Narrative

Katarzyna Meloch: The Catholic Jew

Language. Language brings people together. Language can separate people. Language can help someone fit in, language can help someone stand out. This was the case in World War II where if you let out a peep of Hebrew, you would be digging your own grave. However, what would it be like if you could disguise your identity with fluent Polish? This is the story of Katarzyna Meloch.

Katarzyna Meloch was born in 1932 and was only seven when the war started. Like any common Jewish girl, she was born with jet black hair and deep, dark eyes. When World War II started little Katarzyna was living in the city of Białystok with her mother and the melancholy absence of her runaway father. She was then moved shortly after the war started to the Białystok Ghetto which she adapted to cleverly. Despite her disguise as a Polish Catholic girl on the streets, she had the same issues as a typical Jewish girl at home; “Bez przerwy mówiono o jedzeniu” [People talked incessantly about food and nothing but food] was her observations on the people living in the cramped Ghetto. Katarzyna believed there was a guardian angel smiling down at her because she never was too hungry. However, the Białystok Ghetto was not just a place of reclusive memories. At the Białystok Ghetto, Katarzyna was able to celebrate her first Jewish holiday, the Hanukkah. This was her first Jewish Holiday because it truly felt like one to Katarzyna. All the previous times Hanukkah rolled around Katarzyna and her mother were either too poor, too hungry to pay for the required decorations. Katarzyna was also fortunate in the Białystok Ghetto because not even once did the Germans attempt to find her but, just in case, Katarzyna had the perfect hiding place in a bombed house with a secret room by the chimney. However, the war had been going on for a year now and and more and more Jews were being selected to go to the “work camps”. Worried for her daughter, her mother made Katarzyna write a letter to her uncle asking if she could go over to the Warsaw Ghetto and live with him. Baffled by such a strange request, Katarzyna’s uncle. Precariously, her uncle asked if it was okay with her mother. When Katarzyna’s mother explained the situation of the poor conditions that Katarzyna was living in and that she was bound to be chosen for the work camps soon, her uncle accepted the request earnestly. As Katarzyna rode in silent solitude on the train to Warsaw, she promised herself that she would see her mother again. However, not all promises are fulfilled and that was the last time Katarzyna ever saw her mother.

Living in the Warsaw Ghetto with her uncle, Katarzyna was able to remain safe and sound for a while due to her uncle’s connection with powerful Polish contacts. Unfortunately, the Germans were growing bored of the tranquility of the Warsaw Ghetto and to “shake things up a bit” more and more people in the Warsaw Ghetto were being moved to the work camps as well. Multiple times Katarzyna was placed on crowded cattle cars headed to Treblinka when at the last moment before departure, she would see her uncle speeding down the Warszawa Główna railway station claiming she was on the wrong train.  Katarzyna found herself getting scolded those evenings for not being as careful as she could have been, but at least she was alive. Her uncle would then calm her flowing tears and tell her that it really wasn’t her fault because the Germans had decided to make life worse for everyone.

Knowing he could not keep his niece away from those trains forever, her uncle sent her to foster parents on the Aryan side of Poland. Katarzyna boarded a train, but one that would take her to safety to a convent on the east side of Poland that is now known as Ukraine. At the convent, the “Sisters” as Katarzyna referred to them, took her in as a fellow “Sister”. she said that “Zakonnica dzięki której żyje” [I have the Sisters to thank for me being here today]. At the convent, there were still problems. For example, her hair was still a dead give-away that she was a Jew and if she didn’t have the opportunity to speak her impeccably convincing Polish, it would be straight to the work camps for her. So to cover her “bad features” the Sisters gave her hair braids with white wstrząski but despite this clever plan, the darkness in her hair was still a lighthouse in the stormy sea of blondes and brunettes. To protect Katarzyna, the Sisters decided to give her a fake identity and Katarzyna was able to live through the war in the convent.

When the war ended, two words were said to her that will forever echo through her head: “jesteś wolny”  [you are free]. Years after the war, Katarzyna still kept touch with the Sisters and her friends were publishing books of their experiences during this dark and awful time. Katarzyna decided to cling to her secret life until 1968 when she felt safe enough to announce her true identity to the world. In 1998, Katarzyna decided to go to Germany for a visit and she was overwhelmed with her experiences of the Holocaust. Her first observation on Germany was, “To było bardzo dziwne że znalazłam tam przedwojenną polskę” [It was very strange that I found pre-war Poland there]. She was also taken back by a compact and significant item of her childhood: toys. As a child, she used to play with her toys all of the time and in Germany she noticed that the toys and dolls were almost identical to those that existed back in her childhood. The German language also reminded her of dark memories of her childhood. When Katarzyna looks back at the war, she mentions that “U mnie jest wszystko nietypowe” [To me, no one could have predicted this unusual and horrible event].

In the end, there is no word to describe the true atrocity that occurred during the Holocaust. And no time, nor appropriate amount of thinking will ever find a word for that dark chapter in human history. But despite this fact, generations today can listen to the stories of those who have experienced this truly ominous event and apply those stories to further understand what it was like to live in the hell that came about when murderers were given power over an entire country and tried to rule the world. That is why others are forever grateful and honoured to listen to Katarzyna Meloch’s story of a secret identity and courage.