Narrative

“Look at the Bright Side”

    "Look at the bright side of things." We have all heard this quote throughout our lives however as of March 23, 2010 it has acquired a new, deeper meaning. On that particular day, we had the pleasure and opportunity to meet a Holocaust survivor, Jadwiga Hofmokl. This woman shared the heartbreaking and inspiring story of her life before, during and after World War II. Now we will take the time to reveal her adventures, and life-changing experiences. 

    "I was a silly, stupid little girl during the war", said Jadwiga Hofmokl an only child. Along with her Jewish mother and Polish father, she lived in a well-equipped, comfortable apartment in Lodz, Poland. Even though the two sides of the family had different (Polish and Jewish) backgrounds, there were no racial conflicts and everyone got along well. Mr. Hofmokl, her father, worked as the chief accountant for a Jewish cotton factory. Since the major producers were German and Jewish, and there weren't a lot of Poles in the area, her father was able to make a sizable sum of money. Due to her dad's high position, she enjoyed a wealth and joyful childhood. The man was very trusted and admired by his co-workers and boss, who would later have a great influence on the survival of his family. On the other hand, Mrs. Hofmokl was a housewife and did her best to look after Jadwiga and the house. Being an only child provided Ms. Hofmokl with an advantage. Her parents were focused entirely on her; she was their "jewel". Therefore she received all of the love and care her mother and father could have possibly given her. 

     Unfortunately on the 1st of September, 1939 the war began and their circumstances changed. Since Ms. Hofmokl's mother was Jewish, the entire family was in danger of being deported to the ghetto, possibly to a concentration camp. The Germans invaded Lodz, along with the cotton factory her father worked in. All of the former workers were replaced, though thanks to Mr. Hofmokl's charm and honesty the new general manager (a man named Mr. Sztencel) decided to keep him. When telling us the story of her father, Jadwiga Hofmokl seemed to be very proud of her father's personality and achievements. Mr. Sztencel took a liking to Jadwiga's father, and when he heard that his new accountant's family was at risk, he decided to help them. At the time, Warsaw was the safest place to be for Jews because the restrictions against Jews were not in place yet. Therefore, Mr. Sztencel offered to transport them to the city. In the space of 3 months, all three members, one by one, were transferred to Warsaw in the general manager's personal vehicle. 

    The family settled in a new apartment, about the same size of the old one Mr. Hofmokl went back to work in another factory and Mrs. Hofmokl continued to take care of the house. Joyfully they adjusted to their new conditions, and managed to live peacefully for about two years. Until one day everything changed. Our interviewee recalled that it was morning when her father was at work, and she and her mother were at home when the SS officers burst in. "Jude," said the officers, and grabbed Ms. Hofmokl's mother. They took her away to Pawiak Prison from which she was transported to Treblinka extermination camp. Treblinka was one of the most dangerous camps, where only 10% of the inmates had a chance of survival, while the other 90% were poisoned and burned upon arrival. Thankfully, Jadwiga's mother was part of the group that sorted the dead prisoners' belongings, and managed to stay alive. As soon as Mr. Hofmokl found out about the fate of his wife, he sent Jadwiga away to live at a family friend's house and went to ask Mr. Sztencel for help. Together with the help of the German manager, Jadwiga's father collected enough money to bribe the Nazis at the camp, and buy Mrs. Hofmokl back. To escape, Jadwiga's mother was hidden in a coal car of a train, underneath all of the coal. She was guaranteed a house in Jozefow, false documents and a whole new life under the name of Jadwiga Lukasik.Unfortunately the entire family was separated all over Warsaw until the end of the war, seeing each other very rarely and not speaking. As the war was slowly coming to an end, Ms. Hofmokl was about to go through the worst experience she faced during the entire war - the Warsaw Uprising. 

When asked which moment she would describe as the most horrible experience, our interviewee replied that witnessing the horror of the killings during the Warsaw Uprising was definitely the worst moment. She described the Germans invading the entire city, looking for stragglers hiding in their homes, and murdering them brutally on the spot. Jadwiga recalls the horrors she witnessed, the fear she felt, and also the stress that everyone was under while wondering who would occupy Warsaw next. Would it be the Germans, who would put them to work and send them to labor camps or would it be the Ukrainians, who would exterminate them immediately?

         The survivors waited, curious about their fate for a few hours until the Germans finally took over Warsaw. Following this was yet another appalling incident. "The fall of the family" as Ms. Hofmokl described it, occurred right after the Uprising when her father was taken to Pruszkow camp and then to Gros-Rosen. The last letter they ever received from him was dated January 1945.  The death of her father changed everything. Ms. Hofmokl's mother was able to finally relax, and stop worrying since she really had no one else to lose but her daughter.

    In 1945 World War II had officially come to an end. Jadwiga's mother found her in Warsaw, and once they were reunited, the two moved back to their old apartment in Lodz. Treblinka and the war overall had changed her mother greatly, and she was now afraid to admit to being Jewish in the case that history were to repeat itself. Mrs. Hofmokl forced her daughter to promise that she would never tell a soul about her mother being Jewish. Even Jadwiga Hofmokl's own daughter did not find out her grandmother's real heritage until the year 1990, when the late Mrs. Hofmokl passed away. Because of her mother's lack of experience with jobs, the two went from being quite wealthy to somewhat underprivileged.  Soon something mysterious began to occur. Every two months or so, a parcel from the United States, without a return address, would arrive at their home. Most of the packages contained food and somewhat extravagant clothing. Thanks to these packages Jadwiga and her mother now had a way to make a living. Mrs. Hofmokl would sell the food in the packages, and not have to buy or make any clothes for her daughter because they were receiving enough already. They lived off of the packages, and managed to live quite well actually. Though one thing remained that bothered them both: who was sending them these parcels? Unfortunately after unsuccessfully questioning the Postal Service for details, they realized that this person wished to remain anonymous. To this day Ms. Hofmokl does not know who to thank for surviving after the war.

    The packages continued to arrive until the day Jadwiga Hofmokl married at age 19, though the final package was filled with everything a newlywed couple might need. In her life, Ms. Hofmokl got married twice, once to a musician and once to a skier. Both were Poles, members of the Armia Krajowa (AK), and unfortunately both cared more for their professions than for their new wife. She was not dependent on either of her husband's though and found friends when she joined the organization "Children of the Holocaust" in 2003, an organization of which she is now the Treasurer. Together with the other survivors of the Holocaust, they travel, go on vacations, organize meetings and so on.

   Our group certainly learned a lot from Ms. Jadwiga Hofmokl, and not only about the war but about life in general. For example, when asked if her outlook on life has changed since the war, her answer was a piece of advice to us: To Look at the bright side of things and stay positive. That is one thing that got many people through the war, optimism. The rule still applies to this day, and our guest knew that when she said so. We also got to know her view on the Nazis, which is that Nazism/ Fascism is a type of mental disorder from which the Germans suffered and were blinded. She stressed the fact that Nazis and Germans are two separate groups, even though in our times they may be considered the same thing. Ms. Hofmokl stated, "Germans were our neighbors who fell under the mental ideology [of Nazism]". Though our interviewee would definitely not generalize and put the blame on the Germans, because she believes that there are "bad" people in every nationality and “good” people like the German manager who might have saved her life. Even through everything she went through, the cruelty she witnessed, the death of her beloved father and other horrors could be blamed on the Nazis, Ms. Jadwiga Hofmokl disagrees. She sticks by her statement about there being good and bad people in every nation, and says that she would not hold the Nazis accountable. 

   Ms. Jadwiga Hofmokl graciously shared her very captivating life-story with us on Living History Day, for which we would like to thank her. We had the pleasure of interviewing this wonderful lady, who taught us some very significant things and gave us some superior advice that we will, without a doubt, keep in our hearts.