| POLIN TRAVEL ul. Markowskiego 8/9 31-881 Krakow POLAND |
 |
http://www.jewish-guide.pl e-mail: info@jewish-guide.pl jewish-guide@hotmail.com phone: (+48) 513-158-001 |
In early May 2008 I got an e-mail from Jane with request to organize just a one day trip to the city of Wislica for 3 people. The project sounded ordinary and uncomplicated and was not looking like being connected to any particular research. Just a one day excursion to see the city and what was left of the Jewish Heritage. I was not given any details, but suspected some family history behind. When Jane started asking questions concerning security in Wislica I sensed layers of mistrust and this special and so common "love and hatred" relationship to Poland. That was the moment when I found out the she was coming with her father Jacob who had lived in Wislica before the war.
A little detail that changes everything......
I started to prepare some database about Wislica in general and Wislica Jewry in particular. I studied the Yitzkor book of Wislica, started to look for genealogical documents from this city and read most texts available from Wislica rich history. The lecture was both surprising and illuminating. I discovered that this small village, around 90 km away from Cracow, can boast of its IX century origins. This was the supposed capital of the Wislanie tribe which only later merging with other Slavonic Tribes became the Kingdom of Poland. In its Medieval history Wislica was one of the major fortified castles of Kazimierz the Great and in 1347 the King had proclaimed the Legal Charter of Wislica which regulated all legal and social issues in the Kingdom of Poland. The later history made Wislica a more and more provincial town and in XIX century the lack of rail line connection degraded it from a town to a village.
Jews were first mentioned in the city documents in early XVI century. They were known as city traders, competing with Christians, which often led to frictions resolved few times by the royal authorities. Gradually, on the basis of various privileges, the local Jews specialized in the production and sale of vodka, beer and mead. XIX and XX century had brought the rapid growth of Jewish community which in 1939 reached over 60% of the general village population. During the Holocaust the German Nazis established a ghetto in Wislica which in 1942 was liquidated and residents deported to Treblinka Extermination camp. One may say - a repetitive history of one from few thousands of pre war Polish shtetls - but for me it was becoming special due to the person I was to travel with.
We met in the early morning in Cracow. Jane was smart and friendly and she introduced me to her sister Esther and their father Jakob. Jakob was already in his 80's but he still had this sparkle of a teenager in his eyes, maybe because he was back to the country of his childhood for the first time since 1945. The road went smooth and fast as we were discussing the complicated Polish-Jewish history and with every kilometer closer to Wislica, I was finding out more and more from Jakob's story. The family had a textile shop, he was a boy helping with business. There were Christian and Jewish customers, he was traveling to Cracow to buy textile with parents. Life was hard but the sense of community and young age was making Wislica home.
We arrived to the Market Square of Wislica and realized that it is more a village than a town and there is not much left from a splendid royal history of this place. We found the place where the textile shop used to be, still a shop, but with grocery now. Then, I was prepared to locate the plot of land where the synagogue used to be, which now has a communist era apartment building standing. The place of worship of God changed into an ugly tribute to social realism. Our presence was raising general interest and soon we started to talk to people, asking questions about the past. Some stories followed but nothing about Jakob's family. The people showed us where the mikvah was - almost nothing left, they indicated a way to the cemetery and shared some war stories they remembered. Cemetery was a shock even for me, although I had seen hundreds of such places before. Every time they raise the same emotions of a need to explain at first then helplessness and finally shame. It was devastated partly during the war as stone was used by the Nazis for road construction but partly after the war by people using the stone for various purposes. Now, it is piece of overgrown land with few remnants of matzevots sticking out and covered with graffiti. Jakob took it calmly and at least for me seemed to be understanding.
Around noon we headed towards the dominating over the village gothic basilica from XIV century, the only reminder of the past glory of Wislica. A lady acting as a caretaker was very friendly and she took us around the building with great engagement, including the under basilica Romanesque church excavations. The basilica and a nearby museum had nothing about the Jews. Sometimes you can have a sense of looking for some long-lost civilization but only then do you realize that they lived here only 70 years ago. More, in this case the person standing next to you remembers those people and their faces. Jackob is one of them. It was only 70 years ago, time of a very systematic, programmed destruction of not only the people but also their culture and remaining memory about their existence. Destruction initiated by Nazi Germany and carried on by Communist Regime on those lands. The sad conclusion in that moment was that the excavated baptistery from IX century was better preserved than the Jewish cemetery still used for burials in 1940.
Having this in mind Jakob seemed to be a person from some other planet, if not galaxy, and by all means it was important to find out how he came or was preserved to this reality we know today. I have perceived his appearance on the market in Wislica in 2008 as an act of commemoration to the Jewish Community which was gathered on this square in 1942 to be deported to Treblinka. His presence in some way was a posthumous statement of Wislica Jewry about the failure of the meticulous German genocide policy. That was my image but Jacob seemed to be free of any ideology or grandiose needs of proving anything. He was just there to experience the place, pay tribute, calmly register the changes and find one Polish Christian family. How come that against all odds, 63 years later, Jackob was back to Wislica???
On the way we tried not to talk too much about Jakob's war experiences but I learned later that he had fled the village before the deportation in 1942. In spring of that year there were rumors circulating about Jews being gathered and deported from nearby villages. Once the Jews started to disappear from the region, Jacob and two of his friends decided not to show on the round up order in Wislica square but to leave the village. They found a shelter in some caves nearby but with winter 1942-43 coming they needed to change the hiding place. It wasn't so much due to the temperature but rather the foot prints they were leaving on fresh snow which might have led to them being discovered. Jakob reminded himself the Polish farmers family of Kowalski who were the former customers in their textile shop. Having no other options, he decided to give it a chance. At night the three Jewish boys crawled to the Kowalski farm and knocked at the window. Waleria, the mother of the family, was scared to death but led the boys to the kitchen and called the family of five children and husband Stanislaw. The Kowalski's knew that sheltering the Jewish boys they risked the lives of the whole family of 7 people. This was made clear by the German occupier. They also knew that hiding 3 boys is a challenge with extra food rations already very limited due to the German regular confiscation of food from farmers. In those conditions saving boys would take the engagement of the whole family when the possible betrayal could come anytime and from anybody.
The family debate lasted and it was finally Waleria who finished it with a statement that protecting them is just the right thing to do. The family prepared the hiding place under the barn floor and three Jewish boys were located there. At this moment the future was unknown and nobody even predicted that they would leave this place for good only 26 months later.
So here we were, at 1 p.m. on a sunny May day in 2008, in Wislica with a local war story told by Jacob. The only missing element was the family of Kowalski. We asked people in Wislica, nobody knew this surname. Local registry office brought no revelation. Catholic priest in Wislica didn't know them either. Jackob said that it had been some place outside the city, probably on the way to Chroberz and that the farm had been large. So, lets drive to Chroberz and on the way stop in each and every larger farm area. After visiting few communist run and then abandoned farms and creating hundreds of possible versions of what might have happened with Kowalski family, there were more questions then answers. Caves seemed to be a good hint and finding them might have brought us closer to Kowalski farm. Just a little orientation in the map of the region and... caves were everywhere. We were in the valley of Nida river with gypsum rocks all around. Geologically, it looks like a Swiss cheese. The cave part of the story can't help too much.
We decided to visit all the Catholic Parishes around but both priests in Zlota and in Chroberz, although willing to help, knew nothing. Frustration grew especially that it was already 3 p.m. and we still needed to drive back to Cracow. We came to Chroberz to give it a try at the local museum. Exhibitions, maps, documents brought nothing new. Finally, the director was kind enough to call personally three oldest city inhabitants to ask for Kowalski. We where sitting there in director office ready to put down the Kowalski address. People must remember.
To our surprise, no one has seen or heard of them. It was just as if we had come to the wrong place on Earth or as if that world had never existed and resuscitating it would bring no result. A little victory of the Nazi or Communist system which seemed to kill something for good. Kowalski's haven't existed. I became even suspicious that maybe Jacob misremembered the surname and I started to check its all possible variations. Not that it would bring something.
The last chance were the people working in the population registry offices in Chroberz and Zlota. I decided to start with Zlota but when we got there, the office was already closed. They close at 4 p.m. and it was 10 minutes past. When I was going out, obsessively thinking what else can be done, there came a farmer saying that if we rush up the village we should find the registry clerk walking back home. With no time to loose, we drove up the village and picked up the registry lady on the way. She was nice enough to reopen the office and listen to our story. With her help, we scanned the census books from 20's and 30''s to find...... nothing. When we were about to leave, she said that there was no Kowalski here but it ringed the bell for her on the other side of the Nida river in village of Zagosc. She made a few phone calls and indeed there were Kowalski in Zagosc somewhere. "Somewhere" sounded very vague especially at 4:30 p.m. of that day.
Zagosc was the other side of the valley so we drove fast, knowing the only police speed control was in Chroberz. We were there 3 times already on this day. We started with a church in Zagosc and approached people who were decorating round church chapels. The man in a black shirt, who welcomed us, would make a good Kowalski. At this time of the day we wanted to see Kowalski everywhere. He happened to be the parish priest and he just showed us the lady decorating the chapel. "She is Kowalski for example" he said. The feelings of relief and panic came together. How to brief this lady a story of her grand parents saving 3 Jewish boys? Does she know about it? Does she want to know? Does she want the others around to listen? How would she react? She was puzzled but very opened and immediately called the husband to come because she was just married to Kowalski.
Only 15 minutes later were we sitting at the table in Kowalski house, telling the story. Jacob, Jane, Ester and me facing 3 surprised generations of Kowalski who were doing their best to receive us with the best food and treatment possible. The puzzles started to fit together, the family possessed a farm close by during the war and their grandparents were Stanislaw and Waleria. Unfortunately, they had died in late 40's and of their 5 children only the youngest, Tosia, was still alive - she lives in Wieliczka, close to Cracow. This afternoon it was the first time that those people heard the story of Jacob. They were never told this story by their parents as in the Communist period it might have brought some problems for the family. The only one that remembered was the youngest of Waleria's kids Tosia and Jacob too had a memory of her bringing food to the barn shelter and playing with 3 Jewish boy different games. But Tosia wasn't there she was in Wieliczka.
That afternoon we still visited the cemetery to pay honors to Waleria, Stanislaw and 4 other children. The last two things troubling us were the cave and the farm but here one of the Kowalski came with help. He took us to the area where the farm used to be. Unfortunately, no buildings were left but Jacob recognized the site. Around 5 minutes drive were the Skorocice caves which served the Jewish boys as first and last shelter. Just before liberation in winter 1945 they were afraid that the front line may destroy the farm so they moved back to the caves after 26 months spent under the barn floor. That was the last time Jacob saw the Kowalski family until this May in 2008.
The day was over and complete and even today I wonder how, if needed, we can stretch the time for our needs. The wish of Jacob was fulfilled thanks to his memory (he never gave up believing that he remembered the family name correctly), endurance (we had no time to eat on this physically straining day) and wish to face Poland and Wislica against all bad memories and stereotypes accumulated in the last 63 years. Jacob against all odds came with his mind opened which provided final success.
P.S. The next day we visited Tosia in Wieliczka. She was the youngest daughter of Waleria and Stanislaw. Jacob and Tosia recognized each other and started to share stories connected with the hiding place in Kowalski farm. Two older people, still young at heart, sharing the same stories, 63 years and two totalitarian systems later.
Written by Tomasz Cebulski
If you are interested in publishing your personal research story please contact us.
You can find more travel itineraries at TOURS, SITES, PAST PROJECTS or HOLOCAUST EDUCATION.
| POLIN TRAVEL ul. Markowskiego 8/9 31-881 Krakow POLAND |
|
http://www.jewish-guide.pl e-mail: info@jewish-guide.pl jewish-guide@hotmail.com phone: (+48) 513-158-001 |