Jerzy (Jurek) Henryk Orlowski was born on February 24, 1931, in Warsaw, Poland, to Maximillian and Zofia Rozentzvieg Orlowski. His father was a prominent physician, born in Warsaw to Orthodox Jewish parents. His mother, a chemist, was born in 1885 in Kielce, Poland. His parents were not religious and had left-wing political views. Maximillian ran an X-ray clinic out of the family home. After Jurek’s brother, Kazimierz (Kazik), was born in 1933, the family moved to a village outside Warsaw, but when Jurek started school, they moved closer to the city. When asked by his schoolmates if he was Jewish, Jurek told them he did not know.
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Maximillian, an officer in the Polish Army, was sent to the eastern front and the family learned that he was a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union. Jurek could no longer attend school and Zofia hired Miss Landau to tutor him. The family, including Jurek’s paternal grandfather and aunt Mela, moved into the clinic. The buulsing was his during an air raid. The family ran down the street, with Aunt Mela putting out fires on Kazik’s jacket. Theyk knocked on doors seeking shelter, but no one let them in. That winter, in retaliation for the murder of a German by a Jew, the Germans lined up 500 men and shot every tenth man. Jurek’s grandfather was one of those shot. Zofia told the boys and gave them his work tools.
In October 1940, Zofia, the boys, their paternal aunt Stefa, and grandmother were forced into the Warsaw ghetto. Aunt Mela assumed the identity of a Catholic and lived outside the ghetto. The family lived in a bedbug infested apartment. Someone kept a cow in their courtyard and Zofia gave Jurek money to buy milk to drink, make cheese, and condition leather shoes. Zofia worked in a factory with Stefa, who also worked in a pastry shop. Jurek went to Miss Landau each morning, hiding his books under his sweater. He often saw dead bodies in the street that were gone by the afternoon. His mother packed him a sandwich daily and once a week Stefa gave him a pastry, changing the day each week to ensure his daily visit.
By summer 1942, there were frequent deportations of Jews to concentration camps, but the Orlowskis were not deported because Zofia and Stefa were factory workers. During the day, Jurik and Kazik hid in a room soundproofed with pillows and quilts. in case the Lachover’s baby girl, whom they cared for, made noise. For fun, the boys went through holes in the walls of deserted apartments. They also hid in the empty rooms to escape German patrols. They had books, cards, stamps, and toy soldiers and Jurek made up stories where he pretended the war, ghetto, and Holocaust were a dream. In fall 1942, it was decided that the factory workers’ children were not allowed to stay in the ghetto. Zofia smuggled the boys into the Polish area of Warsaw. The boys soon were caught by two Germans who brought them to the ghetto wall and drew their pistols. An officer told them to send the boys to Treblinka. On the way to the train, they escaped and returned home.
In late 1942, Zofia had a stroke. Jurek overheard her telling Stefa to look after her boys. In January 1943, the Germans raided the hospital and shot the patients, including Zofia. In February 1943, Stefa obtained false papers and smuggled the boys out of the ghetto. They hid in an attic room of an apartment building that belonged to a woman who owned a laundry on the ground floor. She and her children brought food and water until a neighbor snitched. While the boys were playing, a Polish official, Sergeant Zuk, came and questioned Kazik. When he couldn’t answer, the man slapped him, but left and did not turn them in. Stefa moved the boys to a village where the boys hid in the root cellar of the Mileska family. The boys shared a straw bed on the dirt floor. One night a week, they were allowed outside and they ran run around the garden and climbed trees.
In July 1943, Stefa and her boyfriend came to get Jurek and Kazik, who were thin, pale, and covered in sores. As part of the Hotel Polski Affair, in which Germans sold foreign passports and papers to Jews so they could leave the country, Stefa bought false documents and had their names added to a list of Jews headed for Palestine. On July 15, Stefa, her friend, and the boys left on an unguarded train with 2700 Jews to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany where they were supposedly to wait until they could leave for Palestine. Stefa brought suitcases of food and camp conditions were pleasant. There were clubs and classes for the children and the adults held parties. Jurek and Kazik recovered in the infirmary. Within a few months, the camp was reclassified as a concentration camp and conditions deteriorated; only 350 Jews remained from the original group. Everyone was crowded into a single barracks. Food was scarce. Jurek ate potato peels and was scolded by Stefa who told him only people who were poor before the war did that and she would not allow the son of a well respected doctor to eat peels. Stefa paid Mr. Birger and his son Alex with bread each week to teach Jurek English. Jurek also started writing and reading poetry.
In the spring of 1945, as Allied forces approached the camp, the Germans began evacuations. On April 7, the remaining Jews from Jurek’s group were put on a train heading east. German soldiers tossed them tin cans of jam and meat and the commanding officer said they would not be hurt. He asked for and received civilian clothes, as once they got near the front, he and the soldiers planned to desert. On April 13, the officer uncoupled the engine and abandoned the passenger cars near Fallerslaben, Germany. Soldiers from the 9th US Army appeared and handed out white bread. The survivors were brought to Hillersleben, Germany, where the soldiers gave the residents five miniutes to leave their homes to make room for the former prisoners.
Hillersleben was part of the Russian zone of occupation. Jurek, Kazik, Stefa, and her friend left for Belgium where the boys were placed in a children’s home. After a few weeks, Stefa came to say good-bye before she and her friend left for South Africa. She gave them two backpacks of food and cartons of cigarettes to sell. Jurek and Kazik were sent to Paris on a children’s convoy, then to Toulon where they boarded a ship, the RMS Mataroa, that arrived five days later in Palestine. After two weeks in a transit camp, Jurek was asked which youth movement they belonged to. The boys were not connected to any and Jurek picked Gordonia because the name was similar to Gordon of Khartoum, one of the generals featured in the stories he told Kazik. They were sent to Kibbutz Ginegar. In 1946, Jurek learned that his father, Maximillian, was living in Poland. In 1954, Maximillian emigrated to Israel where he practiced medicine until his death. Kazik emigrated to the US, changed his name to Steven, married, and had two children. Jurek changed his name to Uri Orlev in 1950. He was twice married and has one child. Jurek became an award winning writer and translator.
