Holocaust Rescuers

During the time of the holocaust there were very brave people who helped others. These people are called rescuers.

Read this story of Barbara Szymanska Makuch who was one of them.

It was late in the afternoon, one day in 1942, when a woman named Rachel Litowicz and her child came to our door, saying she came because somebody had told her I was a good person. I had never seen her before. She had nowhere else to go--she was desperate. She wanted me to take her child. I knew that in Sandomierz that day the Germans were "cleaning" the town. A very bad raid had been going on all day. I had seen them shoot Jews right in the streets.

We all felt very scared. By law, the penalty was death if you offered so much as one glass of water to a Jewish person. The Germans killed us exactly the same as they killed the Jews. My mother and I knew that, but how could we refuse this woman's plea? We didn't even talk it over, we just invited her inside.

We talked with her for a few hours, and then she left the child with us and returned to her husband in Sandomierz, where he was working in a camp the Germans had set up for people who could still do useful work. I didn't set eyes on Rachel again until after the war. I learned that she went to Auschwitz, but I knew she was very strong. Twice she escaped from the gas chambers.

So seven year-old Rebecca stayed with us: we called her Marysia. I slept in the kitchen, and my mother slept with her in the other room. In the beginning everything was okay because she was blond, with a pale complexion and freckles, and slightly curly hair, which I would straighten by making her little braids. We told people she was my niece. At home her family spoke Yiddish, although fortunately Marysia had linguistic talent and could speak Polish quite well. But like all children in this situation, she was shy and frightened. Her mother had said to her, "I'm leaving you now. After today, Basha will be your mother." How can a little child understand this? She grew close to my mother because my mother was staying at home while I was away everyday at work. Right from the beginning my mother became her "aunt."

Later on I discovered how Marysia came to us. Mrs. Litovicz ran a small clothing store in Sandomierz and my aunt was a customer. She asked my aunt to help her, but my aunt had two young daughters and was afraid. She told her to go instead to Tarnobrzeg where I lived with my mother, and that maybe we would help.

One evening after curfew, when my mother and I were visiting my aunt in Sandomierz, Marysia's father showed up. He was standing by the fence, very frightened. When he saw me he threw over a hat saying, "This is what I have. Take it and the child, and go to Switzerland. I have a brother there who will help you." But he had no address to give me.

"Everybody in Zurich can tell you who Litovicz is," he said.

When we went back in the house I found sewn inside the hat five Russian rubles. I cried when I saw this, because I knew it was everything the poor man had.

Your task:

1. Write in your own words at least 6 sentences how this person helped Jews.
2. Would you help if you were in her shoes? Explain.

Shiraz Dror, Beit Berl College