Narrative
Frail body, fond heart
Olivia Pastor, Mafalda Matias, Max Gillner and Kirin Kwan
On Tuesday March 23rd, our group had the pleasure of meeting Pani Zofia Żukowska. Her incredible story began in Warsaw, Poland. She was part of a large, Jewish family that was put in jeopardy during the Second World War. Thrown into the Ghetto, and later trapped in a concentration camp, Pani Zukowska had a devastating childhood but with the wits and strength of her loving mother, she managed to survive. Overall we learned a powerful message of staying determined in times of major conflict, and to hold onto to what you love until the end, no matter the cost. Pani Zofia Żukowska was extremely proud of her mother and quoted, “You can be a big person even if you are 1.57 meters tall.”
Zofia Żukowska was at the bright age of four when marching bands, soldiers, tanks, and fighter planes flooded Poland. This was the start of the Second World War breaking out in Warsaw. The Germans were taking over. Before the war Zofia lived in a large family with, almost one hundred of her relatives living around Poland. Although her family members weren't Orthodox Jews, they still celebrated Jewish holidays and traditions with her grandfather being the most religious. Zofia Zukowska resided in a majestic house, with plentiful food and many luxuries. Her father worked as a plane engineer and her mother as a nurse. When the war slithered into Warsaw, Zofia’s father was sent to fight for Poland but unfortunately he was captured and tortured in a German prisoner of war camp and never returned.
With the German occupation of Poland, Zofia’s mother was required to think up an ingenious way of concealing the Jewish roots of both herself and her daughter. Even though the young mother and daughter did not look typically Jewish they were still known Jews. To solve the issue, Zofia’s mother settled on creating false identification papers intended to mis-inform German soldiers that Zofia Zukowska and her mother were both Polish, and not Jewish. In addition, Zofia's Identification belonged to real people, usually residing in Soviet Russia and therefore the Germans were not able to check whether or not the ID’s were authentic. Amazingly, Pani Zukowska used a total of 11 different names over the course of the Second World War, and both the mother’s and daughter’s hard work was not in vain. Pani Zukowska's mother always tried her best to keep Zofia's first name when they changed IDs and assisted Zofia in memorizing her new name. As Pani Zukowska recounted, with a lively burst of laughter, every morning she was required to repeat her name twenty times so that if she was questioned by a German officer, she was prepared. " My name is Zofia [Kowalski]. My name is Zofia [Kowalski]."
Even after creating a false identity to fool the Germans, there were still other threats Pani Zukowska's family had to avoid. Szmalcowniks were people who would blackmail Jews and sell them for money or rare treasures at the time such as sugar and flour. Szmal comes from old Warsaw slang meaning money. Intimidated and frightened by these Polish criminals, the Zukowska family believed that leaving Warsaw would be the best decision. The Zukowska family took off to Lublin, the city of Zofia Zukowska's great, great, grandfather, where no one knew where they were from or their religious background. Unfortunately, Pani Zukowska recalled that a couple of weeks after they ran away to Lublin, Germans were gathering Jews into what she quoted was an “…introduction to hell.” This was the Lublin Ghetto.
As Nazi officers and troops began the liquidation of the Ghetto they felt no mercy for any families, children or elders. Pani Zofia’s family predicted that the Germans' plan was to try to exterminate all Jews, therefore they sought out a secret hiding place in the cellar. The family managed to avoid the first wave of the liquidation. However the Nazis anticipated that people would be hiding and began burning down every building. When the Zukowska family smelled the deadly smoke, they had no choice but to leave their hiding place. As a result, Zofia Zukowska and her mother were deported to a concentration camp and sadly separated from her uncle and brothers with whom she was hiding.
Despite the countless times Zofia’s mother aided her in avoiding death’s grip, there was an instance were the opposite occurred. Every Monday morning in the concentration camp, Pani Zukowska bid farewell to her mother, who went to work with other women to build one of the vilest concentration camps in Poland. Her mother was gone all week and only had Sunday rest from her labour, and a reward from the constant threat of death. One Monday, as the two were saying their usual goodbye, Zofia had an unexpected panic attack. She was foaming at the mouth, and shaking from both fear and hysteria. Instead of attending work, her mother decided to care of her child. This was a large risk indeed but, in her opinion, it was necessary. Thankfully, the German officers did not properly count the workers that day and therefore Zofia’s mother was able to miss work unnoticed. Mrs. Zukowska and her mother later learned that none of the workers sent off that day returned. It was discovered that they were killed in one of the first test gas chambers and cruelly, the workers died a slow death when the doors were closed behind them in the truck.
Zofia and her mother knew that the concentration camp had one simple aim, to aid the Nazi forces in committing genocide against all Jews. They knew that they had to put an end to the torture and wait for the perfect time to escape. Luckily, during a major German holiday which also happened to be a gloomy and thunderous night, Zofia and her Mother were able to stealthily escape the concentration camp. The German guards foolishly supplied their Ukrainian guards with drinks, unaware that they were irresponsible with alcoholic beverages. Zofia's mother had thoughtfully observed the cycles of the watch-lights, and with the guards intoxicated, they made their escape with haste. The two were able to pry open a small hole in the electric fence, and Zofia was propelled through to freedom."I was a very skinny and small child." Zofia Zukowska remembered. During her time in the concentration camp, Zofia's mother managed to acquire a large black robe, which they used to conceal themselves under the night sky as they made their escape. Creeping through the fields on all fours, there came a moment when young Zofia wanted to give up. "I don't care, let them kill me. I can't do this anymore." Pani Zukowska recalls that the mud was absolutely everywhere even up her nose. But her mother ignored her pleas and yanked her daughter by the hair to keep her moving. After a long trudge they came across a lone house. Taking note of the bravery the people who resided in that house demonstrated by leaving their lights on at night, Zofia and her mother made the decision to approach the residence. The family showed great kindness offering them food and shelter, and after they had regained their strength for the long journey ahead, Zofia and her mother began their return to Warsaw.
With no money to buy a train ticket back north, Zofia Zukowska and her mother would pace around the train tracks, praying for a train that would enter the station slow enough for them to jump on. When such occasions presented themselves, the two hid in the train connecters and whenever the train was approaching a station they hid in the bathroom until it was back on its way. When the train stopped in Warsaw it was already past police hours so both Pani Zukowska and her mother immediately ran and hid in the staircase of the nearest apartment. They slept in a different apartment entrance every night so no one would discover that they were hiding there. Zofia and her mother managed to hide in various apartments for a couple of weeks until they couldn't take it anymore. It was a very difficult lifestyle and Pani Zofia's mother saw no other option than to move into the Warsaw Ghetto.
Dead bodies filled the Warsaw ghetto streets, the conditions were awful and starvation was an epidemic amongst the people. Pani Zukowska's mother soon realized that moving into the Ghetto gave them an even slimmer chance of survival and that once again they had to escape. Using the “lucky robe” to cover them on another rainy day, Zofia Zukowska's mother tied Pani Zofia to her body. The Germans recruited healthy people to do jobs outside the Ghetto. Luck was on their side and Pani Zukowska's mother was chosen to leave the Ghetto gates that day. Somehow they managed to escape and when they were sure they were safe, Pani Zofia’s mother told her daughter to run as fast as she could away from the Ghetto. Her mother promised she’d find her soon. Pani Zukowska remembered the long, seemingly never-ending days without her mother's love, a time that seemed like a century to her. When they were finally reunited, Zofia Zukowska’s mother had received a sum of money from a man in the Ghetto whose entire family had passed on. With this money they rented a small apartment and bought the necessary fake IDs.
After spending several weeks in their newly rented house, Mrs. Żukowska sent Zofia to a monastery. Zofia was given food, shelter and received a decent education there. During her stay at this monastery, Zofia was baptized a Catholic. Meanwhile Zofia’s mother joined the Armia Krajowa also known as the A.K Polish home army to fight for the Polish resistance against the Germans. Despite their separation, Zofia was eventually once again reunited with her mother. Zofia made an attempt to follow Catholicism, although she later became agnostic after settling on the conclusion that God could not possibly exist seeing as a god of any sort would not allow such horror and misery to be brought upon our wonderful world.
Although this is truly a depressing and sorrowful story, it is also a brilliant story of life, change, and great love. Despite the dark deeds carried out by the Nazis, Zofia and her mother were still able to survive the Holocaust, with their love never breaking, and their hearts staying strong. Zofia’s mother, also an amazing woman, provided constant protection for her beloved daughter and in her loving hands, no harm came to little Zofia. Being a small lady of one and a half meters, she proved that she was still capable of many wonderful things, and proved herself in times of need. Both Zofia and her Mother are staggering individuals, and more than worthy of the memorial that Zofia hopes to build for her dear mother so that she may rest in peace, basking in her great deeds. Zofia had a bewildering tale, which left her interviewers in complete awe of the magic that floated into our ears.