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Holocaust Stories
Stories that you must read.
Nina Morecki
It was September 1939, and was the Jewish High Holiday season. The place was the city Lvov in Poland. Nina was eighteen years old. Her parents had a family business. She had just graduated from high school and planned to go to medical school. But she painfully learned that in Poland, Jews were refused entrance to universities. One Friday, her father was at the factory, and her mother had gone out shopping with the house caretaker. Suddenly, there was a massive explosion. Bombs started falling and exploding around her. She was extremely scared and anxious. For three weeks the bombing continued. Finally Poland was defeated and divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. The part of Poland where Nina lived went to the Russians. They lived under Russian rule for the next one and a half years. In July 1941, the bombings started again. She found out that the peace pact between Germans and the Russians had been broken.
The Russian army panicked and ran away. The Poles who believed that the Germans would treat them better than the Soviets welcomed the Germans. But the Jews were frightened of their future. The Germans put posters on buildings with the statement – ‘He who helps a Jew is worse than a Jew and will be killed on the spot’. Some Polish people collaborated with the Germans in identifying Jews and their businesses and homes. The Gestapo ordered all Jews to give up their valuables. Nina did the same but regretted it later. Jews were punished and even killed for the smallest of reasons. Jews were supposed to wear an armband, which was six inches wide with an embroidered blue star of David. Those who failed to do so were put to death. Nina would sometimes wear the armband and sometimes not. She was terrified and saw many horrible scenes.
The Germans would let loose large, hungry dogs on Jewish children. The Germans created a ‘Judenrat’, which was a Jewish city council, set up to put all Jews to work doing the most horrible tasks. Jewish policemen were told to collect a number of Jews for ‘work crew’. But when it was realized these poor people would be killed, the Jewish police refused to continue. One fateful day, the Jews of the city were assembled to watch 12 of these policemen hanged in front of their eyes as a lesson. The Jews refused to cooperate at the risk of their lives. Afterwards, the Jews were all moved into a ghetto.
Nina’s mother was murdered at the age of 52. After this incident, she was completely unable to function. In 1942, the Jews were relocated to a poverty-stricken area. The living conditions were unfit for human beings. They were packed into empty shacks without enough food and water or sanitation. Nina was forced to do hard labor, moving heavy bricks and supplies. She was unable to sleep because of pain and hunger. She longed for food and a bath that was denied to her. She was sent to Janowska concentration camp. She witnessed many Jews being tortured and killed. She managed to escape from the camp.
She wandered through the forest drinking from the streams and eating leaves. Finally, she encountered members of the Polish Underground. She was given forged documents, and her new name was Maria Kvasi Goch and her papers stated that she was a Catholic Pole. She worked for the resistance movement. One day, she was arrested and bought in for interrogation by the Nazis. The interrogation went on for over a week. The supervisor whom she was working for her obtained her release by saying that he needed her for his work. When she was near the Romanian border, she fled from her supervisor.
She reached Romania by train. There the Russians detained her disbelieving her claim of being Jewish. She met a Polish man named Josef there and fell in love with him. He was sent to the front at Berlin as a Russian soldier. She traveled to Lvov and found it in ruins. All the Jews there had been killed. The war was over after which she met Josef again and married him.
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