The Day the War Ended – Jews Emerging From Hiding (1944–1945)

8th May 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. To mark this occasion, the POLIN Museum has prepared a temporary exhibition entitled “1945 – Not the End, Not the Beginning”, which presents the stories of Polish Jews, who survived the Holocaust, and their postwar experiences.

The end of the war and the memory of this pivotal moment are important themes contained within the testimonies of witnesses featured in the POLIN Museum’s Oral History Collection. 

This article presents a selection of accounts focusing on Jews emerging from hiding in the years 1944–1945.

Contents:

“Each survivor had his/her own time and place when, for them, the war ended – from the summer of 1944, when the Soviets liberated what is now eastern Poland, to the spring of 1945, when Germany officially surrendered.”

“The end of the war meant, paradoxically, coming face to face with the Holocaust and grasping its scale”, we read in the introduction to the POLIN Museum’s temporary exhibition “1945 – Not the End, Not the Beginning.”.

In January 1944, the Red Army, driving out German forces, entered prewar Polish territories, together with units of the Polish People’s Army.

It was from places like Łuck and Kołomyia that the first testimonies emerged from Polish Jews coming out of hiding.  

Only a few – those, who had appropriate false papers, who spoke fluent Polish and who also had “a good appearance”, were able to hide under an assumed identity. 

The majority of Jews, while on the “Aryan side”, had to physically conceal themselves in hiding places – in basements, attics or forests. Some hid on their own. Others received help from Poles. All of there survival strategies involved huge risk. 

Emerging from hiding, after years of living in danger and fear, was a turning point. It meant not only physical survival, but also a psychological confrontation with the consequences of the Holocaust.

What did the day, marking the end of the German occupation and the end of the war, look like? 

Under what circumstances did Jews come out of hiding? 

What challenges did survivors face after leaving their hiding places?

On the anniversary of the end of World War II, we give voice to the witnesses of history – to the survivors, and to those who helped them survive during the Holocaust – who have shared their testimonies with the POLIN Museum’s Oral History Collection.

Mira Ledowski-Krum – “We were lying in a cornfield as Katyusha rockets flew above us”

Mira Ledowski-Krum recalled the moment of the first Soviet air raids and the fear that came with them.

As a child, at the time, she and her mother hid, with Antonina Działoszyńska, in the village of Puźniki, near Koropiec (today in Ukraine).  

“The Germans were preparing for an attack, for withdrawal. But, before that, they searched the area, not for Jews, but for hiding places with weapons or food for the partisans.”

“[...] they then withdrew and we were lying in a cornfield together with Mrs. Działoszyńska. She was there with her children and my mother. My mother kept covering me.”

“And, above us, Katyusha rockets [ed: Soviet missiles] were flying. The sky was full of them – hot, colourful streaks. And that terrible whistling sound.”

“My mother [...] broke down for the first time. She was crying. She held me tightly in her arms and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, you will survive, nothing will happen to you. Your father will make sure that you live and can tell others what we went through.’ I remembered that I was six years old then, nearly seven. It was August.” 

After the war, Mira Ledowka-Krum, and her mother Adela, left for Wrocław. There, Mira began studying Polish literature but, after an antisemitic incident at the university in 1957, she decided to abandon her studies and emigrate to Israel. 

Irena Senderska-Rzońca – Come out, admit that you were hiding there

The paralyzing fear, felt by Jews at the moment of emerging from hiding as Soviet troops entered, as well as the dramatic physical condition of the survivors, was described by Irena Senderska-Rzońca, whose parents Józef and Helena Krzyształowski, from February to August 1944, in Borysław, helped a Jewish family – Elias and Regina Bandera, with their son Myron. 

Józef Krzyształowski arranged a hiding place for them in the attic of a farm building. Irena delivered food to the people in hiding, took out their waste and brought toys for the boy.

“And those Jews – they were so terribly afraid of the Russians. They didn’t want to come out. My father went and said, ‘Come out, admit that you hid here.’ [Elias:] ‘But he has a pistol, he has a rifle, he could shoot me.’ It was really such a fearful moment [...]. They didn’t come out.”

“The Russians withdrew and, only then, did my mother manage to bring the child [ed: Myron] down from the attic. Regina, the child’s mother, came for him, and Elias [Eliasz] stayed up there for a few more days. […] He came down, leaned against the door of the shed, and I remember how his jacket was completely torn at the elbows. His elbows were dirty, worn out […] his pants were torn at the knees, and his knees were exposed […] he just stood there, not knowing if he could walk or not […].”

“My father went inside and brought out, on a hanger, a shirt, jacket and trousers. He said, ‘You’re a doctor. I’m a driver – take this suit.’ And he gave him his last suit.”

After the war, the Bandera family emigrated to the United States where, years later, Irena Senderska-Rzońca reunited with Myron. The Krzyształowski family left Borysław and settled in Wałbrzych. 

In 2000, Irena Senderska-Rzońca and her parents were honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.

Ryszard Ciszewski – they emerged from hiding and glanced at the sun

Ryszard Ciszewski recalls the final hours of the German occupation, when  the Jews emerged from hiding and the moment he said farewell to them. His mother, Janina Ciszewska (née Kałuska), helped Jewish acquaintances in Stanisławów (today Iwano-Frankiwsk). 

For a period of eighteen months, from autumn 1942 until summer 1944, a dozen or so people hid in a room, darkened with curtains, in the Ciszewski family’s house. Janina’s sons, Ryszard and Zdzisław, were also involved in helping the Jews.

“And then movement begins, you can hear it for several days. Somewhere in the distance, like something boiling in a cauldron, that kind of bubbling sound, getting closer and closer. And one afternoon – it was a beautiful summer day, probably in August [...] – around five in the afternoon, suddenly, out in the street, there is gunfire from submachine guns. It turns out that a few Soviet fusiliers [ed: infantry soldiers] were coming, together with a female medic. They passed by us, by our house, and continued on. And then silence.”

“[...] about half an hour later, some air force officer comes [...]. And he says, ‘There were a dozen or so German tanks parked near your house. I flew in by plane at night and dropped a flare to check...’. Mama says, ‘Well, good thing you didn’t hit those tanks or there would be nothing left of our house – or of us either’. [...] He let everyone know it was over, that it was safe to come out. Our [Jewish] people came out, breathed freely and began to go their separate ways. [...] It was their free will – they came out of hiding, looked up at the sun, and that was it.”

“What was the day of farewell like? As I said, they came out – it was a warm afternoon. ‘Jańcu, thank you.’ Kiss, kiss, kiss. And they left. [...] They scattered across the world, like Bronia, like Malwina. I don’t know anything about the rest.”

After the war, survivors Szmerl and Malwina Stern emigrated to Mexico, while Dudek and Bronisława Berler moved to Israel. Janina Ciszewska, together with her sons Ryszard and Zdzisław, relocated to Łodź. In 1987, they were honored with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.

Bolesława Szabat – He jumped almost  up to the ceiling, so overjoyed that he had survived 

Bolesława Szabat recalls the joy at the war’s end, as experienced by survivor Efraim Urman. For two years, her parents, Józefa and Andrzej Siek, had given him shelter on their farm in the village of Lipiny Dolne (Biłgoraj Country). 

“[...] the Jew was overjoyed. He danced at the neighbour’s house, because there was a kind of little party going on there. Someone was playing the accordion and he went over. He had a drink there, because the neighbour gave him some home-brew. He came back all cheerful and said that he was leaving soon, that he was free now. And he danced, said the neighbor. He was jumping up to the ceiling, so happy that he had survived.”

“Everyone knew that he had survived and anyone, who was close by, knew that he [had] no wealth, because he came from a poor family, and he didn’t bring any property with him for us to keep for him. [...] As I said, he came, washed himself, had dinner, and put on clothes that belonged to his father [...]. Then he sewed them from the left side to the right and looked nicely dressed. He even made himself a jacket.”

For a short time following liberation, Efraim lived in Łódź. He then left Poland to a displaced persons (DP) camp in northern Italy. There, he also found his uncle Charles – the only survivor of the Urman family – he invited to him to Paris. At the end of the 1950s, together with his family, Efraim emigrated to New York.  

Stefan Galas. A photograph as a memory

“That moment of farewell. They are leaving us, free, happy [...]. Both of them are on the road near our homestead. With suitcases. [...] I see our farm in the background. And the birch trees. The birch trees standing along the road. A dirt road.”

Even though that day and moment did not remain in Stefan Galas’s memory, a photograph has survived, which he described in detail. In it, we see Rachela Birenbaum and Józef Jass, Jews who survived the Holocaust, leaving the Galas family’s farm in Strzeniówka near Nadarzyn in the spring of 1945. Rachela had hidden there since January 1941, while Józef received help from time to time. They met in hiding and became a couple.

With the end of the German occupation, they came out of hiding. They pobably left the Galas family’s farm a few weeks after the Red Army entered and drove out the Germans in January 1945. They went to Dolny Śląsk and later emigrated to Israel.

“For the holidays, they sent tropical fruits. The Czajka family [ed: Galas family’s neighbours] established correspondence and maintained contact for quite some time”, recalls Stefan Galas.

This extraordinary photograph from the spring of 1945 is presented in the photo gallery at the top of the page.

Janina Cohen – the first time I said “mama” to my mother

Survivor Janina Cohen, née Lachs, who survived, in among other places, Czatkowice near Krzeszowice, recalls the mental process of emerging from hiding and a child’s understanding of the wartime reality of concealment. 

At the time, six-year-old Janina and her mother Helena were living in Czatkowice with a baker named Płaczek. Helena lived under the assumed name of “Olga Szczepańska” and was officially presented as Janina’s aunt.

“My mother told me that, on the day the Soviet army entered, I said ‘Mama’ for the first time. [Before that] people would ask, ‘It must be hard not having your mother with you, right?’ And I would say, ‘Yes, but my aunt is very kind. But it’s not the same as a mother.’ I was in the war, so I learned to lie well. Later, it took a long time before I became used to not lying.”

“I remember that, when the army entered Czatkowice, mama said to be, ‘don’t accept any sweets […]’. I didn’t get any sweets, because the Soviet soldiers had no sweets. But, I remember that it was really fun.”

After the war, Janina and Helena returned to Kraków, where they had lived before the war. Helena resumed her earlier professional, working in a legal chambers. Janina resumed her school education. In 1949, Helena, working at the time in France, brought Janina to Paris, where both lived.

Guiora Joseph Lauer – I cried and said that I didn’t want to be a Jew

Guiora Joseph Lauer, with the help of Poles, survived as a child in the village of Lipki. He recalls how hard it was for him to to a Jewish community, which he had just encountered before the war. In 1945, his distant family took him from Poland to Paris.

“It was difficult for me. In Paris, they gave me a beautiful room... Everything was fine, but I wasn’t happy. I thought about my friends in Lipki. Every night, I dreamed that I am on a swing and [I’m swinging] faster, faster, faster and I fall into Lipki. After that, when they told me that I’m a Jew, it was very had for me to be that because, in Lipki, I heard some bad things about Jews. It was an embarrassment to be a Jew. […] I cried and said that I didn’t want to be a Jew, that I’m a good boy, that I had done nothing bad. After that, after asking questions, they gradually explained what it meant to be a Jew.”

In time, Guiora Joseph Lauer became a member of a Zionist youth organisation. During one camp, he met his future wife and, together, they decided to leave for Israel. He only became interested in the history of his family in 2017. Since then, he searches for new information regarding his forebears and about his own Holocaust survival with the help of, among others, Leon Leński-Eitel.

*

It is estimated that around 350,000 Polish Jews survived the Holocaust, 30,000–50,000 of them under German occupation. Research to date does not allow for a precise determination of what percentage of this number is made up of individuals, who survived in hiding or under a false identity on the “Aryan side”. Some of them survived solely due to their own resourcefulness, others with the help of Poles.

The last day of the war was a euphoric time: 

“Crowds came out onto the streets of towns and villages. People kissed in this liberation, they threw flowers, they danced. This meant that the war had truly ended”, wrote the curators of the POLIN Museum’s temporary exhibition. 

For Jews, grappling with the loss of nearly everything – their loved ones, community and home, it was above all a moment of decision: What next?

You will learn more about those people who, on the ruins of their old world, endeavoured to rebuild their lives from zero, in our temporary exhibition “1945 – Not the Beginning, Not the End” (open until 15th September 2025).

Klara Jackl, Mateusz Szczepaniak, 

English translation: Andrew Rajcher

May 2025

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