Narrative
A tree Without Roots
Teresa Wieczorek has an amazing story in which she had a few near death experiences. Not only did she, as a little girl, spent almost three years in the Warsaw Ghetto and escape from there, but she also spent time in the work camp of Offenbach. She is Jewish by birth, but because of her horrific childhood she didn’t have a chance to comprehend the religion. She was born on the 23rd of December, 1939, though she learned her birthdate after the war. Due to the persecution of Jews, Teresa Wieczorek never had the chance to know her family. She survived the war because she had the protection of a woman by the name of Kazimiera Ciartawska, who she sees as her mother, but many would regard as her guardian angel. She feels like a tree without roots.
In 1940, Teresa Wieczorek was transported to the Warsaw Ghetto with her parents. In total she spent three years in the largest ghetto of occupied Europe, but because she was of such a young age she doesn’t have many memories of this time period. In 1943, her father put her in a suitcase full of clothes and went into a secret tunnel beneath the ghetto that led to the other side of the wall that separated the Jews from the rest of the world. “Ojciec, mnie zabrał w walisce i wyszliśmy z tunely żywi.” [“My father took me through a tunnel in a suitcase.”] At the end of the tunnel, Kazimiera Ciartawska was waiting to pick her up. She took Mrs.Wieczorek home on the agreement that the next day Teresa Wieczorek’s father would come with the rest of the family and escape from the claws of the Nazis, but he never returned. Mrs.Ciartawska didn’t want to be a mother so her cousin convinced her to smuggle the baby back into the ghetto. Standing in front of the ghetto Mrs.Ciartawska could not go through with it so she kept baby Teresa. For the safety of those taking care of Mrs.Wieczorek, the baby was constantly moved but always ended up with Mrs.Ciartawska who she now refers to as her mother.
Even though Teresa Wieczorek kept moving around for safety purposes, her life returned pretty much back to what is considered an average life. Teresa Wieczorek believed that Mrs.Ciartawska was her mother and she doesn’t have many repulsive memories of that time. Maybe it was because she was of such young age, but even so there was a World War happening around her. This serenity all changed when on the first of August the Warsaw Uprising broke out. At the time she was with her mother and there was nowhere for her to be moved to. At some point during the Uprising (the exact date is unknown) she was hiding in her basement, because there was heavy fighting going on outside. Nazi soldiers were raiding houses and had reached Teresa Wieczorek’s house. They forced her and her step-parents out of the house and demanded that the people gathered into two lines. One of these lines was for women, and one was for men. Her stepfather was shot there on the spot (for unknown reasons). “Sytuacja była straszna, ale za wszelką cene trzymałam sie matki.” [“The situation was terrible, and at any chance I held on to my mother”.] No matter what happened to Teresa Wieczorek, she always stayed with her mother in the jubilant, and the severe times.
The next part of her story was more horrifying than the rest. She and most of the rest of Warsaw were transported to work camps around occupied Europe. She and her mother, who never left her side, spent 12 days on a journey in a train to end up in the work camp of Offenbach. In total 19 children went into this camp but only three came back out. She was a calm, and polite child. This was very helpful to her during her time in the camp. People liked her a lot because of her manners. One Nazi guard thought she was so polite that he gave her an old doll . “Byłam taka grzeczna,że the Niemiec dał mi lalke.” [“I was so good that the Germans gave me an old doll.”] .She and all the other children in the camp were too young to work, so they had to entertain themselves day after day.
At the time she would be bored, but now she realizes it was better than having to work. Her mother had to work, too. She had a job though which Teresa Wieczorek benefitted. Her mother worked in the kitchen, and managed to sneak away scraps of food in her apron to give to her step-daughter. Teresa believes this supplementary food supply is the reason why she was one of three children who survived Offenbach. Again, because of her young age, Teresa doesn't remember about the camp, but she does remember the regular bombing of the city Frankfurt which she could see from Offenbach. She remembers one night, she isn’t sure when, the Allies were bombing Frankfurt. She was sprinting to the bomb shelter but as she looked to her side she noticed that the sky was filled with green smoke. The Allies used this smoke to see where to drop the bombs. All she remembered is that it looked like “noc wypenily choinki, bylo pieknie.” [“the sky was full of christmas trees. It was great”.] There is only one other event she remembers from her time in the camp, getting pneumonia. In the camp there was a French doctor who saved her life by using the ancient Chinese method of cupping. It took her a long time to recover from that illness, but better times were on the way.
On the March 3, 1945 she went to sleep like every other night in the work camp. “Poszłam spać normalnie,Obudziłam się z szczęsciem.” [“I went to sleep normally, I woke up with happiness.”] Her waking up was very different. Just like every other day, military men were wandering around the camp; however instead of a swastika, an American flag donned their uniform. The workers had been freed. The Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower gave them the option to move to one of three countries: Australia, the United States of America, or Poland. Her mother choose to go back to Poland in order to reconnect with her family. By now Teresa Wieczorek didn’t know better than to think of Kazimiera Ciartawska as her mother.
After the war Teresa Wieczorek had a life that could be concluded as average. Her life completely changed on a morning in either 1948, or 1949. She went to the store, and bought something but as she came home, her neighbour told her something that changed her life forever. “Od tego momentu moje życie się zmeniło,dowiedziałam się że jestem żydówką.” [“From that moment my life changed, I learned that I was a Jew.”] Her neighbour told her out of the blue that Teresa is Jewish and the Jewish community was looking for her. She ran home to her mother crying. This is when her mother told her everything. At this moment during the interview she started crying. She didn’t cry when she talked about thousands of people dying, but when she heard Kazimiera Ciartawska wasn’t her real mother she cried.
Many people had heard the story of how Jewish children were brought to Israel, but that is not what Teresa Wieczorek or her mother wanted. “Bałam się żydów i kochałam moją matke, więc postawiłam się schować.” [I was afraid of the Jews, I loved my mother, so I set to hide.”] Teresa Wieczorek’s mother arranged for her to stay with some people in a petite village in the Polish country side. For two years she hid there to avoid detection. After those two years, the Jewish community stopped looking for her. She went back to Warsaw where she spent the rest of her youth and a large part of the rest of her life.
Curious about her heritage, Teresa spent another 36 years looking for her family and visited Israel a few times, but never succeeded in finding anyone. At some point she thought she had found a brother, but it was only someone who had lived close to her at some point in her life. “Ten pan myślał, i był całkiem pewny że byłam jegą siostrą.” [‘This man though, was pretty sure I was his sister.”] After years of searching, she gave up on ever finding her biological family. Her entire search wasn’t hopeless. Due to some of her research she received a birth certificate and got her parents’ names. After this she found out her father was a doctor in the Warsaw ghetto. Looking for her biological mother’s maiden name in a phone book of 1939 she found out that her mother had been an actress. She never found out what happened to her biological family but that didn’t bother her too much since she had Kazimiera Ciartawska.
Teresa is used to having Kazimiera Ciartawska as her only family. Kazimiera Ciartawska died a few years ago of old age. Before she died though, Kazimiera Ciartawska got to see the person she cared most about, Teresa, get married, and have a child, giving her some joy in a life full of gloom. Teresa Wieczorek lived in a number of countries where she worked as a social studies teacher.”Teraz jestem już na emeryturze i odpoczywam.” [“Now I am retired, and resting.”] Now she spends time working for an organisation that helps Holocaust survivors in Warsaw.
Teresa Wieczorek spent a lifetime not knowing from where she comes. Even without knowing from where she has come, she has managed to find joy in life. Her memories of the war -- going to a work camp, living in the ghetto, and seeing victims die -- didn’t scar her that much. She was of very young age and has trouble remembering most events. The thing that hurts her most though is not knowing who her parents are and knowing that the only person who cared for her throughout the war wasn’t related to her. She has trouble settling down and accepting things since she doesn’t know her true family history, and the only place from where she thought she came from was a lie. Teresa Wieczorek feels like a tree without roots.