„In Milanówek – explains Nadelwicz-Kremky – despite the fact that is was thought of as an ‘Endecka’ [of or related to the National Democratic Party] area, in which, aside from perhaps two doctors, there really were no Jews, surprisingly, very many Jews, or rather Poles with Jewish roots, hid and survived.”
In Ms. Spasowska-Dryńska’s villa, who was the mother of Romek, a classmate from high school, two families made it: the Posławskis – a husband, wife and their teenage son, as well as the Buras family. Nadelwicz-Kremky’s friend Kazimierz Dąbrowski, before coming to his home in July 1944, also hid in the villa, along with his mother and sister.
But it also happened that, for example, a friend of Nadelwicz-Kremky’s father, who was using a Nansen passport and was hiding at the laundry shop “Natalia” owner’s place, was exposed. Someone spilled on them. The Germans came, took them both, and their trace disappeared.
And two more scenes that Nadelwicz-Kremky witnessed: “I’m coming home from Warsaw to Milanówek. In the compartments there are many people, as usual, and I see two youngsters, Jews. The military police enter, they go through the whole train, split up, go through it once, then a second time. And nothing. No one said a word. And they left. (…)
But I also saw Polish policemen, so-called Dark Blue, who caught three small Jewish children and were shaking potatoes, carrots out of them. They were falling out of their pants. That was disgusting.”
“Because there is no one Poland, one type of Pole – Nadelwicz-Kremky reflects. – There is the Poland from Gross’s ‘Fear’, but there are also trees of the ‘Righteous’ which hum in the Yad Vashem gardens for those Poles who helped Jews.” And there is a third group of Poles, of which there were, in his opinion, the most – the indifferent.
