Kraków, 30 August 2001
In memory of my Parents
Irena Zołotarew, 5 February 1898 – 23 April 1968
Borys Zołotarew, 28 August 1895 – 1 February 1983
We were a small family: my father, my mother, and myself. We lived in Warsaw, our most recent address during the war was Kapuścińska Street 3 (we were expelled from the previous flat by the Germans because it was in the so-called German district). My father was a Polish Army officer: he had fought in the war of 1920, in the Third Silesian Uprising (cooperating with Gen. Rozwadowski and Gen. Abraham), and then he served with the Border Guard, unit II.
My mother did not work. She was an attractive woman, of Jewish origins. She converted during World War One. She would say she could not find her place in that world and she moved out at the age of 16. My parents got married in 1921.
The war of 1939 came. At that time, my father worked for the financial crimes enforcement and waited to be called up. He engaged in conspiratorial activities early on. On 11 April 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo, following a denunciation by a Polish acquaintance. But luckily – God only knows how – after three months spent at the Pawiak prison, he was released. Because he was “done” in Warsaw (he was already cooperating in the underground with “Radosław”, that is Gen. Mazurkiewicz), a close friend of theirs got him a job in Kocmyrzów near Karaków, so my father went there. My mother – having the so-called “good looks” and name – worked as a waitress, and I worked in Gen. “Radosław’s” shop, which was his top secret contact point. This continued until August 1942.
In August, the liquidation of the ghetto began. My mother’s family was in the ghetto (meaning her sisters and brothers, because her parents were already dead). My mother was only in touch with one of her sisters, as she had been ever since she left her family home. And this sister, Stefania, together with her daughter Stasia, came to our Warsaw flat in August. They had proper documents forged (thanks to Gen. “Radosław”). First, Stasia went to Kocmyrzów, where my father lived in a four-room wooden house, and then I personally took aunt Stefa and Nela Typograf, the daughter of her neighbors from the ghetto, there. And then Mr. and Mrs. Typograf, Nela’s parents, came to Kapucyńska Street and my mother took care of them.
I am not going to describe what we all went through. Kocmyrzów was the safest place, and Nela even went to school. Stasia worked in my father’s office and my aunt did the housework. I often traveled from Warsaw to Kocmyrzów.
In the meantime, the situation in Warsaw was volatile. Mr. and Mrs. Typograf rented a flat at the Old Town Square, up in the attic. My mother would bring them whatever they needed to get by. But many times they had to temporarily leave the flat for safety reasons. My mother went through lots of difficulties and hardships. This continued until the uprising of August 1944.
Afterward, all these ties loosened. My husband and I escaped through the sewer to Śródmieście [the city center], languishing there alone until the surrender. My mother had stayed behind and went through the Pruszków camp, so did Mr. and Mrs. Typograf, but they were separated. My mother somehow made it to Kocmyrzów, as did I and my husband, while Mr. and Mrs. Typograf took refuge in some monastery.
In February 1945, we had the opportunity to reclaim the Kraków flat which belonged to my husband’s parents (his stepfather, Col. Ocetkiewicz, was a high-ranking army officer in Kraków before the war; he died in Auschwitz, and my husband’s mother returned from the Auschwitz camp in ill health). And so the entire family ended up in Kraków, supporting each other financially, and later, everybody fended for themselves.
My desire is to immortalize the memory of my parents. They deserve it for their kindness, selflessness, valor, and uncommon nobility of spirit and mind, which the people they saved did not appreciate, sometimes not offering as much as a “thank you”.
Attached to the letter are the personal details of the persons saved by my parents.
Anna Czyżewska
née Zołotarew
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