„One time I was pasturing the goat, and oh my goodness, there’s all this fuss, some Germans, a mass of Germans. I hid by the balk. And I saw the Jews are being led out. Bratatat – and they were gone. If I as much as moved, they would have killed me too”.
“I was 10 at the time. Today I wonder what poor Cześka had to go through”.
Cześka Czertok was 17, when she escaped the Vilnius ghetto. “A priest sent her to us in the late 1941. A big family, we found it easier to hide her. There were nine of us at home. We were living in the village of Zimodry, and then in the town of Kurzyniec near Vilnius. Mother said Czesia was the daughter of some aunt or other. For me, she became something of an older sister”.
“We lived through a lot. One time the Germans were taking a Jewish girl with a little child to be shot. It was a beautiful girl. Mom wanted to make some ruckus and try and grab the child in the tumult. One of the Germans hit her with the butt of his gun so hard she couldn’t walk”.
“At first Czesia just lay in her bed most of the time, sad. I had no idea why, and would sometimes tell her: ‘Look, Czesia, they’ve shot those Jews we used to go to’. Why did I tell her such things! “
“Those were terrible times. They could hang people in the middle of the town, put a plaque on them and prevent people from burying them. For years, when I’d walk into a dark staircase, I was afraid I would hit my head on a hangman”.
“Someone reported us, they came looking for us.” Czesia got away, but they caught her immediately, and she ran away again. She found Ewa’s sister Wanda, who took her to the guerillas.
Czesia and Ewa were reunited after the war, in 1948, and maintain close contact, even though since 1969 Czesia has been living in Israel with her husband.
