- Description
- The collection consists of two documents related to the Holocaust experiences of Janeta Gościcki (born Janeta Wulkan), originally of Ostrowsko, Poland. The first document is a forged identification card (Kennkarte) of Janeta’s issued on 15 October 1942 in the name of Helena Kochanowicz. The document states that she was born on 7 March 1914 in Wegierka, near Jaroslaw in the Lvov district and that she was a bookkeeper by profession. The document shows four different addresses under which the bearer was registered. The second document is a letter, dated 21 May 1944, written by Janeta’s second husband, Tadeusz Gościcki, to her while in hiding in Warsaw. The letter was written while he was imprisoned in Auschwitz, but not actually received by Janeta until 1992. The letter was dictated by Tadeusz and written by fellow prisoner Mieczyslaw Kulesza and addressed to Helena Gościcka, residing on 5 Pius Street, apt. 5 in Warsaw.
Translation of letter:
“Nusienko, my only treasure! Unfortunately I didn’t receive your answer to my last letter. I thank you for your tender account of the short life of our little son. His death was a severe blow to me. God only knows what you have been through. You are right, you are as if made of iron. Please do not write any more that we should exchange places – you here and me there – since you are stronger then me. Never. Even though sometimes I write to you in a very sad mood, it is only because of my great, boundless longing for you. It will continue wherever I will be. I am strong but I cannot change my heart, my love and the longing for you. You became my most cherished idol and you will remain it until my last breath. Till the end of my life you will remain my dream and you will always be the indescribable thing for me. It seems to me that you are on a much higher moral level then I. What a paradox – you are working so hard and I cannot do it here. Will it be possible for me to ever repaying you the great debt of gratitude that I have? I hope it will be under different circumstances then the present ones. Oh, my love for you leaves my unconscious. Belatedly I send you my most heartfelt good wishes for your name day. Do you remember last year? Do you think of the roses? Today I cannot give you anything. In a few days it will be our first anniversary. Oh God, how happy we were! Every day is your name day for us. Each night a sweet memory. I thank you, darling, for the second picture, but it is not yet expressive enough. Please send me a better one. I get all the packages from you and they are fine. Write a lot! Nusiu, come closer to me and whisper to me again that only death can separate us. I kiss you, my beloved wife and I lock you into my heart.
Yours always, Tadeusz”
“Dear Father!
Thank you for your compassion for my wife and your help in arranging a funeral for our little son. Should I return, I will thank you personally.
Greetings to you,
Tadeusz.”
Dated: May 21, 1944; location: Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland; in German
- Date
-
creation:
1942 October 15-1944 May 21
- Collection Creator
- Janeta N. Gościcki
- Biography
-
Janeta Wulkan (nicknamed Neta or Nuśka, later Janeta Gościcki, 1912-1999) was born on 15 September 1912 in Ostrowsko, Poland to Josef and Salomea Wulkan (d. 1942). Her father Josef was from Ostrowsko and died in 1930. Janeta had one brother, Marcel (d. 1942). Janeta studied law at the Jagelonian University in Krakow. While in school she met Leopold Kolber, and they married in 1936 after graduation. They settled in Leopold’s hometown of Zakopane, Poland, where he practiced law.
After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the couple fled Zakopane for Soviet-occupied Lvov (Lviv, Ukraine). Leopold fled east and was Janeta believed he had been killed. In 1942 Janeta acquired a false birth certificate and went into hiding under the name Janina Zając. She went to Rokietnica where she convinced a local priest she was active in the Polish underground. The priest helped her obtain an identity document (Kenkarte) in the name of Helena Kochanowicz. After she was recognized in Rokietnica Janeta went to Warsaw. She changed jobs and addresses frequently.
She briefly rented a room from the Pelczynski family on 5 Pius Street. While there, she met Tadeusz Gościcki (b. 1915), a relative of the Pelczynskis. Janeta and Tadeusz married in 1943. On 9 July 1943 Tadeusz was arrested and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He had prisoner number 139565. Janeta was able to correspond with her husband and send him food packages. She was pregnant and gave birth to their son in April 1944, but the child died two days after birth. She wrote a letter to Tadeusz about their son’s death, but never received a reply. He did write a letter back, but Janeta had already moved to a new location by the time it was delivered. Tadeusz was transferred to Buchenwald in November 1944.
Janeta survived the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 but was deported to the Pruszków transit camp. She was then selected for transfer to Auschwitz, but she escaped the camp and remained hidden until liberation. In November 1944 Janeta wrote a letter to Auschwitz trying to locate Tadeusz, and received a response from the commandant, dated 15 January 1945, that he had been transferred to Buchenwald. She also kept in touch with Tadeusz’s father, and they were reunited after the war. Around that time, Janeta also learned that her first husband, Leopold, had also survived. Both men wished to be with Janeta, but she decided to stay with Tadeusz.
Janeta and Tadeusz’s twin sons Marek and Jurek were born on 8 September 1946. Their son Wojtek (later Paul Vaderlind) was born on 19 January 1948. Janeta and Tadeusz divorced in 1950. Due to antisemetic policies enacted by the Polish government in 1969, Janeta and her sons left Poland and settled in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1992 Janeta received from the Pelczynski family the letter Tadeusz had sent her in response to the news their son had died shortly after birth in 1944.
