Narrative

A Child of Fortune

During World War II, Jews had to cope with huge prejudice and discrimination. Anti-Semitism spread and hatred existed within every person except some who were ‘righteous among the nations.’ This phenomenon soon worsened, making their lives unbearable as Jews were closed in ghettos, where they had poor living conditions. It was hard for them to survive, and eventually, they were sent to concentration camps, where they were used as cheap labor and then exterminated. We learned about this from books, movies and our visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Moreover, we had the opportunity to meet a survivor of the war, who herself is a Jew. This narrative reveals the experiences of a young Jewish girl, who survived World War II by being brave, heroic and accepting the situation that was thrust her way. This is a true story of a girl, who outlived history.

Barbara Góra, born as Irena Hochberg in 1932, was raised in the centre of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Her family, of Jewish origin, followed Polish customs, and spoke Polish. Occasionally, when her parents wanted to exchange a secret, they communicated in Yiddish which their children did not understand. Barbara and her family were not committed Jews, although her mom was raised in an Orthodox family. Describing her family situation, Barbara added that, “Ale mama się zbuntowała i wyszła za mojego ojca, który nawet... nie mówił w Yiddish. (However my mom rebelled and she married my father, who didn’t...  even know how to speak Yiddish.)” After they got married, Barbara’s parents did not have their own apartment, so “zamieszkali u ortodoksyjnej babci.... i mój ojciec od niej, od swojej teściowej nauczył się mówić w Yiddish. (they moved in with the strictly Orthodox grandmother... and my father learned how to speak Yiddish from her, from his mother-in-law.)”.

“Moja mama postanowiła mnie posłać do szkoły rok wcześniej. Ja poszłam do szkoły mając sześć lat. (My mom decided to send me to school a year earlier. I went to school, being six years old.)”, Barbara recounted. Her school was located on a new, main street where wealthy people lived due to their social status. This period in her life was not as enjoyable for Barbara as it was for other kids. Unfortunately, being the only Jew at school, she was heavily discriminated by other students for not taking religious class. When Barbara’s mother tried to discuss this issue with the homeroom teacher,  she heard that the teacher also met with prejudice since she was Protestant. However, one day, a very compassionate young boy strolled up to her and asked why she wasn’t participating in any game. She responded by mumbling that the kids would make fun of her. From that moment her situation at school changed since that brave boy took care of her for the rest of the school year. “Ja ciągle pamiętam jego nazwisko - Wiśniewski (I still remember his last name - Wiśniewski)”, she mentioned with a smile.

On September 1, 1939, World War II had begun. Barbara mentioned that, “Kiedy wojna się zaczęła, ja skończyłam właśnie siedem lat. (When the war started, I just turned seven years old.)”. Many restrictions for the Jews were introduced by the Germans. For instance, they were not allowed to enter certain places, such as parks, and sit at the front of trams. Soon Barbara had to cease attending school. With disbelief, she stated that, “Gdy zaczęła się wojna, byłam bardzo zadowolona, że nie muszę chodzić do szkoły. (When the war started, I was very happy, that I didn’t have to go to school.)”. To pass the time, Barbara played with the children from her building. They were Polish and Jewish, however they all treated each other equally and respectfully. Since many apartments were vacated due to Jews moving out to the Warsaw Ghetto, a Volksdeutsche family moved into an apartment in Barbara’s building. In this new family, there was a girl her age, who thought she was privileged and superior than the other children, because of her social status. A Volksdeutsche was a person considered by the Nazis as one who belonged to their ethnic race, not necessarily a German. This cheeky and arrogant girl ordered all the children to line up and one by one tell her their origin. When it was Barbara’s turn, a brave 8 year old boy exclaimed, “To nie twoja sprawa! (It’s not your business!)”. From that day, the girl never intruded in the children’s games.

During the war, Barbara’s family hid in basements whenever they heard shooting or bombing. One of Barbara’s neighbours, a generous Polish woman who lived in a basement apartment, offered her flat to them. Barbara announced that, “Ludzie byli życzliwi, Polacy. (People were kind, Poles.)”.

Barbara’s father was an intellectual man. He fluently spoke German and had many excellent relations with people in the ghetto where the Hochberg family had to move. Their new flat there was exchanged with a Pole who her father knew. It had two rooms and a kitchen but no bathroom. This was considered a privilege in the ghetto because there were many people who did not have a home at all. Her father worked as an electrician in a laundry which was located in the same block they lived in. Barbara mentioned that, “Ojciec miał dar zdobywania przyjaciół. (My father had the gift of making friends.)”. He cleverly acquainted a Pole who was guarding their building and later saved their lives. Barbara recalled that life in the ghetto was not easy and that, “Słyszałam, że na ulicy Miłej, Niemcy wpadli i rozstrzelali wszystkich, a krew była na ulicy. (I heard that on Miła Street, the Germans stormed in and shot everyone present, blood was on the street.)”. Moreover, the Pawiak Prison, where people were tortured and killed, was located in front of their apartment. Barbara remembers that, “W nocy słyszeliśmy strzały, bo Niemcy rozstrzeliwali ludzi. (In the nights, we heard gunshots, since the Germans were shooting people.).”

Every survivor of the Holocaust experienced a “lucky coincidence”, which helped them survive the horrific times of war. Barbara is still overwhelmed with how fortunate she was throughout the Holocaust. One of her most memorable experiences was during the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto when the Nazis stormed the building in which they lived. The Polish guard standing at the gate, cried out “Niemcy! (Germans!)”, and then Barbara added, “i to nas uratowało. (and this is what saved us.)”. Everyone, who was able to move, dashed to the attic, where the Germans kept the Jews’ fur coats that they stole. All the people, including Barbara, her mother and sister, hid under the coats. There were little children and babies, who could cry or make the slightest noise which could lead to their death at any time. Barbara told us that, “Na szczęście żadne dziecko nie zapłakało. No to już było po prostu szczęście! (Fortunately, none of the kids cried out. That was just pure luck!)”. The Polish guard risked his life to save them, when he told the Nazis “Nie było tu nikogo. (Nobody was here.)”. Barbara mentioned that later, “Słyszałyśmy imię mojego ojca, Hochberg, a potem dwa strzały. Nie wiedziałyśmy co się stało, ale czekałyśmy nieruchomo na strychu. (I heard my father’s last name was called, Hochberg, and two gunshots. We didn’t know what happened, but we stayed motionless in the attic.)”. Afterwards, Barbara found out that her father had been in a huge trouble. When he realized that the Germans were going to set the people in the row and take every tenth person to a concentration camp, he told one of the Nazis that, “musi iść do kotłowni, bo inaczej wszystko wyleci w powietrze. (he needed to go to the boiler room, otherwise everything would blow up.)”. The gunshots that they heard in the attic, were directed at two of their neighbors who were sick and too weak to walk, so the Germans killed them in their beds, while her father’s name was called, since he wasn’t present in the line. She concluded, “Na szczęście, jedno nie miało nic wspólnego z drugim. (Fortunately, one had nothing to do with the other.)”.

After this incident, Barbara’s father decided that they should leave the ghetto. One of his friends who had an Ausweis (a pass or an identity card issued by the Germans), agreed to take Barbara out of the horrific place. Barbara recounted that, “Na szczęście miałam dobry wygląd: blond włosy i niebieskie, trochę zielone, oczy. (Fortunately, I had good look: blonde hair and blue-green eyes.)”. This made it easier for her to hide. She commented that, “To był dar natury. (It was a gift of nature.)”. When she was being led out by Mr. Kazimierz Krause, she set eyes on the gate to the ghetto for the first time. She noticed that the Polish police officer guarding the entrance to the ghetto turned back as they were walking out. She thought that, “Pewnie był przekupiony. (He probably must have been bribed.)”.

At the beginning of her stay in Warsaw on the German-occupied side, Barbara spent two days at Mr. Krause’s apartment. Nevertheless, it was suspicious and dangerous, “przypadkowa dziewczyna, która się pojawiła z nikąd (a random girl, out of nowhere)”. For this single reason, she had to be moved, from house to house, so that no one would be able to find her. One family, with whom she stayed the longest, was paid for keeping her, since they were very impecunious people. Barbara remembers that, “Po wojnie, ojciec powiedział mi, że zostawił mi kołdrę i kurtkę... ale ja ich nigdy nie dostałam. Ci ludzie, z którymi mieszkałam ukradli i sprzedali moje rzeczy. (After the war, my father told me that he had sent me a quilt and a coat, but I had never received it. The family I stayed with was so poor, that they stole and sold my belongings.)”. At that time, Barbara’s new identification card was issued. Her real name, Irena Hochberg, was substituted by Barbara Góra, which is the name that she bears until now. She explained that the process of making new documents during the war was quite simple: “Wzięli dokumenty zmarłej osoby i tylko zmienili datę urodzenia. (They took the documents of a dead person and simply changed the date of birth.)”.

Barbara did not know her family’s location while she was in hiding; she remembers that, “I saw my father, but only once or twice”. She was informed that her sister left the ghetto and that her father went in and out helping other people. Barbara’s mother was terrified of exiting the ghetto. Despite having blonde hair and blue eyes she still looked Jewish. Finally, she came out of the ghetto in February 1943, only two months before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which started 19th of April 1943 and finished on May 16th of the same year. The Uprising arose in protest to the Nazis ultimate attempt to liquidate  the ghetto and send everyone to death camps. If Barbara’s mother would have stayed there those two extra months, Barbara’s close family would’ve not survived the war. On the Aryan side, her mother lived in a flat which a friend of her father enabled them to use. Her father was the rightful caretaker of the apartment and he had the keys; hence, he could visit this apartment and deliver food to Barbara’s mother. This apartment was officially uninhabited, so her mother had to be very careful, that “no one could hear her”. Barbara recalls that her mother recounted, “I saw the Gestapo coming for the neighbors and I thought it was for me”. Eventually, the whole family was reunited in the apartment that her mother occupied. Fortunately, they did not have to go through the Warsaw Uprising, since they lived on the eastern bank of the Vistula, while this event took place on the west. To this day, Barbara does not know how the rest of her family members left the ghetto, since she never asked.

At the end of the interview, Barbara added that for a girl like her, with an appropriate German appearance (the Aryan looks), it took around twenty six people to risk their lives in order to save her. She also inquired, “To ile ludzi musiało być zaangażowanych w ukrycie Żyda, który mógł być łatwo rozpoznany? (So how many people did it have to take to hide a Jew who could be easily identified?)”. Barbara repeatedly emphasized that mainly “lucky coincidences” saved her, as well as her father’s ability to effortlessly make friends and his extraordinary cunning. She is most thankful for the kindness of other people, who even during times like the Holocaust, risked their lives to help other people. A sentence she said that stuck in our minds was, “My jesteśmy dziećmi szczęścia. (We are the children of fortune.)”.