Jews shared their fate equally and found themselves in the ghetto, ending their lives in the gas chambers. Few, smarter Jews with Aryan appearance managed to leave the city to seek shelter, but only a few managed to wait until the end of the war.
On November 8. 1939, President of the Police J. Schäfer in Łódź issued an order to resettle Jews into the ghetto. At about the same time, Jews from Skierniewice and nearby settlements were also locked up in the ghetto65.
The gehenna that the Jews lived in the ghetto is known to everyone and there is no need to describe it. However, the attitude of the Polish population to the Jewish tragedy must be emphasized in accordance with historical truth.
The case of Polish Jews from the interwar period and the occupation is often embarrassingly forgotten by diaries and even writers. It is no wonder that in the west, hostile opinions are promoted to us, that Germany could only organize ghettos in Poland, because in the Polish anti-Semitic environment, German execution and Jews were tolerated. Such opinions were also promoted by the Jews themselves - perhaps for German money.
With the creation of the Skierniewice ghetto, the entire patriotic nation sympathized and tried to help the Jews. Polish independence organizations operating in the underground ordered sabotaging German anti-Jewish orders. Nobody denies that there were a few combinators who, risking their lives, made big profits from trade with the ghetto, but there were also selfless metastases of food and medicine for Jews, as well as hiding them in Polish homes. Whether the profits of the traders were commensurate with the risk incurred - is another issue. Let those who took this risk answer them66
Facts are widely known when Poles, risking their own lives and their families, helped Jews, saving them from extermination. Here are examples67,
Cecylia Nowakowska in Bednary kept three Jewish siblings at home. They survived, and from America, from time to time she received gifts from them in the form of parcels and letters.
Stefan Dwórnik pseudonym Sędzimir from the Home Army moved weapons to the Warsaw ghetto. On September 27, 1941, after several actions, he was killed.
Henryk Dwórznik, pseudonym Gryf soldier of the Home Army Gryf from Wólka Korabiewicka kept at his place, and later provided with ID cards the wife of Sztajn, a lawyer from Warsaw, murdered by the Gestapo. She survived, was in America and now in Israel. In gratitude, he received gifts from her.
Jan Wilczyński in Huta Nowa, a Home Army soldier, hid a girl of Jewish origin, aged around 12, survived, married Gołębiewski from Łajszczew Stary. They live, they have children. Outside the farm, the husband performs the function of a church in the Roman Catholic parish in Jeruzalu near Skierniewice.
Stefan Salamon from the village of Kolonia - Wędrogowska, AK soldier, pseudonym Janek, he kept a young man of Jewish origin at the age of 20. The boy, however, looked 16 and therefore didn’t need an identity card. He helped on the farm. He survived and lived to see the end of the war.
Jan Szulc, administrator of the Wędrogów estate, poviat Skierniewice kept a marriage of Jewish origin under the name Czoła. She came from Korabiewice. They lived to see the end of the war.
The Różecki from the village of Narty kept a Jewish marriage with a small child. He was a dentist. They also sheltered the Jewish woman Sabina and many other people - refugees from the ghetto - all of them lived to see the end of the war. The same Różecki kept a girl of 16 years old. She survived. She currently lives with her husband Piotr Witeska in Elbląg, ul. Nowowiejska 4 m. 5.
The Stankiewicz family in Wałowice, area Rawa Mazowiecka, they kept Jewish siblings with a small child. He was a tailor. There were three more sisters: older Stefania pseud Żandarm, midle Marysia, and the youngest Józia, who after the war became the wife of Józef Gałka pseud. Kędzior.
Wojciech and Franciszka Salamon from Wólka Korabiewicka poviat Skierniewice, they hid the spouses of Rożenowicz from Pruszków. They both survived.
65 Rocznik Łódzki (Yearbook of Lodz ) XVI, p. 49.
66 Memories from the diaries of "Cezary" and Bernard ZBOWID.
67 Report on the interrogation of Kieresiński - file in ZBOWID in Skierniewice, p. 40b.
From the first days of September 1942 until the end of March 1943, Bolesław and Zofia Kieresiński from Puszcza Mariańska hid a boy of Jewish origin, aged 12, until the end of the war68
Jani Władysław Polowszczyków in Kurzeszyn area Rawa Mazowiecka hid a 16-year-old boy. His name was Frydman Kazimierz. The Home Army issued him ID in the name of Mirkowski Kazimierz. He currently lives in the village of Wygoda. He married a Polish woman. They have 4 children.
Józef Rudniak in the village of Lisowola, a soldier of the Home Army pseud. Równy had a Jew named Szlamek Knecht. He married a young Jewish woman who was hosted by Skajek and Koźbial in Łajszczew Stary. They currently live in Canada. Józef Rudniak in gratitude receives parcels from them.
The Wolniewicz family in Bednary area skierniewicki hid a Jewish family.
The Ciereszków family in Staropol kept a Jewish man, dr. medicine, neurologist, former head physician in the hospital at Czysta street in Warsaw. The listed person currently lives in Łódź at ul. Narutowicza 75b 59.
This work includes only part of the documents regarding Jewish matters. It is impossible to reproduce all cases based on the testimonies of witnesses from all over the district "Sroka". The facts described above are based on documents and testimonies of still living people. It should be added that help for Jews organized by the Polish population could take place only east of Skierniewice, because the western part of the former Skierniewice poviat was forestless and inhabited to a large extent by the Germans. In such a state of affairs, there was too much risk for the Home Army to direct Jews to these areas, although there are known cases of their temporary hiding in these areas.
Giving help to Jews was treated as a patriotic and human duty of every Pole.
The chronicle of those years also noted - rare cases of blackmail. At that time, another shelter had to be found for the persecuted. The blackmailer didn’t enjoy health for long - the AK had long arms70
Help for Jews
A sabotage action aimed at boycotting orders regarding the liquidation of Jews. Issue to Jews evidence of the Aryan identity of the legitimized person. In the newspaper "Na Postunek" people were instructed on how to protect Jews against Germans and informers. Four Jewish women were kept in Prusy estate until the end of the war 71
The commandant of the Skierniewice District ZWZ - AK / codename "Sroka" / captain Czesław Kayzer aka Cezary entrusted to Marian Pyzak, head of the Report Department of the Municipal Council of Skierniewice during the war, issuing substitute documents to "burned" soldiers of the underground and hiding Jews.
(Original spelling)
68 Documentary survey on helping Jews. Collected documents from memories and interrogation of Kierasiński pseud. Łókoś. Files in Skierniewice ZBOWiD.
69 After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, many Jews evacuated as Aryans from Warsaw were hiding in Skierniewice and the whole poviat. Thanks to the help of the Polish population, they survived the occupation.
70 p. 48-53.
71 p. 114.
