One potato per day – an account by Anatoliusz Inowolski

In 1943, my parents, Helena and Ładysław Inowolski, lived in Zalesie Dolne (at present a part of Piaseczno near Warsaw) at 17 Spokojna Street. They owned a small, one-room house with two little out-buildings of 3x3 meters each. I lived there with my parents and brother. At that time, I was 9-10 years old, and my brother was 6-7. During World War II, my grandmother also lived with us – she temporarily stayed nearby, at our aunt’s house at 4 Cicha Street.

Zalesie Dolne was a town lying partly in the forest and partly near the woods, with small and average houses erected on the strips of land of 1500 square meters. Generally, the people living in the town were the inhabitants of Warsaw who had been moving here since the early 1930s. The closest village was situated at a distance of about 1 kilometer, while Piaseczno was located around 1,5 kilometers from us.

In the summer of 1940 or 1941, my parents’ neighbor, Mr. Jan Tkaczyk (living at 19 Spokojna Street), asked my mother if she was interested in renting one of the out-buildings to a small boy and his sitter. Due to hard living conditions, my parents accepted the offer. I was a witness to the conversation with Mr. Tkaczyk.

I remember that Mr. Tkaczyk was accompanied by: the boy's mother, a young woman with blond hair, the boy at around my age (9-10 years old, tall, slim, with blond or red hair and a Semitic countenance) and his sitter, Mrs. Janina, a plump woman around 40. I remember the conversation between my parents just after the new tenants moved in: they could not refuse to accept them.

The boy and Mrs. Janina lived in one of the out-buildings (with the entrance at the back), where they stayed to the very end of the war, that is until 17-18 January 1945. I did not see the boy’s mother throughout the whole war. We shared with the boy only the shoes. Of course, any payment for the apartment was out of the question. I recall that often my family as well as the boy and his sitter ate just one small potato for each of us per day.

On the other side of Spokojna Street (at 14 or 16) there lived the family of Mrs. and Mr. Panek (the neighbor was a rail company pensioner). My parents did not talk about the family background of anybody. Many years passed after the war when I eventually learnt from my mother that Mrs. Panek was of Jewish origin. My conversation with my mother took place after the death of Mr. Panek. At that time it turned out that Mrs. Panek’s sister also lived with that family. The whole family survived World War II.

One day in Zalesie my mother, then over 70 years old, was approached by a young woman who asked her about her neighbors. She was a cousin of Mrs. Panek, coming from the USA. She arrived at the place where both her aunts had survived the war. My mother was delighted with that conversation.

To the best of my knowledge, German soldiers rarely came to Zalesie Dolne. I do not remember any Polish policemen too. In a nearby village, German and Hungarian forces stationed for some time in a mansion. The exception was the time from the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising until the liberation. In those days, German forces stayed either in the dug-outs in the forest or in larger houses. All houses were assessed by the German military administration in relation to their usefulness for accommodating the occupant’s soldiers. Luckily, our house was not chosen for German accommodation.

Soon after the liberation, the boy’s mother returned to us and all three of them departed from Zalesie Dolne. Since then, we have never contacted the boy or his mother.

Around 1953, my mother lived in Warsaw. As a member of the so called “tenant trio”, she learnt that there was a homeless old woman living on the stairs of a neighboring building. It turned out that the homeless woman was Mrs. Janina – the former sitter of the Jewish boy. She was left without any means of living. She told my mother that soon after the war the boy and his mother departed for Canada. The boy’s mother was the owner of (to quote) “some factories in Łódź”. I do not remember how my mother helped Mrs. Janina, because at that time I was studying outside Warsaw.

For many years I expected that the boy would visit Zalesie Dolne and the small house where his life was saved (we are both the same age). I was hoping to plant a tree together with him in remembrance of my parents.

I have Jewish friends both in Israel and Poland.