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Authors: Wendy Holden
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helpless, knew that he and his young wife had to escape. Using up virtually the last of the family money, he hired a smuggler to get Rachel out of the ghetto, even though the dangers were enormous. The smuggler, who was probably a Gentile, arrived with a horse and cart. He collected Rachel and another woman and calmly trotted them out throughthe gates before setting off on the 120-kilometre journey to Pabianice. ‘It took three days,’ Rachel said. ‘We didn’t hide. We dressed just like farmers with babushkas .’ Two weeks later, he went back for Monik.
Monik’s mother Ita remained in Warsaw in the care of his brother Avner. His other brother, David, fled east and was last heard of in the Soviet Union. Avner later followed and ended up in Kiev, but neither man is believed to have survived the war.
Rachel hadn’t seen her own family for two years and there was an emotional reunion with them in the Pabianice ghetto. Shaiah Abramczyk was in his mid-sixties and his wife in her forties, but they both looked much older. Frail and waxen, the light had gone from their eyes and there was none of the joyfulness she remembered from her childhood. They were nevertheless keen to hear Rachel’s news and to tell her theirs, proudly recounting how they’d managed to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary with a few small gifts and something a little better to eat than soup.
Happy as she was to be with her family, Rachel soon realised – as did her husband – that life there was just as bad as in Warsaw. Then word came that all the Jews in Pabianice were to be transported to the Łódź ghetto, where conditions were said to be even worse. Leaving her family with a heavy heart, Rachel and Monik felt they had no choice but to pay to be smuggled back into Warsaw the same way they’d been spirited out. Once inside, they each made their way to separate houses for safety. Monik was taken in by friends, as arranged, but the door to Rachel’s ‘safe house’ was locked and its occupants too afraid to let her in. In grave danger of being picked up by the police, she had no choice but to persuade the waiting smuggler to take her back to her parents.
Not long after she’d been returned, on Saturday 16 May 1942, troops and police surrounded the Pabianice ghetto in order to ‘liquid ate’ it. The authorities gave everyone just twenty-four hours’ notice to gather their most precious belongings. In the sights of Nazirifles, and with Alsatians barking at them menacingly, everyone had to assemble in precise formation. All eleven members of the Abramczyk family, Rachel amongst them, stuck close together as they were marched to the town’s sports stadium to be herded inside and counted for a ‘census’.
They sat there for a day and a night. They were given no food and some people were beaten or humiliated. Eventually they were told that they were to be sent to Łódź by bus and tram. As they stood in seemingly endless lines waiting to board the vehicles, German soldiers suddenly stepped in to decide who’d be viable for slave labour and who would not. ‘We saw them taking old people and kids up to seven or eight. They were not letting them go on the bus,’ Sala said. ‘We were lucky because our youngest were eleven and we managed to keep them.’
Pandemonium broke out as hysterical women refused to leave without their children. Rachel and her family watched in horror as a Nazi grabbed a baby from its mother’s arms and threw it far into the air. They didn’t even see where the infant landed but they knew it couldn’t have survived. ‘I will never forget that,’ said Sala. ‘After that some mothers gave up their babies to the grandmothers to keep them safe, not knowing where they were going or what would happen.’
In the course of two days 4,000 children, the elderly and the sick were callously ‘selected’ before being sent to an unknown fate. The wailing of their relatives could be heard far beyond the
Monik’s mother Ita remained in Warsaw in the care of his brother Avner. His other brother, David, fled east and was last heard of in the Soviet Union. Avner later followed and ended up in Kiev, but neither man is believed to have survived the war.
Rachel hadn’t seen her own family for two years and there was an emotional reunion with them in the Pabianice ghetto. Shaiah Abramczyk was in his mid-sixties and his wife in her forties, but they both looked much older. Frail and waxen, the light had gone from their eyes and there was none of the joyfulness she remembered from her childhood. They were nevertheless keen to hear Rachel’s news and to tell her theirs, proudly recounting how they’d managed to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary with a few small gifts and something a little better to eat than soup.
Happy as she was to be with her family, Rachel soon realised – as did her husband – that life there was just as bad as in Warsaw. Then word came that all the Jews in Pabianice were to be transported to the Łódź ghetto, where conditions were said to be even worse. Leaving her family with a heavy heart, Rachel and Monik felt they had no choice but to pay to be smuggled back into Warsaw the same way they’d been spirited out. Once inside, they each made their way to separate houses for safety. Monik was taken in by friends, as arranged, but the door to Rachel’s ‘safe house’ was locked and its occupants too afraid to let her in. In grave danger of being picked up by the police, she had no choice but to persuade the waiting smuggler to take her back to her parents.
Not long after she’d been returned, on Saturday 16 May 1942, troops and police surrounded the Pabianice ghetto in order to ‘liquid ate’ it. The authorities gave everyone just twenty-four hours’ notice to gather their most precious belongings. In the sights of Nazirifles, and with Alsatians barking at them menacingly, everyone had to assemble in precise formation. All eleven members of the Abramczyk family, Rachel amongst them, stuck close together as they were marched to the town’s sports stadium to be herded inside and counted for a ‘census’.
They sat there for a day and a night. They were given no food and some people were beaten or humiliated. Eventually they were told that they were to be sent to Łódź by bus and tram. As they stood in seemingly endless lines waiting to board the vehicles, German soldiers suddenly stepped in to decide who’d be viable for slave labour and who would not. ‘We saw them taking old people and kids up to seven or eight. They were not letting them go on the bus,’ Sala said. ‘We were lucky because our youngest were eleven and we managed to keep them.’
Pandemonium broke out as hysterical women refused to leave without their children. Rachel and her family watched in horror as a Nazi grabbed a baby from its mother’s arms and threw it far into the air. They didn’t even see where the infant landed but they knew it couldn’t have survived. ‘I will never forget that,’ said Sala. ‘After that some mothers gave up their babies to the grandmothers to keep them safe, not knowing where they were going or what would happen.’
In the course of two days 4,000 children, the elderly and the sick were callously ‘selected’ before being sent to an unknown fate. The wailing of their relatives could be heard far beyond the
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