Zolia Kubar
WITH A FLOWER IN HER HAIR
I spent two and a half years of my life in the Warsaw
ghetto. I survived the deportation in 1942 . On January 18, 1943, in
the second roundup, I was ordered downstairs along with my friends
and neighbors, pushed into a long column of people already stand–
ing in the street, and marched in the direction of the
Umschlagplatz,
the railroad siding where the cattle cars were waiting. ' We were
allowed to take a small package of food and a few possessions.
In the same row with me were my friends Marcel Reich and his
wife Tosia; Rachel Singer, my young roomate; and GustavaJarecka
with her two small sons, Karol and Marek.
Gustava, before the war one of the most brilliant young novel–
ists in Poland, had been working as a switchboard operator for the
Judenrat,
a position she owed to Adam Czerniakow, who tried to save
some intellectuals by giving them jobs.
2
During the first "action,"
verification of employment had sometimes helped people to escape
deportation. But now, in the second "action," no job, however essen–
tial for war production the Germans had considered it, spared any–
one.
Our column proceeded in silence. We believed we were headed
for death, although we did not know when we would find it, or how.
Then Marcel took over.
"We should run if we spot the chance," he said.
Gustava refused, despairing, sure she couldn't make it with the
children. She stayed in line when the rest of us made our move. We
Editor's Note : This memoir is excerpted from a manuscript describing the author's
experiences during World War II.
,
1.
The first "resettlement action"-a euphemism for transporting Jews to the gas
chambers-took place from July 22 to September 21 , 1942; about 300,000 Jews
were deported from Warsaw to the Treblinka death camp. In the second action,
from January 18 to January 23, 1943, about 6,000 Jews were deported.
2. The
Judenrat
Oewish Council) appointed by the German occupation authorities
was responsible for enforcing Nazi orders affecting the Jews and for administering
the affairs of the Jewish community. Czerniakow was chairman of the Warsaw
Judenrat.
He committed suicide on July 23, 1942, protesting the extermination of the
Jews.
