Narrative

                                                                                             Lucyna Bauer: Her Story

Lucyna Bauer Antonowicz was one of the many courageous Polish citizens that risked their lives during World War Two to save the Jewish people from persecution. Her life has been filled with courage and constant change in order to do what she felt was right.

Lucyna was born on August 1, 1927 to Wincenty and Jadwiga Antonowicz and was raised in Vilnius, Poland (now part of Lithuania). After the outbreak of the war, her family decided to take on the responsibility and tremendous risk of caring for and hiding a Jewish woman named Bronisława Malberg. They were able to take care of her for about half a year and during that time the Antonowicz family was able to create fake citizenship papers for Bronisława under the name of Joanna Malinowska. After the war, Joanna (Bronisława)  was able to move to Paris where she later died.

    At about twelve years of age, Lucyna had a Jewish friend that had been forced to live in the ghetto. Lucyna was upset and disappointed with the way that the Jews were being dealt with and she traveled to the ghetto to find her friend. However, when she arrived, she found that the ghetto was empty. Lucyna was crushed to later learn that it had been liquidated. It was after this upsetting experience that she decided to join the Polish underground resistance to try and combat the way that the Nazis treated the Jews.

Lucyna told us about the time when the Russians invaded the western part of Poland near their home and began bombing there almost every night around 20 hours. She said that the  reason that the Russians bombed so close to their house was because of its location near a railway station that transported soldiers to and fro.

By the time she was a young adult, Lucyna’s father had purchased a cheap house in  Troskulany, Poland. In this place, her parents were able to hide two Jewish families. During that time, her family planted a large garden where she and other young people worked. They did this in hopes to minimize the chance of being recruited for the German army. Lucyna spoke angrily as she told us that while she lived in Troskulany, she and many other young people had no education as learning was forbidden. However, her family and others formed a resistance where a professor traveled to private homes to teach the children. After the war, in 1970, her father had Lucyna write a letter to the Jewish History Institute thanking them for educating their children during the war.

After a period of time, Lucyna’s house was taken and occupied by russian soldiers and they were forced to leave and move somewhere else. When her family returned, their house had been taken by the government and they were not granted repossession. And after that, their house was made into a museum and they were still not given rights to own the house.

We asked Lucyna about some important thoughts or stories to her, and she was readily available with some fascinating stories. She said that she was with her mother on the day that the Jews were forced into the ghetto and she saw an elderly woman being beaten because she could not take her valice with her. Lucyna was upset and ashamed at the way that the Germans and her own country treated these Jews. Lucyna’s face turned into an upset grimace as she said, “[I just thought how awful it was] how the men would be so bad [to] the other men... [it was] impossible to imagine how they were so bad... how could they make such [deplorable] things for another man.”Another experience that she said she remembered well was when she was taken into the Gestapo prison and detained for almost three months. The conditions were revolting and the cell was crawling with parasitic insects. Fortunately, she was liberated by a resistance group near the end of the war.

After the war, Lucyna Bauer was able to study multiple subjects at a university. She was given the Righteous Among Nations award by the Jewish society in 1998, and another award for her family’s efforts by the President of Poland in 2008. She has a horrendous past, one full of sorrow. But Lucyna learned not to dwell on it. What is done is done. Thankfully she has moved on.