Leon Zettel Testimony
Object numberM2015/028:009
TitleLeon Zettel Testimony
DescriptionVideo testimony of Holocaust Survivor Leon Zettel. Leon was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1924. His father was a wholesaler of silver and gold and worked out of their large apartment. In September 1939 the Germans invaded and a year later, after having their business confiscated, Leon’s family moved from to a one room unit inside the Warsaw ghetto. Although there were four of them, including his grandmother, the family lived fairly well off. They were able to buy a sewing machine and also were able to secure jobs at a German factory making uniforms.
Starvation was a serious problem in the ghetto. Leon recalls seeing people begging that would get thinner and thinner every day, only to one day end up as a corpse covered in newspapers. People would rob others on the street of their groceries for food.
In 1942, two men escaped from a transport and returned to the ghetto to warn the people of what was to come. The talked of a place called ‘Treblinka’ with gas chambers. They described getting undressed, being shaved, and getting disinfected. Even with witnesses standing before them, the people in the ghetto were unwilling to believe that this could be true. It was inconceivable that a cultured nation in Europe could be doing this in the 20th century. Yet Leon believed. He had no illusions about the final destination and when his family was taken away, he decided to escape. A friend of his mothers, Maria Twardoski and her husband Adam agreed to take Leon in if he made it out of the ghetto. He arranged an escape with one of the sympathetic Polish workers constructing the wall around the ghetto. The worker signaled to Leon when there were no guards around and with a step ladder, escaped.
He safely arrived at the Twadarski’s home and stayed there in hiding for 7 or 8 months. The young people from different organizations started to put together a resistance movement. In secrecy, they formed small groups and made arms, Molotov cocktails, mine and bought weapons from the Polish underground. But once the movement began, Leon was already in hiding. In April 1943 when the Germans came for the final liquidation of the ghetto, they were met with fire. Yet, after 4 weeks they ran out of ammunition and food. Some escaped but the rest committed suicide.
In the summer of 1943, the neighbors began to get suspicious. Leon moved out of the country to live with friends of the Twadarskis on a farm. He worked for them and was introduced to people as their cousin, a Polish officer who had escaped from Germany. He was accepted and able to live openly for 7 months. Yet suspicions rose once more and Leon returned to Warsaw to live with the Twadarskis. He lived there for a few months until the Polish uprising in 1944. The uprising was unsuccessful and Germans took hold of parts of the city, including where the Twadarskis lived. Leon was taken to a civilian prisoner camp where he developed sores on his feet. He sought out a Polish hospital, knowing a German-run hospital would discover that he was a Jew. After he recovered, Leon stayed on at the hospital to work as an orderly. When the hospital was evacutated in October 1944, Leon went with the hospital staff to a nearby village until the Russian liberation in January 1945.
After another stay with the Twadarskis, Leon left Poland. He attempted to live with an uncle in Switzerland, but he was denied access to the country. Instead he stayed in a small Jewish community on the German border until a cousin in Australia sent him an entry permit. He arrived in Australia in July 1947.
Leon was married in 1948 and he had two children, a son and a daughter.
Starvation was a serious problem in the ghetto. Leon recalls seeing people begging that would get thinner and thinner every day, only to one day end up as a corpse covered in newspapers. People would rob others on the street of their groceries for food.
In 1942, two men escaped from a transport and returned to the ghetto to warn the people of what was to come. The talked of a place called ‘Treblinka’ with gas chambers. They described getting undressed, being shaved, and getting disinfected. Even with witnesses standing before them, the people in the ghetto were unwilling to believe that this could be true. It was inconceivable that a cultured nation in Europe could be doing this in the 20th century. Yet Leon believed. He had no illusions about the final destination and when his family was taken away, he decided to escape. A friend of his mothers, Maria Twardoski and her husband Adam agreed to take Leon in if he made it out of the ghetto. He arranged an escape with one of the sympathetic Polish workers constructing the wall around the ghetto. The worker signaled to Leon when there were no guards around and with a step ladder, escaped.
He safely arrived at the Twadarski’s home and stayed there in hiding for 7 or 8 months. The young people from different organizations started to put together a resistance movement. In secrecy, they formed small groups and made arms, Molotov cocktails, mine and bought weapons from the Polish underground. But once the movement began, Leon was already in hiding. In April 1943 when the Germans came for the final liquidation of the ghetto, they were met with fire. Yet, after 4 weeks they ran out of ammunition and food. Some escaped but the rest committed suicide.
In the summer of 1943, the neighbors began to get suspicious. Leon moved out of the country to live with friends of the Twadarskis on a farm. He worked for them and was introduced to people as their cousin, a Polish officer who had escaped from Germany. He was accepted and able to live openly for 7 months. Yet suspicions rose once more and Leon returned to Warsaw to live with the Twadarskis. He lived there for a few months until the Polish uprising in 1944. The uprising was unsuccessful and Germans took hold of parts of the city, including where the Twadarskis lived. Leon was taken to a civilian prisoner camp where he developed sores on his feet. He sought out a Polish hospital, knowing a German-run hospital would discover that he was a Jew. After he recovered, Leon stayed on at the hospital to work as an orderly. When the hospital was evacutated in October 1944, Leon went with the hospital staff to a nearby village until the Russian liberation in January 1945.
After another stay with the Twadarskis, Leon left Poland. He attempted to live with an uncle in Switzerland, but he was denied access to the country. Instead he stayed in a small Jewish community on the German border until a cousin in Australia sent him an entry permit. He arrived in Australia in July 1947.
Leon was married in 1948 and he had two children, a son and a daughter.
Production date 2000 - 2000
Subjectsurvivors
Object nametestimonies
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mr Leon Zettel