Notes from Interview about Jewish Experiences during WWII

Interviewer's Introduction

• Leah Zazuillier, Rochester, New York
• Discussion revolves around painful memories of being Jewish during WWII.

Confrontation with Authority

• An unnamed official doubted the interviewee's Jewish identity, showcasing a prejudiced mindset.
• The official was allegedly tasked with identifying and removing Jewish students from schools.
• Clarification that this was not a typical school official but a German army trooper.

Initial Displacement

• The interviewee and their family left their home due to imminent danger.
• Polish teachers and principals were complicit in the German regime, indicating wide societal complicity.

Forced Gathering of Jews

• About ten days post-occupation, all Jews were mandated to report to the market square.
• Jews stripped of personal possessions (rings, watches, eyeglasses).
• Tragic narratives of mothers, like one who had just given birth to twins, highlight human suffering during forced transitions.

March to Radomysl

• Jews marched to Radomysl in harsh weather conditions; some crossed by rickety wooden planks.
• Description of the river banks and the perilous journey underscores physical challenges and trauma.

Poland's Division

• Discussion of Poland's division: East to Russia, West to Germany, influencing Jewish safety and options.
• The speaker's father chose to stay in German-occupied areas, believing them safer than Russian territory.

Life in Mielec

• The interviewee recounts settling in Mielec, where there were still some Jewish residents, and their father worked as a tailor.
• Nightly German raids resulted in targeted executions of Jews, indicating the perilous atmosphere.

Return to Tarnovszek

• Struggles of relocating back to Tarnovszek to find a suitable living situation amidst devastation.
• The father’s reputation as a craftsman allowed for some stability through tailoring, albeit under constant threat from German soldiers.

Mass Arrests and Forced Relocation

• By mid-1942, they were corralled into a square and later moved to Baranov due to increasing German hostility and the rounding-up of Jews.
• The speaker bore witness to the cold realities of executions during this period, contributing to the profound trauma experienced.

Transportation to Dembitz

• Remaining Jews were loaded into boxcars and sent to Dembitz, demonstrating the systematic deportation of Jewish individuals.
• Dembitz became a significant junction where many were extracted to concentration camps.

Survival Against Odds

• A fateful decision saw the speaker jumping on a truck with their father during forced selections, evading separation from their father.
• The environment in captivity was harsh; the interviewee recounts the grim reality in the rabbi's sanctuary-turned-camp and subsequent death of inmates due to disease.

Conditions in Concentration Camps

• Experience in Mielec evolved to living adjacent to a concentration camp connected to aircraft manufacturing.
• Description of the ghastly conditions, diseases, and survival mechanisms they had to endure.

Life Under Oppressive Regime

• Daily labor involved working in an aircraft factory under ruthless conditions.
• Prisoners witnessed arbitrary and violent executions carried out by Nazi guards, emphasizing the vulnerability felt.

Childhood Reflections

• The speaker reflects on their experiences, filled with a blend of fear, resignation, and a kind of survival instinct amidst atrocities.
• The ravaged psychological state of surviving children, commonly overshadowed by adult perspectives on war and cruelty.