Narrative

More than Just Clothes in a Closet

Alicja Sznep was always proud of her father, but when World War II broke out and despite his nearsightedness he joined the Polish army, she swelled with even more pride for this brave man. He died fighting for Poland two days before Poland’s surrender in 1939 and the beginning of German occupation. After her father’s death the rest of her family began having problems, particularly a lack of food, because Alicja’s father provided most of the food. His death also had a great emotional impact on Alicja who was only nine at the time. She began to value life more. Appreciating life was further instilled in this young girl’s life when her mother demonstrated profound courage at great personal risk to protect the lives of strangers. Alicja’s story is one of sacrifice and bravery.

Following the death of Alicja’s father, her mother was finally able to get a job as a cook in an office building. This employment enabled her to bring home the extra food. This also made it possible for her to execute a dangerous plan to hide and feed Jews.  For the remainder of World War II, Alicja’s mother hid Jews in her closets and even under a bed. Besides defying the Nazi by concealing Jewish people,  she was also doing other things for which she could have been severely punished. She was even more at risk because towards the end of the war when Nazi tanks were placed across from her apartment; if they suspected anything they could simply shell the building without warning.

Throughout WWII, Alicja and her mother saved quite a number of Jews. Her mother, Natalie Sznep,  welcomed most Jews into her home. However, they were only allowed in if they had the proper documentation, because her mother would be in less danger trouble if Jews with documentation were found in the family home. For a while these were the only Jews that Alicja Sznep’s family helped. However, even this decision changed, in spite of the grave danger to the Sznep family.

One day in 1943 while Alicja’s mother was out, her mother’s friend brought two Jews who did not have any documentation. The friend had brought them because she lived in the center of Praga, the district where Alicja Sznep lived, and the friend had a feeling that there would be a raid on her house where the two Jews were currently hiding and the Germans would discover them. Alicja Sznep made the right decision and took them in. Their names were Anna and Nina Albert who was only nine years old. This decision then provoked her to protect a few other Jews. She helped Krystyna and Maria Albert, teenagers who worked on the streets but had no place to stay, and a former officer of the Polish army, Felix Winiarchick, whose wife had been sent to Birkenau. She also saved the Nowiski family comprising of Wroclaw Nowiski, his wife, and his cousin.

Not only did Alicja and her mother risk their well-being by helping Jews but also by doing many other illegal activities. Alicja went to a secret all girls middle school at a time when Polish schools were forbidden, her mother read foreign newspapers, and her mother had to steal food to feed the people they were saving as well as themselves. To get to the school, Alicja had to walk to the train station and then ride a train to the school  because her apartment was on the outskirts of Praga. The trip was the same there and back. One instance in which Alicja and her family were in grave danger was when Alicja Sznep fell ill and decided to stay home for a few hours and skip physical education class. During this time she and her mother were housing the Alberts and Alicja’s younger sister was in the room with Alicja. Alarm was raised when they saw Nazi soldiers carrying machine guns suddenly jumping from a truck and breaking down the back door of her apartment building to scour every room in every apartment to take away all the men. The soldiers finally reached the Sznep apartment and they began to break down the door. The Alberts hid in their closet, her younger sister hid behind a couch, and she simply stood there. Luckily, before the door was broken, the owner of the building explained that no one was currently in the apartment and that the tenant was a widower. The soldiers believed the owner and left. The event was only made more dangerous by the fact that Alicja Sznep’s mother had brought home a foreign newspaper; if found,  the Nazis would have shot everyone in the apartment. Another dangerous situation was inadvertently caused because young boys would jump onto Nazi supply trains and take things away.  One day they stayed on too long and were taken to a checkpoint, which was near the Sznep’s apartment. The boys were most likely shot before a large crowd which did not dissipate for two hours. This gathering prompted Alicja to worry about her family in case the Germans became suspicious and decided to conduct another raid. She was also nearly reported by her neighbors multiple times. The first time was when she was coming home late and her neighbor, Ms. Kosewska, asked where she had been and that she had heard footsteps in her apartment when no one should have been in there. Alicja Sznep talked herself out of that situation and went inside and told her mother what had happened. Her mother then told the two Jews to hide in a closet and brought in the neighbor so as to show her there was no one but them and she could put her suspicions to rest. Their plan worked but they had to repeat the procedure many times.

Finding a safe place in which to hide the Jews was a constant concern. The Szneps usually hid the first two Jews in a closet and this system worked. However, feeding the various Jewish people they were helping presented with the same problem over and over again. To combat this problem Alicja Sznep’s mother found a job as a cook in an office building. The most common meal was soup and since she had access to large quantities of food she would take this home . Eventually as the number of Jews hiding in their apartment increased, her mother had to bring home more soup. She eventually brought the soup home in a bucket and brought potatoes as well. This was usually more than enough for everyone. They then recycled the scraps to make other meals . During the interview Ms. Sznep explained, “Moja mamusia przy pomocy znajomych zaczeła pracować w pewnym biurze na ulicy Targowej. Gdzie pracowała w kuchni. Gdzie gotowano obiady ale to nie były obiady pełne jak to dzisiaj się mówi gdzie jest zupa, drugie danie, jakis kompot, deser. Było to po prostu jednogarnkowe danie, dobra zupa z jakąś wkładką mięsną która była tam przygotowywana dla urzędników izby przemusłowej takie to było przedsiębiorstwo.

     ‘Do tej pory mamusia przynosiła po prostu dla nas dla domu, słoik taki większy tej gęstej zupy. Ale kiedy przyszły jeszcze te osoby, trzeba było cos robic  więcej. Co nie było normalnie możliwe bo kazdy by tak chciał z tych pracowników żeby dla siebie cos jeszcze uszczknąć bo wszyscy odczuwali raczej niedosyt a nawet głód. Dzis to nawet śmieszne ale mamusia moja wykombinowała taką puszkę blaszaną po jakiejś marmoladzie która miała równiez ucho i taka przykrywkę szczelną. To była trzy czy cztero litrowa, i juz tej zupy nabierała więcej. Ale procz tego jeszcze myła i obireała  kartofle obirła bardzo grubo i te obierki tak zwane w paczki pakowała i zabierała do domu. My w domu myliśmy to jeszcze raz i drugi potem sie to mieliło przez maszynkę i z mąką tylko niestety razową a nie pszenną, niestety bez tłuszczu jak to normalnie smazy się placki że one są smaczne, ale na blasze takiej która była, rozpalało sie ogień i na tym  bez tłuszczu wstrętne plackie sie smażyło.”

     “My mommy, with help of her friends, found a job in a office on Targowa Street. She was working there in kitchen. She was making dinners, but those dinners weren't like those full dinners like we have today where there is soup, main dish, dessert and some juice. Those dinners were just one dish, good soup with a lot of meat which was made for the administration of the building.

     ‘At these time she was bringing a big jar of this soup. But when those Jews came to our house we had to do something more. And this was impossible because every of those who worked in that kitchen wanted to take some food home for their children because everybody was hungry in those days and food was very hard to find. Today it might seem funny but my mommy found a big metal jar with a handle and a tight cup. This jar after some kind of a jam, you could put something about four liters of soup in it. But after she started to peel the potatoes and she was doing that very fat so the peelings she was putting in pancakes and took home. At home we were cleaning those peeling and making potato pancakes with flour and salt. we didn't have any kind of frying pan so we had to use a metal plate which we had to put above a fireplace and that was how we were doing those disgusting pancakes.”

     After carrying on in this manner for a while this state of uneasy peace was broken when the Nazis ordered all men to report to the main square. Faced with the decision, Mr. Nowiski and Mr. Wyniarchyk decided to go to the square. Once all the men were there they were formed into ranks of four and they marched away. Alicja’s mother decided to visit them the next day. They were supposed to be in a barracks in Groclaw, another district of Warsaw, but they were not there. They were actually forced to dig trenches to slow down the fast-approaching Allies. About ten days later Mr. Nowiski managed to bribe one of the guards and he escaped back to the Szneps’ apartment. For reasons uknown Mr. Wyniarchyk did not want to go with Mr. Nowiski. However, due to the order for all men to go dig trenches Mr. Nowiski had to hide during the day and could only come out during the night. In order to hide him, Alicja Sznep’s mother took out springs from one side of her bed and let him hide in the newly vacated space. He was forced to hide there all day and was not able to come out at lest he be seen and taken away. One night while Mr. Nowiski was looking out the window he noticed people in the distance with machine guns. He then began to tell everyone that the Red Army had come. They were liberated. Krystyna and Maria are still alive today; one of them lives in Brazil.

The story of Alicja Sznep is an interesting one. She helped hide Jews despite the ever looming danger of being found out and shot. She also was nearly found out more than a few times mostly by her neighbors. Alicja Sznep was one of the many and yet the few to help Jews. She demonstrated that she valued all people’s lives, not just her own.