Invisible Jews: Surviving the Holocaust in Poland by Eddie Bielawski

Author:Eddie Bielawski [Bielawski, Eddie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-09-02T22:00:00+00:00

Liberated

Some of the family thought that we should go out and place ourselves at the mercy of the Red Army. However, cooler heads prevailed. This was a front. The soldiers were, of necessity, tense, scared, nervous and suspicious. They might just shoot at anything that moved, or, if we were lucky enough to be taken in by them, we might be shot later as German spies (some irony!). So, we stayed put for a while, and then went back to the farm. We waited another couple of weeks, and when we heard from Bujalski that the Russians were firmly in control of Wegrow, we decided to go back. This was late August 1944.

We decided to leave Bujalski’s in the middle of the night so that no one would see us leave. This was a safety precaution both for us and for the Bujalskis. If anyone had seen us leave, both their family and ours could have been in grave danger from the neighbours, many of whom would have had no qualms about murdering us. So, there we were, a ragged, emaciated, sick, filthy band of ten people dragging themselves to Wegrow, which was a few kilometers away. None of us could walk properly, as we were far too weak, but our willpower propelled us on. I couldn’t walk at all, so my poor parents had to take turns carrying me, although they themselves could hardly drag themselves forward.

Finally, we arrived in Wegrow the next day, totally exhausted and starving. We were finally “free” – but free to do what? We all made our way to my grandmother’s house in the centre of town, entered, and sat on the floor. The house had been looted and absolutely nothing remained, just the bare walls and the wooden floor.

Our first priority was food. We were all frightened of our Polish neighbours, so it was decided to approach the Red Army. We made our way to their headquarters, told them that we were Jews and that we were starving. They immediately took us to their kitchen and fed us with whatever they had. I remember eating some hot soup and bread. I must note to their everlasting credit that they shared whatever food they had with us, so not only did they save our lives by driving out the Nazis, but they also kept us alive for the first few days after we had returned to Wegrow.

We owed them even more than that, for we realized that they were our only protection from our murderous Polish neighbours. After a few extremely uncomfortable nights at my grandmother’s, my parents decided that they, my sister and I, would move back to our original house which had two apartments in it. We managed to appropriate the smaller of the two, which was an L-shaped apartment with one long room and a cooking area. Again, however, the place had been stripped clean and we had no furniture, no bedding and no clothing; so, before we moved, Mother decided to go and try to get some bare necessities.

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