Narrative

From Hell to Hope

Many innocent people perished in the 20th Century due to the will of a barbaric and cunning dictator- Adolf Hitler. His goal was to rid Germany and the whole of Europe of “inferior” races and eradicate them all- particularly the Jewish population. Barbara Góra was one of those unlucky, innocent Jews.

Born to parents of Jewish descent, Barbara was born and raised in Poland, in a Polish-speaking family. Her parents did not practice any religious customs, although her grandparents were practicing Jews. In Warsaw, at the age of six, she attended a newly-built school where she felt alienated, as she was the only student who was not a Christian. Barbara would constantly feel prejudiced at school because of her religious background. One day, a boy named Adam came to her during recess and promised to look out for her and protect her from the malicious bullies at school who picked on her purely because of her heritage. Barbara smiled and let out a nervous giggle as she talked about Adam.

By the time the war broke out, she had just finished the first grade. In November, 1941 her family was forced to pack their belongings and move into the Warsaw Ghetto. They lived in an exiguous, cramped room, with twelve people living in hostile living conditions,  with minimal food and health care. She mentioned being fed only a small daily ration of bread, and recalled watching the people around her grow skinnier day by day. Luckily, her family managed to escape the deportation to Treblinka, the infamous concentration camp. She heard somebody shout, “Niemcy!” [“Germans!”] and she and her family ran to the attics where they hid under their precious furs. “I was scared that the children would cry in fear,” she recalled. “Children cry easily, and if one of them had cried while the Germans were right above us, we would have been killed on the spot.” Unfortunately, the mother’s nephew was sent to Treblinka, but managed to survive by jumping off the train car and finding his way back.

“To ile ludzi musiało być zaangażowanych w ukrycie żyda, który mógł być łatwo rozpoznanie?” [“How many people did it take to hide a Jew who could be easily identified?”] she asked. “It took twenty-six people to hide me. It was the kindness in people’s hearts that saved us. We are the children of fortune.” That was the line that resonated with me the most. Looking back at the Holocaust, I also feel like a “child of fortune”, a child of an era where the Holocaust is a historical memory, and not a painful reality.

She smiled and nodded her head at me. It is her courage and perseverance, in the face of unspeakable adversity, that I admire most. Her positivity and radiant, smiling face is also what makes her so likeable.

Barbara was able to escape the ghetto after nearly two years there- which she described as “her own version of hell”. Her father, an entrepreneur, was friends with someone who worked in the laundry room and carried a pass to the world beyond the gates of the ghetto. Her father paid him to let Barbara stay with his family. She caused trouble for the man’s family though, as they didn’t have enough money to support an extra child and eventually kicked her out. She ended up walking the streets alone at the  age of 10, begging for food and seeking shelter in dishevelled and run-down homes. She was put into a clandestine foster home with other Jewish children where her father and sister found her a few months later.

Eventually, in June 1944, Barbara, her father and her sister moved to Grochów where her mother was in hiding. They lived on the opposite side of the river, so luckily they were able to avoid the Warsaw Uprising. Soon after, the Soviets invaded Poland from the East, and the family was on the move once more.

The family survived the war. Her father opened a new business, her mother took up her previous job and her sister studied at the University of Warsaw. Barbara moved to Moscow where she attended the Russian State Agriculture University.

The story of Barbara and her family is a story of life triumphing against the odds. Chosen for persecution purely on the grounds of her Jewishness, Barbara was able to overcome deep adversity and suffering to be able to tell us her story. Barbara smiled when she gave us her final thoughts: “Do not give your enemy your fear. I had courage. My father had courage. I got my courage from my father. I never gave the Germans my fear and that is how I believe I survived.”

By Kat Macmillen