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Oral history interview with Jadwiga Gawroinsk

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1280.17 | RG Number: RG-50.225.0017

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    Oral history interview with Jadwiga Gawroinsk

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Jadwiga Gawroinsk, born in 1923 in Lublin, Poland, describes being one of three children; her family's affluence; attending Polish school; having cordial relations with non-Jews; the German invasion; ghettoization; moving to Melgiew in the summer of 1941; her future husband joining them; visiting friends and relatives in the Lublin ghetto; obtaining authentic documents as non-Jews; the round-ups of Jews from nearby villages in October 1942; returning to Lublin; her father leaving and being robbed enroute (she never saw him again); her father’s non-Jewish, former employer arranging to include her mother and sister as Polish forced laborers in Germany; hiding with her husband; feeling relatively safe going out since she did not look Jewish; moving to Warsaw with funds from her husband's very wealthy family; moving frequently to avoid detection; receiving assistance from many non-Jews and underground members; moving with her husband and his younger sister to a rescuer's summer home in Zielonka in November; returning to Warsaw in March 1943, fearing detection; meeting escapees from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; printing underground papers; visiting friends in Hotel Polski (they were killed); her husband joining partisans in the forest (he was killed); receiving funds from Żegota; a Gestapo interrogation during which a German “race expert” declared her a non-Jew; moving to Łuków with her brother; liberation by Soviet troops in July 1944; moving to Józefów; getting married to a non-Jewish Pole; reuniting with her mother and sister in 1945; the fates of her relatives and the many non-Jews who helped her; having nightmares from her experiences; continuing her contact with rescuers, friends, and relatives in Poland and abroad, including her first husband's family; experiencing antisemitism in 1968; believing her survival was due to good luck; and losing her belief in God after the Holocaust.
    Interviewee
    Jadwiga Gawronska
    Interviewer
    Anka Grupińska
    Barbara Engelking-Boni
    Date
    interview:  1995
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    Polish
    Extent
    1 videocassette (VHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. Restrictions may exist. Contact the Museum for further information: reference@ushmm.org

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Gawroinsk, Jadwiga.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Nathan Beyrak conducted the interview with Jadwiga Gawroinsk in Poland in 1995, for the Poland Documentation Project. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes of the interview in January 1996.
    Funding Note
    The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:22:06
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn507779

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