Out of the Shoebox by Yaron Reshef

Author:Yaron Reshef [Reshef, Yaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography, (v5), Jewish
Amazon: B00ONT6N0A
Published: 2014-10-18T05:00:00+00:00

The Family, Part III

My Aunt Zelda Finkelman-Liebling's bunker diary

My Aunt Zelda's diary was written after she and her husband Joel escaped from the labor camp where they were prisoners. They left their families behind, all of whom were led to their deaths in Belzec. Half of her diary was lost during their liberation, but the other half Zelda brought with her to the US.

Zelda herself translated the diary from Polish to English, and in the interest of authenticity I am refraining from amending it beyond the bare minimum. Later, she would read from it and tell her story to school and university students.

The diary is not only a firsthand account of Zelda's personal tragedy, but also a window into daily life in the bunker, with its emotions, anger and hopes.

January 17, 1944

Finally I got a note-book. After 200 days in the bunker (place of hiding). Who can understand what it means, “BUNKER”; only the one who sits in it knows what it is.

Ever so often, I wonder how should one feel about the person who created a “bunker”. Should we bless him or curse him – the future will show. Meanwhile we are sitting and waiting impatiently. Day by day – counting hours – at this moment 4936 hours from the moment we entered here. It was 9:30 pm June 25, 1943 when Lolo and I left the Labor Camp (Lager). It happened suddenly, almost without our doing anything about it. Upon receiving a letter from Hudla – “save your life and I am going to take care of the baby (Lijuchnia)” we ran away from the Lager. The situation was very uncertain for Lolo, because they started taking away dentists, and so we ran like two children without any possessions, like to a ball. It was time to go away (run) but maybe we should have stayed a little longer to find out about my family. At the beginning of being in here I didn’t feel or rather didn’t understand the mistake we made. Today I feel more and more how foolishly we acted. We went to hide in a bunker – burning bridges behind us. We are still children, or rather completely stupid. Lolo is trying to appease me, who could presume that there’ll be a bunker by Rozka and Palanya. I am to blame, because every time Lolo tried to talk to me about hiding I changed the subject. Probably, I thought that the Labor camps would protect us from all evil. What an idiot I was – now it’s too late for reproaches, now that Zanka isn’t here anymore – there, I wrote the words again – after 7 months I still can’t believe it. I live through that moment the hundredth time and see it vividly – the morning of the “liquidation”– “aktion”. God, if we ever live to see the “Jeshiya” (freedom) will it be possible to stop thinking about this? I don’t think so! That macabre scene is still in front of my eyes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.