Object numberM2010/001:011
DescriptionFour-page typed testimony of Dawid Rosenfeld and others from Rowno and Wlodzimmierz recorded in the 'Refugee House' in Bucharest in 1945 by Jadwiga Sapera.
Jadwiga Sapera was born Hermina Silberfeld, to Polish Jews Nathan Silberfeld and Anna (nee Hollander) on 27 November 1914 in Miskolc, Hungary. In 1918, the family returned to their home in Stary Sacz, Poland. Hermina attended a convent, which gave her a knowledge of German and Catholicism that was helpful for her survival. In 1942, Hermina attained false identification papers of a Polish-Catholic woman, Jadwiga Eleonora Jarzemiszewska. As Jadwiga she was able to find new accommodation and work, and at the end of 1942, moved to Krakow to better safeguard her secret. In 1943 she moved to Warsaw and then to Budapest, until liberation. After the war she kept the name Jadwiga and got work in Bucharest typing the testimonies of concentration camp survivors for the Association of Polish Jewish Refugees. She found out her father had died of hunger and disease, but her mother and brother survived. She was reunited with them in Poland. She lived in Katowice with her husband Jan Sapera who she met and married in 1946. They immigrated to Australia in 1958 with their three children. In the last decade of her life she re-adopted her Jewish name Hermina.
Jadwiga Sapera was born Hermina Silberfeld, to Polish Jews Nathan Silberfeld and Anna (nee Hollander) on 27 November 1914 in Miskolc, Hungary. In 1918, the family returned to their home in Stary Sacz, Poland. Hermina attended a convent, which gave her a knowledge of German and Catholicism that was helpful for her survival. In 1942, Hermina attained false identification papers of a Polish-Catholic woman, Jadwiga Eleonora Jarzemiszewska. As Jadwiga she was able to find new accommodation and work, and at the end of 1942, moved to Krakow to better safeguard her secret. In 1943 she moved to Warsaw and then to Budapest, until liberation. After the war she kept the name Jadwiga and got work in Bucharest typing the testimonies of concentration camp survivors for the Association of Polish Jewish Refugees. She found out her father had died of hunger and disease, but her mother and brother survived. She was reunited with them in Poland. She lived in Katowice with her husband Jan Sapera who she met and married in 1946. They immigrated to Australia in 1958 with their three children. In the last decade of her life she re-adopted her Jewish name Hermina.
Production date 1945
Subjecttestimonies, survivors, survivors, survival, eyewitness accounts, deportation
Object nametestimonies
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 210.00 mm
height: 300.00 mm
Language
- Polish PROTOCOL 11
This record of testimony was accepted in the “Refugee House” in Bucharest in Calea Mosilor 128 on the day the 16/V/1945. With the aim of submitting this testimony present themselves:
ROSENFELD DAVID – Merchant – born in 1895 together with his family (born in Lublin)
ROSENFELD Anna – daughter – born in 1924 in Lublin
ROSENFELD Fenia – daughter – born in 1930 in Lublin
ROSENFELD Ajzyk – son – born in 1925 in Lublin
ROSENFELD Mordko – son – born in 1927 in Lublin
Resided before the war in Rowno (Wolyn)
Father relates the following:
Within two weeks of the outbreak of the Russian-Soviet war the Germans arrived. In Rowno resided around 45,000 Jews. Even before the Germans marched in the Ukrainians began a pogrom which involved robbing Jewish homes, and there were several victims.
In the first days of the German entry it was relatively quiet. In one week after the Germans entered we moved to the city of Wlodzimierz in which 3000 Jews resided (in the province of Volyn-Volynakie). During Rosh Hashanah the Germans instituted the first monetary contributions in the amount of 5 gold rubles per person. At the same time an order went out for the people to put on arm bands (with the Zionstern, i.e. Star of David). These arm bands we wore until Yom Kippur and from that time an order came out that we wear a yellow patch on our chests and backs. We wore the arm bands with pride but when we had to put on the yellow patches every one was very depressed and a large number of people preferred not to leave their homes rather than wear the patches. During the first days we had quite a lot of hope that the Russian army will destroy the Germans but very quickly this hope turned out to be sterile. During Yom Kippur the Judenrat was established which we ourselves chose. However, there were incidents when Jews refused to take up functions (posts) in the Judenrat. The chairman of the Judenrat was Eisenberg, the owner of a mill. At the same time as the Judenrat was established the Ordnungstdienst (security police) was established which was made up of 15 persons. The Judenrat meticulously carried out the German orders believing that in this manner they would be able to save the Jewish population from the German repressions. In spite of the ruthlessness it tried to collect the contributions from among the population of the City according to their wealth. The collections of contributions occurred frequently. We had to submit money, clothing, overcoats, furs, underwear etc. The periods at the beginning of the occupation were quiet, but even when there was an incident when a dozen people were to be executed belonging to the Komsomol (a branch of the Communist party for young people) the Judenrat managed to buy out these people by paying a ransom. At the Judenrat was set up a branch of the Arbeitsamt (an employment office) whose task was to assign young people (up to the age of 50) to work. The work was extremely hard, mainly working in the forest, on the sawmills in the wood yard and loading and unloading train wagons at the station. During work we were beaten and abused especially by the Ukrainian police. For stealing a few potatoes we were beaten until loss of consciousness.
At the end of February 1942 a Jewish quarter was set up which occupied nearly half of the city. You could only leave this area with an exit pass. People who went to work had to walk in a column and had their own Jewish guard. The Jewish police related to the Jewish population not in a too mild manner; they scrupulously carried out the orders of the Judenrat and sometimes it resulted in fights between members of thee O.D/ and their opponents. The situation in the Jewish quarter relating to provisions deteriorated terribly because the Aryans were not permitted to bring in food into the Jewish quarter. At the beginning we were given 200 grams of bread per day, and later this ration was reduced to 100 grams per day. People somehow during the nights managed to sneak out of the Jewish quarter so as to get some food, and those who worked outside the Jewish quarter were in a position to bring in food from time to time. Those who were caught outside the Jewish quarter without a pass were shot dead by the Ukrainian police. The Ukrainian police harassed us more than the German military police stationed in the City as they were capable of being bribed. Relationships among the Jews towards each other was good as they helped one another.
On Pesach the Jewish ghetto was established. In spite of the fact that the Jewish population was increased because of the arrival of Jews from the surrounding villages and towns it was however reduced in size and thus the living conditions became significantly worse. Living conditions (housing) became extremely cramped to the extent that 4 to 5 families had to live in one apartment. The ongoing contributions we had to pay so impoverished us that it became extremely difficult to obtain food sources. Our ghetto at that time had around 5000 people. Our entire family was working. I worked at the railway station, our son as a locksmith, my daughter worked as a seamstress. Everyone tried to have work believing that in this way (by working) we would survive. In this way we survived this period up to 28/V111/1942.
Already prior to the action our youth united with the Ukrainian and Polish youths that once belonged to the Komsomol so that if an action was to happen they were to come into the Jewish quarter and take our youth into the forest and arm them so that they could join the partisans. Several days before the action was to begin we heard rumours from the Ukrainians that ditches were being dug for us but somehow we didn’t want to believe this and we thought the Ukrainians were trying to frighten us.
On the 23/V111/1942 our ghetto was surrounded by the Komsomol - communist youth organization. Ukrainians did not permit anyone to leave the ghetto. We expected the action to happen the next day and for this reason a great number of people attempted during the night to escape from the surrounded ghetto but only a small number of people succeeded and around 300 were shot to death during their escape. Through the intervention of the Judenrat and the Gebietskommisar and the German military police it was announced that there was not going to be an action to eliminate people but only that people had to report for a roll call and so as not to cause a panic in the ghetto the most important workers were permitted to go to work. On Wednesday, the 26/V1111 the Ukrainians police began to rob homes of people that have escaped.
That evening I was visited by two Ukrainian policemen whom I had known who said to me the following” Why are you sitting at home and not trying to escape because in a day or two there will be an action to eliminate Jews who are quietly awaiting the action and are not trying to save themselves, some may die during the escape but some may save themselves” As far as we were concerned we believed that these words that were spoken to us were genuine because we had good relations with them, but with respect to other Jews I believe that they were more interested in having more empty homes to rob. Initially we did not know what to do – whether to hide for 3 days in a bunker that we had already prepared and later when the action will pass as we were assured it would pass, to come out of hiding and take advantage of a pass I had for 5 people and leave in the morning as if we were going to work. At night we decided to take advantage of our pass and leave for work in the morning. My wife was sick and we thought that the difficulties we will encounter whilst hiding in the forest would be great so we decided that my wife with our youngest son would remain in our hiding place under the roof. A dawn as if going to work we instead went to the forest where we hid..
Friday morning all the Jews were called up and ordered to bring all their best and most valuable possessions to the square. People who were hiding were pulled out of their hiding placed by the Ukrainian police and the O.D. (Ordnungstdienst) and they were shot dead on the spot. The major of the German military police appeared at the square ( whose name I don’t remember) and ordered that the workers assemble on one side and those people who possess money and would be able to buy themselves out are to assemble on the other side and are to register themselves with him. His words gave those assembled some hope as the expectation was that not everyone will succumb to the action. When the throng of people began to push towards him in order to register the major shot a volley of bullets into the crowd killing 5 persons. People then realized that everything is a trick, that they were being deceived and that the Germans did not care about the lives of the Jews. People began to run in different directions towards the forest. Many perished during their escape journey. Whoever was caught was brought to a prepared ditch and shot to death. The ditches which were meant to be graves were 3 kilometers from the city. The president of the Judenrat not wanting to be suspected of being complicit in the deaths of these people attached himself to the group who were going to be executed at the ditch. He delivered a speech before being executed saying that everything is God’s design (destined by God). He was the first one to undress and the first one executed even though he had the opportunity to continue living. The executions were carried out in the following manner: people undressed naked, men separately, women separately, and mothers with children under the age of 10 separately. They then had to lay down in the ditch – 10 persons in a row and were executed with a machine gun. On top of this row, a second row of victims were forced to lay irrespective whether not all the victims of the first row were dead. This execution lasted until the entire ditch was full. Only a very small number managed to escape from the grave. Some people before being executed appealed to others to oppose the Germans. Others yelled out “you are mad.”
Those Ukrainians who prior to all this had an earlier agreement with our youth that they would take them (lead them) into the forest were the first ones who took part in the action (executions). Also our plan to set fire to our city in case of an action so as to create panic among the ghetto inhabitants so that they would have the opportunity to escape was not put into action because it was known that not everyone would be able to escape and those who remained would suffer even more.
During the first day there were also several incidents when mothers with small children were escaping into the forest and when the raids began in the forest they left the children alone in the forest and ran away themselves. These children were later shot to death by the Germans. There were many more incidents where young people who had the opportunity to escape from the square or their journey to certain death refused to leave their families, and together with them met their death. During the first day over 2000 people died; around 2000 hid in bunkers in the ghetto or also hid with peasants in the surrounding areas or hid in the forests. In the majority of cases these peasants in order to get their hands on the belongings of the Jews betrayed them to the Ukrainian police. During the last days of the action the Ukrainian police as well as the Ukrainian civilians began to search the ghetto for Jews and all those found were taken to the goal and when the number reached 50 persons they were taken to a prepared grave where they were shot to death. Very few managed to escape. Those that were caught were beaten and tortured, subjected to hunger so as to obtain from them the whereabouts of the hiding places of the other Jews. This, however, was not effective in finding out the hiding places of other Jews because each person did not know the location of the other individuals hiding place. The young women who were found by the Ukrainians were raped and shot to death by them.
The action in the ghetto lasted for 2 weeks until everyone was caught. In relation to the loss of my wife, she with 32 other persons who were hiding in a hiding place under the roof perished on the tenth day of the action. As a result of not having any water to drink one of the women became mad (lost her mind) and as a result left the hiding place and was found in the court yard by the Ukrainian police who was beaten and tortured for a long period until she betrayed the hiding place where the rest were hidden. During this period we were hiding in the forest. Those people who at the beginning also escaped into the forest but could not find a hiding place nor food either committed suicide by hanging or returned to the ghetto and gave themselves up to the police. We also found out that after shooting the people to death the Ukrainians pulled out gold teeth from the corpses.
Our day to day survival in the forest became harder and harder. During the first days we were still able to get some food from the local peasants. Later when the order came that those peasants who hid Jews and gave them assistance with food will be treated like Jews and will be shot to death. Life in the forest became totally unbearable. They didn’t want to endanger their own hide for us. Our food consisted of turnips and carrots which during the night we took from the surrounding gardens. For a period of 3 months we did not have any cooked food or water. There were frequent raids in the forest and the very large number of victims was those who had escaped from the ghetto.
During this period when the raids were occurring we were extremely lucky because we were hiding in different forests or in sheds without the knowledge of the owners. When the Ukrainian police found out that we were hiding somewhere in the forest they offered a 25 golden ruble reward for each head.
Of course there were a lot of volunteers who on the one hand wanted the 25 golden ruble reward and on the other hand they expected us to have valuables with us. During one of the raids we were shot at and a woman who was also hiding with us was wounded but we managed to escape. We constantly lived in fear and we avoided even meeting small boys who were cattle shepherds as we were afraid that they may betray us. Our situation was getting worse day by day, winter was coming and we were still in the forest. We heard that somewhere Jewish partisans were operating but initially we were not able to make contact with them. It was becoming colder and colder and eventually I sent one of my sons to search for the partisans. He left and we thought that he would not return since several days passed and he was nowhere to be seen. It was only after one week that he returned and told us that in order to join the partisans we have to leave our forests and go 60 kilometers further. Winter had already truly set in and during our final nights we slept on the snow without having warm clothing and our greatest wish now was to join the partisans. We wanted however firstly to take back some clothes that we left hidden with a certain Pole who lived in the city. We only managed to take back an overcoat because the next day this Pole betrayed us to the police telling them where we could be found. Thanks to another Pole who told us during the night about the looming danger that awaited us that we were able to avoid being arrested. That night we escaped and on our way we came across Russian partisans who did not want to accept us. They told us to walk further indicating the direction. It was already daylight and it was dangerous to walk. We hid in a haystack on the field. Here we were again discovered by peasants and again we had to escape but eventually we reached the Jewish partisans. It was still a small partisan group, numbering around 150 Jews, but unfortunately they had very few weapons and thus we had to obtain some. There were only 15 rifles for the entire group. In order to obtain arms a group of ten people stormed the Ukrainian police station yelling “hurrah”. The policemen fearing that there were very many of us threw down their weapons and ran away. Not infrequently were there casualties among the policemen or among the majors of the military police. After acquiring weapons in this manner we were able to carry out bigger operations. With regard to food, the situations was much better here. With the use of our weapons we were able o obtain food products whenever we needed. Women also took part in the excursions to obtain weapons and food.
In this way the winter of 1942/3 had passed. In 1943 we met up with a large Russian partisan group numbering 1900 persons who were better armed than us and we joined them. Life with the partisans consisted of blowing up bridges, railway lines, setting warehouses and storerooms on fire etc. We took an active part in these operations.
Life with the partisans was very disciplined and we lived in a friendly manner even though at times we were surrounded and in real difficult situations but we always managed to extricate ourselves from these situations. We did not suffer as many casualties in our battles with the Germans as we did in fighting the Ukrainian nationalists the Bondarowcy. They ambushed us on our terrain and attacked the camps where we had our wounded and even managed to infiltrate our detachment passing as partisans with the aim of spying in order to determine our situation etc.
They treated our prisoners in a very cruel manner in order to obtain information about us, but we also treated their prisoners in the same manner. For these types of interrogations were selected certain Jews from our detachment who were given the opportunity in this way to take revenge for the deaths of their loved ones. If we took German prisoners we would ask them if they wanted to stay with the partisans but very seldom did any of them agree to this. If they did not want to stay they were executed. Lately there were many instances of entire Ukrainian police posts voluntarily coming over to join us and took part in fighting the Germans and they even distinguished themselves during these battles. Heavy fighting with the Germans began during the winter of 1943/44. The front was 60 kilometers away from us and we had orders to clear out the entire terrains, towns and villages and this task continued till the middle of March when we joined up with the Red Army. Part of our detachment was disbanded. We ended up at the rear.
During one of our stay in Wlodzimierz the Ukrainians appeared to rejoice at seeing us but this was rather due to the fear they had of us rather than real love towards us. Nothing connected us to this town except for the terrible memories. We left seeking a new way of life.
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs Jadwiga Sapera