Ronia Brück (Bronisława Sokołowska), Ronia Cwengel – a Survivor

In September 1939, the German troops invaded the Bieszczady Mountains area on the right side of the San River and totally robbed it. Soon, pursuant to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, they handed it over to the Soviet Union.

The time of the Soviet occupation was rather a peaceful time for the Brück family. Ronia and her younger siblings attended school, although it was a Soviet school then.

In June 1941, after the eastern regions of Poland were again invaded by Germans, a ghetto was created in Lesko and the Brücks had to move in there. The conditions of living were relatively good – they moved into Ronia’s grandparents’ house (father’s parents) which was incorporated into the ghetto. The Brücks spent about a year there, up to the moment when the news spread in the area that not far away a huge factory was being built and all Jews would be obliged to report there to work.

A Polish man from Bezmiechowa, whom the Brücks knew and who was Ronia’s father employee, Manek Raczek, warned the Brücks that no factory was under construction and he advised them to flee to the forest. In spite of that, the Brück family decided to report to that alleged factory. Only Ronia and her elder sister, Liba, separated from the rest. Manek Raczek gave them the address of a tobacco plantation in Kazimierza Wielka and a written recommendation which was to help them to get a job. Liba was employed in the plantation while Ronia started to work as a baby sitter in that town.

Soon, the girls learnt the further history of their family. Ronia got in touch with her school friend, Zosia Durak, a daughter of a crossing attendant in the Łukawica railway crossing. The girls learnt from Zosia that the rest of their family was killed by Germans in a forest near Załuże.

After some time, Ronia was captured and directed to work in Germany. Just before Cracow, she managed to escape from transport. She did not want to return to the family she worked for, however, since they had frequently demanded documents from her she did not possess.

Someone advised her to apply to an orphanage at the cloister of St. Zyta’s nuns in Krakow at 30 Mikołajska St. She introduced herself as Bronisława Sokołowska, said that she left her documents in the train she escaped from on her way to forced labour in Germany. She was employed as a help in the monastery’s canteen. She lived in the cloister till the end of the war.

After the war, in 1946, Ronia and Liba met in Bielsko. The Zionist organisation sent them to temporary refugee camp in Fano, Italy. They spent about two years in the camp, waiting for permission to enter Palestine. Ronia travelled with an earlier transport to Israel which had already been proclaimed. Via Rome and Venice, she reached Haifa and was sent to the Tel Icchak kibbutz. Three months later, she was joined by Liba.

In 1951, Ronia married Jechoszua Cwengel (b. 1918, d. 2010, who came from Łuck, graduated from Soviet aviation school and served in the Red Army as a bomber pilot throughout the war).

Ronia had worked until she was 75 in various professions: she was a hospital nurse, a baby sitter and a post office clerk.

12 years ago, Ronia visited Poland, managed to find Zosia Durak, however, she did not apply for granting her the title “Just among the Nations of the World”.

When in her native Paszowa, she learnt that Manek Raczek was staying in Germany. However, she did not get in touch with him.

She lives in Netanya in a centre for pensioners. She has two children: a daughter Nina (b. 1952, a psychologist) and a son Gabi (b. 1962, a physician) and five grandchildren.

Edited by Jadwiga Rytlowa on the basis of an interview with Ronia Cwengel conducted in Israel on 24th March 2014.