Biographical essay by Judy Newman, 2014

Judy Newman When World War II broke out I have a memory of my maternal uncle running after our horse and cart as we fled the Nazis to Russia. Do I remember this myself or was I told? In any case, the memory is clear in my mind. The war began in September 1939 and I was born on April 16, 1938, in Olkusz, Poland. Olkusz, Poland My parents were Communists, so when the Nazis invaded Poland, they wanted to go to the Soviet Union. My mother had been arrested for putting up Communist posters. She was pregnant when arrested and I was born in prison. Though my parents left Poland, the rest of the family stayed behind. We arrived in the Belarus city Balaklija. My little sister was born there in 1941. The Nazis were advancing so we fled to Kazakhstan and later to Uzbekistan. My father was born with a medical condition. He had to be careful with his work so he would not develop a hunchback. He volunteered for the Russian army three times. Twice he was rejected, but on the third try he was accepted. We don?t know what happened to him. We had gotten letters from him but they stopped. We got conflicting reports: killed in action and later wounded in action. We were not certain what happened. During our time in Russia we lived with a Russian family who helped us and we were never hungry. When the war ended, mother, sister and I left Russia to go back to Poland. The cattle train that was taking us back was stopping and going. Times were uncertain. Our train stopped in the city of Oryol. My mother decided to go to town to find out what happened to our father. I panicked and did not let my mother leave. We never knew when the train might leave the station. To this day I feel guilty about that. We arrived in Poland in 1946. We went to my mother?s home town and initially did not find one Jew who survived. There were Jewish organizations that helped us to settle in Z?otoryja in Silesia. We were given an apartment which was one big room. On the window ledge of this apartment there was a bar of soap with the imprint that said Judenzeif (soap made from Jews). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_made_from_human_corpses) My mother met a man but I didn?t let her get married. She died shortly thereafter. Jews in the town put us in an orphanage. When we got there we were in a large dining room and there was a radio playing. I heard my father?s name as having been released from camp. I was only 8 years old and did not know who to talk to when I heard this. Years later I saw an article with a man with the same name as my father. Was it him? I stayed in that orphanage until 1951. It was in this orphanage where I first saw my husband. He was like a celebrity in that orphanage. Then my sister and I went to another orphanage in Pietrolesie. We were there about a year until that orphanage was dissolved and we were taken to Lodz and put in a third orphanage, the Helenowek Orphanage. [Note: before the Holocaust the director of this orphanage was Chaim Rumkowski who later became the head of the Lodz Ghetto.] I was about to finish (high) school. One day I saw my two best girlfriends at the blackboard writing in Polish ?Jews to Palestine?. I had not known they were so anti-Semitic. This hurt me, so two months later my sister and I left for Israel. My sister had attended Catholic school and knew nothing of Israel. She did not understand what was going on. But before we left Lodz, there was a family that knew my mother before she died. We kept in touch with them for many years. This family wrote to the Jewish newspaper and Israeli radio on our behalf. We did not know that the same uncle who had run after our cart when we fled Poland in 1939 had survived the war and gone to Israel. Our uncle heard about us and wrote that he wanted us to live with him. My sister and I traveled by ship to Haifa and nobody was at the port to greet us. We walked around and looked for someone who spoke Polish. We found someone to help us get to Netanya and find our uncle. He never got the telegram informing him of our arrival. I was 19 when we arrived in Israel. My uncle?s wife immediately tried to marry me off. My uncle was doing well financially. My sister and I went to the best private Ulpan possible. We were the only two Poles there while the other students came from Australia, America and other impressive places. Beneath my uncle?s apartment lived a Czech family and they arranged for my sister and I to go to Kibbutz Na'an near Rechovot. After a short while my sister was sent to Kibbutz Shefayim, a wealthier kibbutz that had a school. I wanted to leave kibbutz life and my way out was the army. I joined the Israeli army for the required two years and then signed up for an additional year as an officer. I visited my sister when I could. After the army I rented an apartment and worked at an insurance company. I was invited to the wedding of someone from the Legnica orphanage and I met my husband Sam there. We married in 1960. Before we left Israel (1968), I took a course as an esthetician. I worked from home for a few years. Later I worked with my husband in his graphic arts business, We had two children. Our son was born in 1961 and died in 2003 at the age of 41. One day he just didn?t wake up. Our daughter lives in Manhattan, New York. She trained as a physical therapist and now has her own business making biscuits for dogs with dietary issues: Biscuits by Lambchop - Healthy dog treats made in the USA