Bronia S. was born on July 12, 1915 in Galicia, Poland. When she was a baby her family
moved to Vienna, where much of her extended family was living. Her father had studied
law in Poland, but couldn't practice in Vienna so he entered the family textile business.
Her sister Paula was born there in 1919.
She remembers a beautiful childhood in Vienna. She felt protected, and didn't experience
any anti-Semitism in the public schools she attended. Her family was secular, yet
maintained their Jewish identify and traditions. She attended the School of Commerce
and at age nineteen began working as a secretary for a lawyer. In 1933 they started
hearing things about Hitler and the Nazi party, but she feels that they lived in
a dream world and Germany seemed very far away.
On March 13, 1938 Hitler and the Germans marched into Vienna. Suddenly every Gentile
household had swastikas in their windows. Jewish men were arrested and forced to
clean the streets with toothbrushes. Jews weren't allowed to sit on street benches.
The family was evicted from their house and lived in a single room. Her father was
in Poland on business at the time of the occupation. He arranged for a passport for
his wife to join him in Poland. In January 1939 Bronia was illegally smuggled across
the border into Poland. Her sister followed six months later.
Once she arrived in Poland she wasn't allowed to speak German for fear of the anti-German
feelings at that time. The family applied for visas to the United States. On September
1, 1939 the Germans invaded Poland. The fighting lasted for ten days. Immediately
the Jews were forced to sew a Yellow Star on the front and back of their clothes.
Germans would walk by and pound them on their backs. They became terrified to leave
the house.
Soon they were evicted from their home and moved to what was
to become the Lodz ghetto. This was the poorest, dirtiest section
of town. In May 1940 the ghetto was sealed.
No one was allowed in or out. The Germans appointed a sixty-seven
year old Lithuanian, Chaim Rumkowski, as head of the Jewish
community. Bronia was one of the young women
working in the Jewish administration under Chaim Rumkowski. He believed
that in order for the Jews to stay alive the ghetto had to
perform a function. Workshops of every
kind were set up.
The Germans supplied rations to those who worked. They were very
meager rations, consisting of bread and soup at lunch. Bronia's mother and
sister worked in factories
and her father was appointed prosecutor for the internal justice
system. On one occasion a few people tried to escape and were hung from the
gallows by the Germans. Others
tried to escape and were electrocuted on the barbed wires.
Hans Biebow was the German administrator of the ghetto. There were
transports into the ghetto from various foreign countries and from small towns
around Poland. There
were also continual deportations from the ghetto. At one point there
were two hundred thousand people residing in the ghetto. Rations were never
increased regardless of
how many people there were. The Gestapo insisted that Rumkowski provide
them with specific numbers of Jews for deportation. They made it clear that
if he didn't comply,
they would choose people arbitrarily. Initially, Rumkowski tried
to choose people who were obviously ill and dying. Later, the Gestapo demanded
groups of children.
Bronia recalls Rumkowski pleading with the Gestapo, but to no avail.
On one occasion, when he refused to cooperate, the Germans did make their
own selection.
No one knew what "deportation" really meant. Rumkowski used to tell
his staff that this situation couldn't last much longer and that
they needed to survive
one day at a time. Bronia was married in the ghetto in September
1943. The Lodz ghetto was liquidated in August 1944, and Bronia,
with most of her family, was on the last
transport out.
Bronia was in a cattle car on a train for five days. They arrived
at Auschwitz and immediately the men and women were separated from
each other.Bronia was stripped,
showered and shaven and then spent six days at Auschwitz with her
mother. They were taken to Stutthof and there they were reunited
with Paula. This was a joyous reunion
for the women. During the time in Stutthof they slept and ate on
the floor. Most of the time, however, they spent standing for roll calls.
Her
sister contracted scarlet
fever. They were able
to see their male family members over the barbed wire. One day her
father made a sign to Bronia which indicated that her husband had
died.
The women were moved to Dresden in December and worked in a munitions
factory. The conditions there were better. Mr. Biebow was again in
charge of the factory and Bronia
worked in the office after attending role call. On April 11, 1945
the city was bombed by the Allies. The prisoners were taken on a
Death March. Before they left, a kindly
German woman gave Bronia a religious "schutzbrief" (chain letter)
which was to protect her. She has kept this with her since.
The march took twelve days. On the eleventh day Bronia and her sister
suggested that three of them commit suicide by walking into the river. Their
mother begged them
to wait until the next day which was Paula's birthday. That day,
April 23rd, they arrived at Theresienstadt. The German guards had deserted
the camp by then and they
were greeted by Jewish prisoners who took care of them. They were
liberated on May 8th by the Russians.
Bronia went to Prague to seek out a friend of her husband's. Her
mother eventually joined her. Her sister reunited with her husband in Bergen-Belsen.
Bronia started
to work for the Joint Distribution Committee in Czechoslovakia; there,
she met her second husband and they got married.
When they realized that the Communists were going to take over the
country they decided to leave for Israel, where their son was born. Her husband's
brother was in Vancouver,
and they decided to join him there. Their daughter was born in Vancouver.
In 1952 her husband was killed in an automobile accident. Bronia went to work
for Alaska
Pine and raised her children with her mother's help.
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