My Jewish parents, my Polish parents
I was saved by my two grandmothers: Jewish and Polish
My grandmothers Norma Wurman and Antonina Krasicka knew each other very well. They agreed that should such a need arise, Antonina will take care of me. In autumn of 1942 commenced the liquidation of the Bełżyce ghetto. In September several hundred Jews were transported to the Majdanek camp, in October more than several thousand people were on a transport to Sobibór. My parents Tauba and Mordko Rochman with their children (apart from me they also had a seven year old child) escaped from the ghetto and were hiding in a field, in a haystack. In December 1942 they knocked on the door of Antonina Krośnicka. I was then 11 months old, was ill, with many frostbites. They asked her to keep me for several days, so that I could improve, meanwhile they would look for a new place to hide.
All the time I used to live in hiding. When anyone came I hid in a wardrobe
Grandmother Antonina lived with her daughter Natalia Kosko, a childless widow, who later became my mother. At first Natalia was against hiding a Jewish child, but her mother had her way. They both counted on my parents reappearing to take me away, but weeks passed and my parents did not appear. Natalie was very afraid, she knew that she was risking her life — there was a foreign baby in the house, with no documents. Her mother persuaded her that the best solution would be for her to baptize me as her own child. She asked a priest for assistance. Thanks to him on the 18th of December 1942, after dusk, I was baptized. I became the daughter of Natalia Kosko, widow, aged 43 (the priest rejuvenated her by seven years, to make it more plausible that I was her child). I now had legal papers, but mother was still afraid that somebody may denounce us to the Germans and she kept me hidden at home. Out of fear she kept drinking moonshine. It was then that she began to drink. Grandmother Antonina used to care for me as for her own grandchild. She died in 1944. After liberation mother did not want to stay in Bełżyce. She decided to leave when two Jews who had survived the Holocaust and returned to the town were murdered. She was afraid that someone may recognise me and do us harm. We left for the recovered territories, to Słupsk. Mother sewed caps, which I used to finish, and she sold them on the market. We barely had enough to live on. I had one dress, which I wore for the whole year. Mother took care that I studied. That was for her of utmost importance. In spite of a difficult situation she made me finish my studies. She was not effusive, she did not display much emotion, did not kiss me or cuddle. But she became very attached to me, she used to say that for me she leap into fire for me. She was very keen on me taking communion, but I failed to pass the exam and had to take it at a later date. Although I did well at school, I could not memorise the prayers. It was for this that for the first time in my life she gave me a beating. When I was 12 I began to suspect that Natalia was not my birth mother. I felt it in her behaviour, her coolness, in the way she treated me. I asked her point-blank and then she told me the truth.
Barbara Lesowska
She finished the Electronic Faculty at the Gdańsk Politechnic. She was a maths teacher. She belongs to the Association of “Children of the Holocaust” in Poland. Not long ago, thanks to the help of her daughter, she found her relatives in Israel and the United States. She has three daughters and ten grandchildren.
Parents
Natalia Kosko
née Kraśnicka
(1892–1974)
She became my mother when she was a mature woman. She did not know how to cook, she smoked like chimney, but she was sociable, and had a good sense of humour. She had more pluses than minuses.
Tauba Rochman
née Wurman
(1907–1942)
My parents lived in Bełżyce in the Lublin voivodeship. They were merchants, they had two shops and a house in the town’s marketplace. They perished in 1942. I was left with no souvenir of them.
Antonina
Kraśnicka
(zm. 1944)
She was never afraid of anything. She took me under her roof and cared for me. She took care of me until her death. Thanks to her I had a mother.
Mordko (Motek)
Rochman
(1907–1942)