“I was home alone. Krysia came, in awful shape. She said: ‘Save me, I don’t have anyone.’”
They went to high school together. Earlier, Krysia Friedwald had gone to another friend, but she was turned away.
“She told me that her father had been shot, and her mother died in Auschwitz. We sat on the sofa weeping. But I could not make the decision alone. Mother came home and said: ‘I have one daughter, now I will have two.’ Only father got a little upset.”
“Everyone knew the risk, that we would all surely face death.”
They witnessed death every day outside their windows. They lived in Warsaw, on Sienna Street, right next to the ghetto.
“There was a little boy who frequently crawled under the wall and came to our house, mother would bring him a plate of soup. Once, a soldier saw him and killed him.”
The parents were able to secure a Kennkarte for Krysia. They went together to secret school lessons, walked the streets, quite normally. There was no hiding place in the two-room apartment. Even though there was a German police station in the same building.
“We simply had wonderful neighbors - she says - no one said a thing.”
They survived the Uprising together, were forced out of Warsaw, into a German camp. They also came back together.
