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Jewish émigrées – organisation of departures

RELATED STORIES

Escape from the labour camp
Marek Edelman Social activist
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Irka tam przyjechała, nie ma tego pracza, nikogo i mówi, że oni są w Myślenicach. Więc ona w tym czarnym palcie ceratowym, w tym kapeluszu, poszła do tego obozu... jak się nazywa... w Myślenicach, staje przy bramie i mówi do tego żołnierza niemieckiego... Nie wiem, jak ona się z nim porozumiała, bo po niemiecku mówić nie umiała, może on był volksdeutschem i rozumiał po polsku, nie wiem. Jednym słowem mówi, mówi i z tej bramy wyjeżdża pociąg i ona przechodzi za pociąg i wchodzi do obozu i szuka w tym obozie tej Sary. I idzie, idzie, dwie godziny, dwie... To jest olbrzymi obóz i gdzieś pod koniec, pod płotem jakieś dziewuchy skubią gęsi, to są te dwie dziewuchy. To ona je bierze, podprowadza pod tą bramę, zdejmuje swój płaszcz, rozbiera ich z tych pierzastych ciuchów, które zostawia tam, zdejmuje swój płaszcz, daje im swoją spódnicę i tam jeszcze coś, nie mogę ci powiedzieć i czeka, aż pociąg będzie wyjeżdżał i tyłem pociągu wychodzi. Wychodzi z tymi dwoma dziewuchami idą, idą, nagle uuuuuuuuuu pościg, tysiące, setki motocyklów szukają uciekinierów z obozu. Jednym słowem, schowały się pod mostem, tam obok był most, bo oni przez most, przez ten most i dalej do miasta, a one pod tym mostem leżały. Przeleżały tak całą noc, nazajutrz przyjechały do Warszawy. To jest Irka wariatka. I potem mówi, ona nic nie pamięta, co było w czasie wojny, bo ona jest teraz Konti i ma kuku na muniu, a Konti ona jest, bo się zakochała w takim facecie, jak wracała z Izraela w jakimś oficerze, który razem z Bernadotte, kto spadł? Ten Mossad wysadził ten samolot, jego też tam wysadzili i ona tu czekała na niego, tu w tym pokoju, czekała na niego, a przyszło zawiadomienie i papierki jego, że już go nie ma, bo ona chciała być jego żoną, ale Konti jej zostało bez papierów, ale Konti.

Irka went there, the laundry man was gone, no one was there and she's told they're in Myślenice. She went to the camp in Myślenice in her black raincoat and wearing that hat. She stopped at the gate and began to talk to the German soldier there. I don't know how she communicated with him because she couldn't speak German, perhaps he was a Volksdeutch and could understand, I don't know. In a word, she was talking, talking and then a train came out of that gate, she passed behind the train and came in alongside into the camp to look for Sara. She walked and walked for two hours, the camp was huge and somewhere, at the far end, sitting by the fence and plucking a goose were these two girls. So she took them, led them to the gate, took off her coat, took off their clothes which were covered in feathers and left the clothes there while she took off her coat, gave them her skirt and something else, and then waited until the train would come along and then followed the train out. She left with these two girls and they walked and walked when suddenly: whoooooooo, the chase was on, thousands, hundreds of motorcyclists were searching for the camp escapees. In short, they'd hidden under the bridge - there was a bridge close by - because they'd gone over the bridge and into the town whereas the girls were lying under the bridge, they spent the whole night there and the following day they left for Warsaw. That's that crazy Irka. And then she says that she doesn't remember anything of what happened during the war because now she's Conti and her mind's gone. She's Conti because she fell in love with some guy when she was coming back from Israel with some officer who was with Bernadotte and Mossad bombed the airplane and they bombed him, too, while she was waiting for him here in this room, she was waiting for him but the news came and his documents that he was gone because she wanted to be his wife but Conti stayed with her without the documents, but Conti.

Marek Edelman (1919-2009) was a Jewish-Polish political and social activist and a noted cardiologist. He was the last surviving leader of the 1943 uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. Following the Second World War, he took an active part in domestic and international politics, dedicating himself to fighting for justice and peace.

Listeners: Joanna Klara Agnieszka Zuchowska Joanna Szczesna Anka Grupinska

Joanna Klara Agnieszka 'Aga' Zuchowska was born 20 January 1938. Her father was killed in the Katyń massacre. After the war, she moved from Warsaw to Lódz. She obtained a degree in medicine in 1960, qualifying as a specialist in internal medicine in 1973. Dr Zuchowska worked with Marek Edelman for 15 years. In 1982 she left Poland for Algeria where she remained for the next three years, returning to Poland in 1985. She currently lives in Lódz.

Joanna Klara Agnieszka 'Aga' Zuchowska, urodzona 20 stycznia 1938. Ojciec zginal w Katyniu. Po wojnie zamieszkala w Lodzi. Studia ukonczyla w 1960 r. a specjalizacje z chorób wewnetrznych w 1973 r. Doktorat obronila we Wroclawiu. Pracowala z Markiem Edelmanen przez 15 lat. W 1982 r. wyjechala do Algerii. Wrócila do Polski w 1985 r. i mieszka obecnie w Lodzi.

Joanna Szczesna is a journalist writing for Gazeta Wyborcza. Together with Anna Bikont, she’s the author of Pamiatkowe rupiecie, przyjaciele i sny Wislawy Szymborskiej (The Recollected Flotsam, Friends and Dreams of Wislawa Szymborska) a biography of Wislawa Szymborska, the Polish winner of the Noble Prize for Literature. Since the 1970s, Joanna Szczesna has been involved with the democratic opposition movement in Poland, active in the Worker’s Defence Committee (KOR), the co-founder of the independent press in Poland: editor of KOR’s Information Bulletin, Solidarnosc Press Agency and Tygodnik Mazowsze.

Joanna Szczesna, dziennikarka "Gazety Wyborczej", autorka - wraz z Anna Bikont - biografia polskiej noblistki "Pamiatkowe rupiecie, przyjaciele i sny Wislawy Szymborskiej". Od lat 70-tych zwiazana z opozycja demokratycznaw Polsce, wspólpracowniczka Komitetu Obrony Robotników, wspóltwórczyni prasy niezaleznej w Polsce: redaktorka "Biuletynu Informacyjnego KOR-u", Agencji Prasowej "Solidarnosc" i "Tygodnika Mazowsze".

Anka Grupinska ukonczyla filologie angielska na UAM w Poznaniu. Wspólpracowala z poznanskimi pismami podziemnymi, wraz z innymi zalozyla i wydawala dwumiesiecznik "Czas Kultury". W latach 1988-1989 przebywala w Izraelu opracowujac wspomnienia ocalalych z Zaglady. W latach 1991-1993 pracowala jako attaché kulturalny w ambasadzie polskiej w Tel Awiwie. Od 1996 mieszka w Polsce. Anka Grupinska specjalizuje sie w tematyce stosunków polsko-zydowskich. Publikuje ksiazki (m. in. Wydawnictwo Literackie, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, Twój Styl), artykuly prasowe (m. in. "Tygodnik Powszechny", "Rzeczpospolita"), realizuje projekty wystawiennicze. Jest takze koordynatorem miedzynarodowego projektu "Swiadek zydowskiego wieku" (archiwizowanie pamieci o zydowskiej przedwojennej Polsce), prowazi autorska audycje radiowa "O Zydach i o Polakach tez" i uczy warszawskich studentów sztuki czytania i pisanie tekstów literackich.

Anka Grupinska studied English at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. She wrote for Poznan’s underground publications and was herself one of the founding publishers of the bi-monthly Czas Kultury. She spent 1988 and 1989 in Israel compiling reminiscences of Holocaust survivors. From 1991 to 1993, she held the post of Cultural Attache at the Polish Embassy in Tel Aviv. She moved back to Poland in 1996 and now writes books on Jewish subjects, mainly dealing with the history of the Warsaw ghetto. She is also a freelance journalist for Tygodnik Powszechny. Anka Grupinska is the director of the Centropa Foundation project in Poland (oral history project) called “The Witness of the Jewish Century¿, presents her own radio programme, “Of Jews and of Poles too¿, and teaches creative writing and oral history in Collegium Civitas and SWPS in Warsaw.

Tags: Myślenice, Warsaw, Israel, Mossad, Folke Bernadotte

Duration: 2 minutes, 30 seconds

Date story recorded: December 2003

Date story went live: 24 January 2008