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Roman Pułka's memories of rescuing a Jewish woman in Milanówek

During the war, I lived with my parents and my younger brother in Milanówek, Warsaw area, in a small house with two rooms and a kitchen. I will always remember how my family rescued a young Jewish woman. I do not know her first or last name. She was brought to us by her father, owner of a grocery shop near the West Railway Station in Warsaw. He knew my father who worked in the railways.

The Jewish girl lived with us since the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising until the end of the war in 1945. She stayed in the cellar under the kitchen by day and slept in my parents' room by night. In the evening, when it was dark, I sometimes went out to the garden with her so that she could taste some fresh air. I witnessed a couple of times that she was visited by a young, handsome man who must have been her friend. During those difficult times, she treated me as a brother.

In late autumn 1944, further deportations of men from the town were feared. A Gestapo officer came to our house to check the number of occupiers in the household. We were lucky enough to encounter a decent officer. When he saw my father wore a railman's uniform, he recommended that we immediately leave Milanówek.

We left for Cracow with my father where his family, his mother and his sisters, lived. According to my the account of my mother, who stayed at home with my brother and the Jewish girl, a few days later the Gestapo officer came back to make sure that my father had left.

After the war, we returned to Milanówek, but the Jew was gone. She had left. We never got any more messages from her, never saw her again. I would like to meet her family. Maybe her children or grandchildren are still alive and know this story? You are very welcome in Poland, in my house.

Roman Pułka / red. Klara Jackl, Mateusz Szczepaniak, 16 November 2016
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