Narrative

            Everyone has experienced hardships and losses in their lives but almost nothing will compare to what the Jews had to go through during the Holocaust. Henryk Pijanowski was one of the millions of Jews who had to experience these horrifying times of war and genocide. When he was just a little boy, the Nazis rounded all the Jews in his community and forced them into a ghetto in Warsaw. They lived their lives trapped behind a brick wall with barbed wire, making them feel more like locked up dogs than people. What Henryk Pijanowski lived though as a six year old was horrifying and it’s something that we will never have to experience and to imagine it is something we should not dwell on.

             When the interview began, Henryk Pijanowski had an expression of remembrance on his face, almost as if the terrible memories of past ghosts were floating in his head. He started out by looking at all the people in the group and saying with glossy eyes, “Nigdy nie lubiem mowic o swoim dziencinstwie.” (I never liked to talk about my childhood) Henryk Pjianowski stated that he did not like to talk about the past and his childhood. Even today, it was clear that the pain and horror still haunted him. It seemed impossible for him to runaway from the past. As we patiently waited, he slowly started telling us his horrifying story.

             Henryk’s memory of his life before the ghetto is very vague; he does not even remember his birthday. However, he remembers that he had a loving family. From what he knows about his life, he estimates that he was about six years old when the war first erupted and his family was forced in the ghetto. Henryk’s mother worked outside of the ghetto as a seamstress for the Nazis. Since she was useful to the war effort, she was able to keep her family safe for a longer period of time than other Jewish families. As time went by, Henryk explained, there was news that the ghetto would soon be liquidated, or emptied, of all Jews.

             At this point in the interview, Henryk paused and looked out the window. He recalled his mother pulling his arm forcefully.  He felt like it was going to rip off. He did not realize at the time, but his mother was smuggling him out of the ghetto. His mother was telling him to walk quickly because she knew that they could have been stopped and shot by the Nazis at anytime. On the other side of the wall, a Polish family agreed to keep Henryk in hiding while the war continued. That was the last time that he saw his mother. 

            His life only became more complicated when he was taken in by the Aleksandrowicz family. From the time of his arrival, he was treated like an outsider with no respect or dignity. If it was not for Henryk’s mother paying for his safety, the family would have probably thrown him into the streets. They had no interest in keeping Jews in hiding, they were disgusted by Jews and didn’t really care about their lives. When the news broke out that Warsaw was going to be bombed again, the Aleksandrowicz family did not know what to do with Henryk. As a six year old, he did not have a say in what was going to happen to him. The family decided to lock him in their cellar with hardly any food. Fighting back or escaping was not an option.

Minutes, hours, and days passed; Henryk tried to ration his food but was soon on the verge of starvation. Then, a miracle occurred. While he was in hiding, he heard sounds of footsteps. Henrky heard a man running from the Nazis, who then slid under the gap between the floor and the double wooden doors of the cellar. The man dropped down by Henryk, caught his breath and waited quietly while the sounds of the Nazis became more distant. This gave Henryk an idea of how to escape. Barely able to stand on his feet, Henryk crawled his way under the door and dragged himself outside. What he saw was beyond imagination - all the buildings were destroyed and there were hundreds of empty houses. 

            When young Henryk managed to escape from the cellar, he could not walk or touch anything because of how numb he was from hiding for so long. Not to mention, the cellar was extremely damp so his muscles were extremely stiff. Upon entering a building, he was attacked by a swarm of bees or wasps. He rolled around in what he thought to be grass to try and get the bees off him, but actually turned out to be stinging nettles. Later he found out that although the pain was excruciating, it cured him and allowed him to walk again.

After telling this part of his story in the interview, he revealed: "I started to believe in miracles." He said this multiple times because he has escaped death more than once. He continued with his story telling us that shortly after the he escaped the cellar, he was walking on Pulawska Street completely alone when suddenly, two civilians approached him. Thinking fast, Henryk told the two gentlemen that he lived in the neighbourhood. The men took him outside of Warsaw to a city called Rembertow. To Henryk’s surprise, he was bathed and fed. Even though Henryk wanted to stay with these men, he had to return to Warsaw because there were SS men who lived close by.

            The two civilians who helped Henryk advised him to go to the Red Cross. At the Red Cross, a woman told him to hide under a table until he was called on. She ordered him to stay quiet and still until she was able to help him. Fortunately after this, Henryk was sent to an orphanage in Koscielisko near Zakopane. There he reunited with the woman from the Red Cross. Her name was Pijanowska. He was adopted by her and he took her last name - Henryk Pijanowski. 

             Later in life, Henryk Pijanowski faced a lot of anti-Semitism. Constantly living with the fear that history might repeat itself, he tried his best to look as non-Jewish as possible. Although he was not proud of living in denial, he thought this would keep himself mentally, emotionally and physically safe. For example, he straightened his curly hair to look less Jewish. He told us jokingly in the interview that "I don't like my curls". Another instance included a time when he was at school and he chipped his two front teeth. Instead of being upset, he was relieved because he recalled being insulted by people claiming that his teeth were too large which made him look Jewish.

            Despite his tough past, Henryk has been a content and healthy man in recent years. At first, Henryk was reluctant to talk about his past but overtime he opened up and became more friendly. Henryk’s story gave a face and a voice to what happened in the past-something that is hard for textbooks to accomplish. It is a first hand account that can never be forgotten. Henryk’s story is only one of the many million of Jews persecuted during WWII. Bearing witness to his story is important to make sure it never happens again.