Narrative

A Nightmare Come True

Gun shots, explosions, and the stench of death surrounded her. There was no way out. All she could do was try to escape. Growing up in Poland during the Second World War, Ola experienced numerous shocking events. Although she was very young when the war started, she still remembers the most life-changing moments of the war and gladly tells our group about them.

Ola Kapustyńska was only two years old in 1939 when one of the largest genocides of all time started with the initiation of World War II. Her father was Polish but her mother was Jewish, therefore Ola was considered a Jew. Ola’s father decided to escape from Warsaw to live in the countryside. There, Ola`s family found some relatives who willingly accepted the family into their home. Father’s cousin was married to a wealthy Polish man who owned a forest and a watermill. The cousin was undertaking a huge risk to be hiding them because it was against the law to help Jewish families. The cousin had a small house near the forest so that, in case of an emergency, Ola and her family could hide in the woods. After managing to find a hideaway, Ola and her brother started to make friends and began to feel like the village was their home. Their father worked at the watermill and their mother stayed home.

Since it wasn’t safe to have Jewish documents during the war, the family decided to create fake documents with fake names. Unfortunately, they still appeared suspicious to the villagers. One of the workers at the watermill, a young man, somehow found out that the family was Jewish and he blackmailed Ola`s father. Eventually, the young man wrote a letter to the Nazi officers regarding the Jewish family in his village and asked a little boy to take it to the post office. On the way to the post office, the blackmailer’s sister stopped the boy. Knowing what the letter contained, she took the letter from the boy, promising him that she will deliver it to the post office instead. Luckily for Ola and her family, the girl never mailed the revealing letter.

However, her father wasn’t to be spared. Ola’s eyes were glassy as she described how her father was murdered on February 25, 1942. On that night, the young man killed Ola’s father. At this point of war, she told us that, “the Polish were more dangerous than the Germans.”

After these events, the cousins sent Ola’s family back to Warsaw. Unfortunately, when they arrived, Ola’s mother could not keep her son in fear of being noticed by the Nazi. Instead, she put him in care of her dead husband’s sister. Once there, he was treated with no respect, while receiving little food and no water. Meanwhile, Ola went to work with her mother at a church. There, Ola’s mother worked in the church kitchen for a priest who had great respect for Jews.

As the war progressed, Warsaw started to disappear in flames with bombs hailing at buildings non-stop. Ola’s mother decided to leave for the small village in the woods once again, since the priest that was helping them was sure that if the family stayed in Warsaw, they would be killed.

In 1943, when Ola’s family was living in the small village, people heard of an approaching German Army recruiting young men for work. All the men fled for fear of being taken to a work camp, including Ola’s brother. All the women were left behind with their children.

Once the army came to the village, it transported all the women and children to a huge field. Ola’s mother feared that the German officers would discover that she and Ola were Jewish, so she decided to flee once again. They escaped successfully but were still in danger. As they were hiding, men on horseback discovered them. “They were not German... they were probably some people from Asia, ” Ola explained. The unknown men wanted to take Ola’s mother causing Ola to start crying. Suddenly out of nowhere, an “absolutely unknown man” helped them by telling the anonymous men that Ola and her mother were his family members who had just arrived from another town. The men released the mother. The stranger had saved Ola and her mother from separation. He was thanked, and then Ola and her mother returned to their original village where they stayed for the remainder of the war.

After the war, Ola’s brother returned and together they left Poland. Her mother decided not to tell Ola anything about her past so she learned about her real identity only in the 1980`s.

Ola Kapustyńska survived what many people didn’t. She lived through hell when she was only 2. Now, after finding out her true identity and the truth about her family in 1985, she had strength to share her story. She lived a successful life as a scientist, managing to acquire a PhD in physics, and to become a university professor. Her job took her to many different places such as Italy where she learnt fluent Italian. Later, she married a Polish man and had a son. In the 90`s, she was recognized by the “Children of the Holocaust”, the organization that honors children that who were victims of the Holocaust. Once her husband asked, “What does it mean to be a child of the Holocaust?” and Ola replied with a simple and serious voice, “It means at any moment I could be killed because I was a Jewish girl.”

During her life she has visited Germany a couple of times, but shows no positive attitude towards Germans. She has visited only a small concentration camp in Germany and tells us in an honest and convinced voice that, “I will not go to a (another) camp because I am simply too scared to go there.”

After retiring in 2007, she has devoted her life to making sure the most dreadful genocide of mankind will never be forgotten. Ola hopes that her story will be remembered and passed on to the future generations. Ola commented with a little smile, “My story is not tragic from this point of view.” Ola has been through so many terrible events, at such a young age, that it could only take a person as brave and courageous as Ola to live through the Holocaust.