Videotape testimony of Eva W., who was born in Novaya Myshʹ, Russia in 1913, one of six children. She recounts her father's service in World War I; his imprisonment as a POW in Germany for five years; attending school in Baranavichy, then Catholic nursing school in Warsaw; working in Warsaw after graduation; marriage in 1938; a visit home in 1939 (she never saw her family again); raising her husband's stepson; German invasion; ghettoization; becoming pregnant; her son's premature birth in June 1942; being released from a round-up by an SS man; hiding during round-ups; a former teacher from Myshʹ offering to hide her; her husband making alternate arrangements; leaving the ghetto with a non-Jew in March 1943; traveling with him to Czarny Potok; living as non-Jews; learning of the Warsaw ghetto revolt; treating locals when they learned she was a nurse; her husband sending a nun for the baby (he could be hidden since he was not circumcised); her unwillingness to give him up; communication from her husband and stepson from Germany; refusing to admit she was Jewish when beaten by SS; returning to Warsaw; and using her nursing school diploma to prove she was Catholic (two non-Jewish friends from school confirmed this).

Ms. W. remembers being robbed of her papers; assistance from a friend in the AK; living with his aunt; the same friend obtaining new false papers for her; living with another family; leaving when exposure was threatened; seeking her former teacher in Łuków; alternating between there and Warsaw; a friend bringing her to Baniocha; working in the medical center; stealing medicine for the partisans; dealing with SS to dispel suspicion; a friend watching her son when she worked; liberation by Soviet troops in January 1945; learning her husband and stepson had been killed; moving to Łódź; meeting her future husband; illegally leaving Poland after the Kielce pogrom; living in Obděnice, then Paris; arranging her son's circumcision; marriage; emigration to the United States in 1947; and the births of a daughter and son. Ms. W. discusses continuing contacts with those who saved her; her second son's death in 1983; visits to Poland to see her rescuers, graves, and concentration camps; and trying to locate the mass grave in Myshʹ where her family was killed.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) > Personal narratives.

World War, 1939-1945 > Personal narratives, Jewish.

Jews > Poland > Warsaw.

World War, 1939-1945 > Underground movements.