Narrative of Alicja Sznep

                       The Miracle That Saved Many Lives

    Most young children started their lives by going to school, having an everyday life. However, Alicja Sznep is a survivor of the Holocaust and a hero since she was nine years old. Her story is a true miracle, one that has not only saved her but many others. She is familiar with the feeling; feeling that in any moment a Nazi can just shatter your door and come in to kill you. People who survived, survived for a reason. Alicja Sznep, together with her family, saved seven people. She will never live the way she has lived before the war. The trauma and the heartbreak will stay with her forever.   

      When World War II began, on September 1, 1939, Alicja Sznep was nine years of age and lived in Warsaw, Poland. She had a sister named Barbara Sznep who was two years her junior and lived with both her parents. While still young, she had to suffer through a terrible loss. To her, her father he was heroic; he was defending Warsaw, defending the country that he loved. However, the Nazis killed him on the 27th day of the war. As Ms. Sznep, describing her fathers death, she became quiet; her eyes shifted and she had a melancholic gaze in her eyes. After her father’s murder, the family of three moved to another district of Warsaw, called Praga.

    At the time of WWII the conditions in Praga were atrocious. There was no food, schools had to be turned into hospitals and Jews were driven crazy because they were all being killed. The Jews who Alicja Sznep knew were so scared of the Nazis that they had to give up their culture. Many of these Jews had changed their last names to appear Polish and some even were baptized to become Christians, everything to stay out of the hands of Nazis. However none of these sacrifices worked. The Germans could tell the Jews apart from just looking at them because of their skin and dark hair.

     “At that time, men would do everything for the family. My father was the head of the family,” Ms. Sznep said after describing the death of her father. After the death of our hero’s father, Natalia, her mother had immense troubles finding employment. However, the family could not starve. Therefore, during the nights, Natalia would cross the river Bug, located in Poland to get food. With her she brought sheets, porcelain, and other household items to trade for food. This trading was not very lengthy because soon the Germans discovered what Natalia was doing, took all her belongings and beat her. The Germans continuously hit her until she had an enormous bruise on her cheek. Food supplies diminished and the family began to starve. Natalia had no choice. She had to keep her family alive even if it meant taking vast risks. The only way to get that money was to house Jews for a small charge.

      At the same time, Alicja went to school on Miodowa 14 street. It was supposedly a ‘sewing school’. However, the students learned geography, Polish, history and other school subjects. None of them learned to sew. It was a disguise so the Germans would not know that people were being educated unlawfully. However, those secret schools only went up until the end of middle school. Students couldn’t get higher education than that due to the lack of teachers and the safety struggles.

      Other than having food to eat, Alicja and Barbara also had to attend school. One day, Natalia, went to work and left Alicja home with her little sister. Suddenly Alicja heard banging on the door. She opened it and a woman with a small child was standing in the doorway. They were both Jewish and they were asking to hide in Alicja’s house. Alicja was a very generous child and let them stay. A couple weeks after that, the Sznep family got an unspecified note telling them to stop hiding Jews. The family was worried and decided to transfer their visitors to Alicja Sznep’s grandmother. They were to go there for a couple months; however transporting them was not trouble-free. The small family had dark hair, slightly darker skin and dark eyes. These characteristics only made them look like more Jews. Natalia gave them her old handkerchiefs to cover their faces, and then put them on the train. Alicja got her first award for helping Jews soon after that occurrenc

         Helping all those Jewish people was not easy and it could have gotten the whole family killed. The next story that Ms. Sznep told us was the story of her wonder about miracles. This story saved her and later on saved other people. Alicja woke up one the morning not feeling very healthy and decided not to go to school. She was lying in bed, alone at home, when she heard extremely loud knocking and people screaming. At that moment, she knew: the Germans, the Nazis, the end. “It was really terrible. I thought I was going to die.” Soldiers entered the building in order to take away all the men and Jews. With every fleeting moment, they were getting closer and closer to her part of the building. Alicja took her sister, hid her underneath the bed and then quickly took the two visitors and hid them in a closet. Suddenly someone began kicking on her door. She did not move. Alicja was clinging on the doorframe, her heart beating more rapidly by the second. Suddenly she overheard the landowner telling the Nazi soldier that there was no one in that house, that everyone has departed. The next event was a miracle, a true miracle. The Nazi soldier believed the landowner. He went away. The Germans vanished. Alicja Sznep had been saved. 

    A couple weeks after the incident with the Nazi soldiers, Natalia heard knocking on the door after curfew. While gradually opening the door, she saw a man very well known to her family. Alicja’s mom was very pleased that he had not been taken away. However, she knew the risks of taking him in. For the rest of the war he hid under their bed and only went out at hours of darkness to continue his life with the friends he had left. In conclusion, he has survived.

    In the end, Alicja Sznep with her family saved seven people. These seven people were Nina Zajdel, Anna Albert, Maria Albert, Krystyna Albert, Waclaw Nowickci, Ewa Nowiccka and Stasia Nowickca. Alicja Sznep, Barbara Sznep, and Natalia Sznep risked their lives by hiding those Jews. As well, Alicja still owns the closet in which she hid the woman and she is prepared to donate the closet to a museum of the Holocaust survivors.  It was a great risk and, luckily, it did not turn out as a tragedy for all of them. That the soldiers went away from the family’s house was a real miracle. We are very grateful for that miracle; Alicja Sznep is now the only member of this family left alive who can share her experiences with others.