Narrative

    Imagine living you whole life thinking that you are living with your family, laughing with your family, crying with your family. Then, after living and building a strong bond with your parents, you’re told that you haven’t lived laughed and cried with your birth parents. Next you’re told that your birth parents have been killed and that the only blood relative that is left is an aunt that you don’t even know. This is just one of the many experiences that our interviewee, Zofia Kamianowska has been through. Although her life was full of tragedies her story tells us that miracles can happen.

    Zofia Kamianowska was born in May 1942, in the Warsaw Ghetto. Her dad worked in Warsaw outside the ghetto, and therefore had permission to go in and out. After living in the ghetto for 9 months Zofia Kamianowska's parents decided to try to escape and hide in another place in Warsaw. Hidden in a backpack, the parents were able to smuggle her out using her father’s ticket. The father had already prepared a basement where they could stay and together with her parents and her aunt, Ms. Kamianowska escaped.

    During the life in the basement times changed, some better than others. Money was a major problem at some points during the life in the basement. Zofia Kamianowska described being told to drink her own urine to survive at some points during the years in the basement. At other times the "Polish lady", as she describes this person assisting the family,, helped them get food. She is assured that the "Polish lady" had connections to at least one high ranked German officer because in the basement the family produced gloves for the German officers; in return, it was easier for the "Polish lady" to buy food but it still wasn’t enough to feed everyone. Because of the starvation Ms. Kamianowska cried a lot, signalling that she was hungry. To protect the others from being discovered by the Nazi’s, the "Polish lady" decided to find adoption opportunities for Ms. Kamianowska. Her parents agreed since they thought it was safer than living in the basement and after some months of planning she was given to her new Polish parents. That was in April, 1944. The Polish parents tried to keep in contact with the Jewish parents and that's why Ms. Kamianowska knows what happened after she was adopted. However, she wasn't told the truth until a later point in her life. To make sure nothing happened to Zofia and their own 5-year-old son, the Polish parents decided to move from Warsaw and to a small village 100 km from there. Zofia took the identity papers from a deceased child whose death was never reported. That way she was even safer and she could now show documents that she wasn't Jewish.

    When Zofia Kamianowska was 8 years old she was baptized. She clearly remembers the moment because she was very distressed about her dress. She had worn a beautiful dress but because nothing covered her head the minister refused to baptize her. Her mother was very clever and took the big bow on her back and covered her head with it. Even though it was a very distressing moment at that time, Ms. Kamianowska now tells it as a funny story. She was raised as a Christian and attended church as often as her Polish grandmother, which meant going every Sunday. While Ms. Kamianowska lived happily with her Polish family her only biological relative tried desperately to keep in touch with her. Her aunt had survived the war and sent her clothes and visited her. Zofia's parents never told her that the aunt was really related; they explained that it was just a nickname that they had for this particular visitor. Zofia's aunt wanted to adopt Zofia but the Polish parents refused, telling the aunt that they would only give her back if her biological parents came.

    As the years passed, deep inside her soul Ms. Kamianowska had a feeling that something was wrong. She began to search through the house and found some interesting documents. She was 16. At that time she could not figure out what the papers meant but later she was told that the papers stated her adoption. It wasn't until her graduation when she was 21 that the Polish parents finally decided to tell Zofia the truth. They told her that both of her parents had died. Her mother was taken by the SS (Schutzstaffel) while they lived in the basement and her father was killed by a bomb the day before the liberation. Even though the Germans killed her biological parents she doesn't want to take any revenge: "We shouldn’t pay them back because there is no use of it. The final outcome there would be another aggression... We should make the people be friends, maybe not friends but 'not enemies'."

    Realizing that her Polish parents were not her real parents was one of the most emotional events in Zofia Kamianowska’s life. She was curious to learn who her biological parents were since she was given to another family after only living for 9 months. Curiously enough, she went to their possible graves, but she was out of luck and wasn’t able to find the gravesites. Zofia and her aunt were the only survivors in her family. After Zofia moved back into her own home and started to live on her own, she encountered a situation that made her realize that marrying wasn't an option. At age 21, she had a boyfriend and she decided to tell him that she was Jewish. Her boyfriend was shocked that he was in a relationship with a Jew, so he told her, "If we ever get married, I don't want anyone in my family to know that you are Jewish." This changed her love life forever and she never married.

    Throughout the times of terror, fighting and random death, there were miracles. Some people who didn’t have a slightest chance to survive the madness survived it. While we were talking to Ms. Zofia Kamianowska we realized that we are sitting in front of a person who is living proof to such marvel. She lived through starvation, hopelessness of trying to survive and even living with another family while not knowing her biological parents until she was 21. Although she had been through such tragedies she survived because of people's good will and their gift of understanding.