A 2nd Generation's Jouney
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A mysterious hat box was lying on the top of our wardrobe in our old house.
This round, dark brown box was covered in leather.
The tall wardrobe wouldn't allow a small girl to take a peek inside.
Believe me though; it was worth taking a look.
One evening, my grandmother with her daughter take down the mysterious hat box and
opened it to the delight of me and my baby sister.
We immediately felt the scent of a dreadful history.
We discovered that inside was hidden: yellowed sketches, a picture of a stranger, a
copy of the book "Gone With the Wind" and a felt hat.
Although the contents weren't very interesting, the story connected with this objects was
fascinating.
The story begins in a small town, situated near Cracow, where Catholic Poles and Jews
live together. Their children play in the same yards and attend the same schools.
They take walks along the town's gardens and swing on the chains that surround the
monument of Kazimierz Wiklki in the main town square.
Adolescent girls, Catholic and Jewish, attend the local high school. Together they take
school trips with their teacher. In photos one can see these beautiful young ladies
happy and full of dreams about their future.
In front of their high school building, the old photographer takes a photo of these joyful
girls and their teachers.
But their dreams and plans are destroyed by the Second World War.
In the town, Germans create a ghetto. My mother’s friends, Cesia and Lasia, are sent
there with their families.
My mother, Irena, goes to visit her friends several times. They try to figure out how to
solve the problem. Irena brings them objects from the Catholic Faith: a holy painting, a
Rosary and a prayer book. Maybe these objects will help her friends get out.
In return, Cesia gives my mother a box with something inside and asks her to keep it for
awhile.
This time, Irena returns from ghetto more depressed then usual. She’s not allowed to
enter there any more.
Eventually the Germans decide to liquidate the ghetto and the Jews were deported to
an unknown location.
Irena often thinks about her friends and waits for any message from them.
Finally the horror of war ends.
My mother receives conflicting information about what happened to Cesia and Lasia.
After the war, Irena raises her own family. She has two daughters.
The curious girls grow up and the history of the mysterious hat box melts away.
At last in 2006, during a moving ceremony in the small town, the mayor unveils a
memorial to the Jews killed in the ghetto. The guests recite the Kadish.
And I am there, among the town participants, that once ‘curious girl’.
During a polite conversation I ask one of the guests from Israel, who has grown up in my
town, whether he knows what happened two my mother’s two friends. I tell him their
names.
The older man looks at me very surprised and moved. After a moment of silence, he
says ”You are talking about my sister. Cesia Frommer is my sister."
We exchange warm embraces, information about our families and telephone numbers.
I find out that even though Cesia has weathered the Holocaust, she went through the
nightmare of concentration camps and loss of family and beloved friends.
After harrowing experiences Cesia emigrated to The United States, where she married
and gave birth to two girls. The youngest one lives in the Israel and has three children.
Lasia Leighting also survived the Holocaust. She died in Israel, where she lived since
the end of war.
One year has passed since this extraordinary meeting.
Just before the All Souls Day in 2007, a pleasant voice on the telephone asks if I’m
ready to meet Oran (Helen), who came to Poland with her son Alon.
I rejoice to meet Cesia’s daughter and I invite her and her son to my home.
At this time our mothers were still alive, but my mother was already in poor health.
When I told my mother about the upcoming meeting I had impression that she smiled
upon hearing her old friend’s name.
Finally we met on November the 3rd . We recognized each other at once although we
had never met before. I felt tenderness and closeness as if I found a sister that I hadn’t
seen for a long time.
Communication wasn’t a problem thanks to our children, Ania, Mateusz and Alon whom
all speak English very well and translated each word.
My new friend told me everything about her mother’s life.
Oran and her 18 years old son, Alon, visited all the places in town that were important
for their family: Cesia’s home, the main square, the Jewish cemetery where Oran's
Great-grandfather is buried.
Together with my sister we decided to give the contents of the hat box back to Oran
(Helen), who was very moved to receive these protected keepsakes, the only articles
she now has that belonged to her family before the war.
They have taken the book, the fabric hat and pictures of Oran’s (Helen's) mother with
friends.
These are saved threads that connect the murdered, burned world with the present.
Our families stay in touch. Our mothers passed away, but their history lingers on in our
memory.
It’s impossible to destroy the past and the truth about the times that were.
| Barbara's Story: Seeing the War from Outside the Ghetto |
| A MysteriousHat Box by Barbara Drążkiewicz |