My Silent Pledge by Sidney J Zoltak

Author:Sidney J Zoltak [Poltak, Sidney J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781550718089
Publisher: Guernica Editions Inc
Published: 2014-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

Poland 1997

After leaving the Jewish cemetery, our driver takes us through what, for a few months in 1942, had been the barbed-wired Jewish Ghetto of Siemiatycze. I remember how we were herded into those little rundown houses that looked more like huts. Some of them still appear the same. It gives me a chill.

We walk towards the centre of town to find the house once owned by my paternal grandparents and, later, by my parents. We come to some storefronts on a street now called ‘Plac Jana Pawla II’. I know one of these had once been our home. I immediately recognize the house from a photo in which my mother, then pregnant with me, was standing with two other people on the balcony. There had been a sign advertising: S. Zoltak, Krawiec Meski I Damski.1

The design of the wrought-iron grill on the balcony in the photo is identical to the balcony I am looking at now. As I stand there on the sidewalk that I remember so well, I am overcome with grief. Although the façade of the storefront has changed, and the doors and the windows are fairly new, I am struck by the realization that this was the house in which I was born. It brings into sharp relief how much has been lost since my childhood.

I ask our Polish guide, Chris, to secure permission to visit the house where I was born. I so want to see the inside. Will I recognize anything? I also want to show my old home to Ann and Larry, to everyone in our family group. Chris, however, is unsuccessful in getting us in. The people occupying our former home give him all kinds of excuses, all of which translate into a denial of our request.

Deeply disappointed, I take Larry to see where I used to play with my friends in the back lane. As we walk behind the row of the two storey buildings, I am struck by the sight of the shacks that once had served as outhouses and storage depots. Some things had not changed.

Afterwards, we all take a short walk to the City Hall situated in the same square. We want to see if there is any record of ownership of the houses that we were looking for or any birth records of the people who once were part of the Jewish community. The city clerk informs us that all records relating to the Jewish inhabitants had been destroyed after the liquidation of the Ghetto. We were expunged, as if we had never been there and are left with no place to call home.

After leaving the City Hall, we are directed to two buildings; one had been a Jewish school, the other, the main synagogue. The school is now the city library and our synagogue, a cultural center, the women’s section of which has been converted to an art gallery.

There is an exhibition of paintings showing Jews under the watchful eyes of German guards, removing the rubble of destroyed buildings and part of a statue of Lenin.

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