Ryszard Weidman Testimony (doc. 301/1116)
Original, manuscript, 4 pages, 210 x 295 mm, Polish language
Transcribed by I. Lauer
Children
When the war broke out I was in Warsaw with my mommy. I was in the ghetto. There was a blockade – I was with mommy and other people in a cellar, there was a trapdoor there and it was covered with rags and a certain man, who was in the house had a bell and he rang when there was danger, for people to be quiet and hide better. The Germans came and found different people in the cellar in different hide-outs, but ours was the best and they didn’t find us.
Later when we found out that they were going to make soap from us, we went to a certain lady, who worked in the factory and we lodged with her, and the next day we went to my cousin’s. Also in the ghetto when we drove by the sentry, mommy covered me with a blanket. We were there 2 to 3 days, we called uncle up, who was in the city as an Aryan, a Volksdeutsch, and we arranged how to send me.
In the evening, so nobody would see, my cousin and another man threw me and one girl over the wall. My cousin lifted me up on the ladder and passed me onto a man who stood on a stool on the other side. There was no glass in that place.
Come with me.We got into the carriage, but because it was late, a policeman stopped us and told us to show our papers. The men, who were in the carriage showed theirs, and the woman took me by the hand and we escaped to the barber shop. It was fortunate that they stopped the carriage right there, because the lady had keys to the shop. We lodged there sitting in our clothes.
In the morning we went to the lady’s apartment, I had some sleep and then we went by tramway to a certain woman and my uncle came there. My uncle cleaned me and took me to where he lived; I wanted to be there, but it was impossible, because a lot of people used to come by there. Uncle took me to a certain lady. I was there for two weeks.
After that they wanted to give me to my aunt’s acquaintance, but she said that her husband wouldn’t agree and that she knew another, a better one. She led me to that one and I was there maybe a year. It was good for me, uncle used to come to me. I never went out, just sat in the room.
Once my auntie came from the ghetto, she stayed for a few hours. Auntie sent to us a certain lady, who was sick and had ulcers, a Jewess and later a man sent another Jewess. It was crowded and that lady left. But she found
Aha! There is a boy and a woman!He came into our room, told us to go with him, he took away her neck chain and 500 zloty, that she had in possession and a coat. He told me to show him what shouldn’t be shown. He said that he would come for us at 12. He was also a Jew. We escaped. I and the host to a certain lady’s. There I came across that lady who instigated the search against us, and a man similar to the one who was at us. He asked about the other one, how tall he was, how was he dressed. I was there for 3 weeks. Then my auntie took me away from there and gave me to another lady. Again this ill lady was afraid that something would break out and wanted me to be close to her and she moved me to Piusa Street, because she was on Marszałkowska, so I would be close to her.
When the uprising broke out, auntie just brought milk for me and came to us. The husband of the lady, at whose I was, was a company sergeant in the uprising. When the Germans told us to leave, we went with the whole house to the railway station, we lost one another, I almost lost my aunt, because it was heavy with the knapsack and I walked slowly, but I called her and held her hand. We went via a goods train to Pruszków, we were there in a camp. We were in a ward, where the Russians were, they played very nice. When we were leaving those Russians had tears in their eyes.
Now I am with my auntie, we are looking for her husband and the whole family and for that man who wanted to kill us. Now I won’t let him get away with it.
31.X.1945.