Amazing survival
Richard Wenger (originally Vanger) is a Holocaust survivor who spoke at the AACI under the title "Smile, if you can.." Richard is a well known smiling face seen every week at our Shearim concert and around town. His story of survival is truly amazing.
He was born and grew up in Warsaw, and was 7 years old when the Germans invaded in 1939. His father left Warsaw a week before it was occupied by the Germans and came back for his family two weeks later posing as a peasant. They managed after many difficult adventures to get to Bialystock (some of the family stayed behind in Warsaw believing that all would be well). They reached the Polish-Russian border that was now the German-Russian border. One aunt was married to a Belgian and they managed to cross the border using her passport and her fluent Flemish (the German and Russian guards could not understand her). But, the next morning they found that during the night the border had been moved a few kilometers, so they had to go thru the whole process again. Once they crossed the border they made for the closest large town that was Branovitz 150 km away, in what is now Belarus. The Jewish community there was still intact and they helped the refugees. But, it quickly became apparent that it was too close to the border occupied by the Germans to stay there, so they pressed on 10 km to the nearby small town of Stolovich (Stolowicze), where they stayed for a year.
The Russians offered them Russian papers, which his father accepted, but some of his family refused and they were shipped to Siberia, which proved to be a safer place. His father was given a job running a farm producing peat for heating in the winter. When the Germans attacked the area in June, 1941 they wasted no time in setting up a Ghetto in Stolovich. There were originally ca. 350-500 Jews there, but with the many round-ups of Jews in the area, this number swelled to ca. 1,000 Jews. Often the Germans could not tell who was a Jew, but the Poles went around with them pointing out the Jews. Although they were housed inside the Ghetto, his father's job was considered sufficiently important that he was allowed to go out of the Ghetto every day. With the food his father smuggled in (bribing the guards with Vodka) and Richard swimming under the wire fence where there was a little stream and raiding the fields, they managed to get enough food to survive. Eventually his father managed to arrange for his wife and son to join him there on the farm.
When the Germans liquidated the Ghetto they took ca. 90% of the Jews to be slaughtered, but his family simply did not return and his father had arranged for him to go to the house of a woman named Mrs. Teresa. When he left he did not realize that he would never see them again. Mrs. Teresa was very sympathetic, and only many years later did he discover that she had been the liason between the Polish and Russian partisans, and she was one time arrested by the Gestapo, but although her friends were executed she was released. There was a Jewish girl, the Rabbi's daughter, hiding there too, in the barn. But, someone gave her away and the Germans came and found her, Mrs. Teresa swore that she knew nothing about the girl and the girl agreed, so the Germans shot the girl there, but did not find Richard. Mrs Teresa sent Richard to a series of other places to hide, and he had many narrow escapes - once he was hiding in a haystack and was slightly bayoneted by a German guard, once he hid in an outside toilet, where the guards wouldn't go. He ended up living on a farm where the farmer had 4 daughters and needed someone to help him with the farm work. So Richard became a peasant, he spoke Polish, German and Russian fluently, and with a new name and a new religion, Roman Catholic, he was able to pass.
Richard's attitude as a child was to treat the whole situation as a game, the Germans and Poles were trying to kill him and he was going to survive by any means. He was advised not to run away when he saw Germans, but to approach them and thereby reduce their suspicions. Once he saw an SS officer standing on a corner, so rather than avoid him he walked right up to him and asked for a cigarette. The German asked him "does your father know you smoke?" and he replied "not if you don't tell him," so the German gave him a cigarette. On the farm he had to look after a few cows and sheep, so he went to the nearby farms and agreed to look after their livestock as well for a bag of food, potatoes or wheat. Then he took the produce to the market and sold it, and with the money he bought cigarettes on the black market, and they were like gold and with them he was able to bribe people. He made so much money that he employed kids to do his work, and the farmer told him, "if I didn't know better I'd say you were a Jew."
Finally the Russians came and the Germans vanished, and he was taken back to Mrs. Teresa. But, he still had to survive because of the anti-Semitic Poles and Russians. His family who had been sent to Siberia were allowed back and searched for him and found him in the market. He learnt that his parents had been shot, but he was so used to his new identity that it took three days for them to convince him he was really Jewish. The Joint Distribution Committee had set up orphanages in the area, and he was safer there and got food, but they kept the orphanages small, about 100 kids each, so as not to arouse suspicion among the local anti-Semitic population. One of his aunts had family in England and got them to ask Rabbi Shonfield, who was touring the area looking for Jewish orphans, to take him back with him. Richard lived in England for many years, got married there and had two children, and then in 1970 moved to Israel. He now has 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
He returned to Stolovich in the 1990's and built a stone memorial to the Jews who were killed in the Ghetto there. Of the 1,000 or so he believes he is the only one to have survived. He found Mrs. Teresa and her family again and has helped them financially, to buy an apartment, etc. and she was made a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem. The memorial is looked after by her family. Now Richard tells his story to thousands of school kids, in English, Polish and Hebrew.
He was born and grew up in Warsaw, and was 7 years old when the Germans invaded in 1939. His father left Warsaw a week before it was occupied by the Germans and came back for his family two weeks later posing as a peasant. They managed after many difficult adventures to get to Bialystock (some of the family stayed behind in Warsaw believing that all would be well). They reached the Polish-Russian border that was now the German-Russian border. One aunt was married to a Belgian and they managed to cross the border using her passport and her fluent Flemish (the German and Russian guards could not understand her). But, the next morning they found that during the night the border had been moved a few kilometers, so they had to go thru the whole process again. Once they crossed the border they made for the closest large town that was Branovitz 150 km away, in what is now Belarus. The Jewish community there was still intact and they helped the refugees. But, it quickly became apparent that it was too close to the border occupied by the Germans to stay there, so they pressed on 10 km to the nearby small town of Stolovich (Stolowicze), where they stayed for a year.
The Russians offered them Russian papers, which his father accepted, but some of his family refused and they were shipped to Siberia, which proved to be a safer place. His father was given a job running a farm producing peat for heating in the winter. When the Germans attacked the area in June, 1941 they wasted no time in setting up a Ghetto in Stolovich. There were originally ca. 350-500 Jews there, but with the many round-ups of Jews in the area, this number swelled to ca. 1,000 Jews. Often the Germans could not tell who was a Jew, but the Poles went around with them pointing out the Jews. Although they were housed inside the Ghetto, his father's job was considered sufficiently important that he was allowed to go out of the Ghetto every day. With the food his father smuggled in (bribing the guards with Vodka) and Richard swimming under the wire fence where there was a little stream and raiding the fields, they managed to get enough food to survive. Eventually his father managed to arrange for his wife and son to join him there on the farm.
When the Germans liquidated the Ghetto they took ca. 90% of the Jews to be slaughtered, but his family simply did not return and his father had arranged for him to go to the house of a woman named Mrs. Teresa. When he left he did not realize that he would never see them again. Mrs. Teresa was very sympathetic, and only many years later did he discover that she had been the liason between the Polish and Russian partisans, and she was one time arrested by the Gestapo, but although her friends were executed she was released. There was a Jewish girl, the Rabbi's daughter, hiding there too, in the barn. But, someone gave her away and the Germans came and found her, Mrs. Teresa swore that she knew nothing about the girl and the girl agreed, so the Germans shot the girl there, but did not find Richard. Mrs Teresa sent Richard to a series of other places to hide, and he had many narrow escapes - once he was hiding in a haystack and was slightly bayoneted by a German guard, once he hid in an outside toilet, where the guards wouldn't go. He ended up living on a farm where the farmer had 4 daughters and needed someone to help him with the farm work. So Richard became a peasant, he spoke Polish, German and Russian fluently, and with a new name and a new religion, Roman Catholic, he was able to pass.
Richard's attitude as a child was to treat the whole situation as a game, the Germans and Poles were trying to kill him and he was going to survive by any means. He was advised not to run away when he saw Germans, but to approach them and thereby reduce their suspicions. Once he saw an SS officer standing on a corner, so rather than avoid him he walked right up to him and asked for a cigarette. The German asked him "does your father know you smoke?" and he replied "not if you don't tell him," so the German gave him a cigarette. On the farm he had to look after a few cows and sheep, so he went to the nearby farms and agreed to look after their livestock as well for a bag of food, potatoes or wheat. Then he took the produce to the market and sold it, and with the money he bought cigarettes on the black market, and they were like gold and with them he was able to bribe people. He made so much money that he employed kids to do his work, and the farmer told him, "if I didn't know better I'd say you were a Jew."
Finally the Russians came and the Germans vanished, and he was taken back to Mrs. Teresa. But, he still had to survive because of the anti-Semitic Poles and Russians. His family who had been sent to Siberia were allowed back and searched for him and found him in the market. He learnt that his parents had been shot, but he was so used to his new identity that it took three days for them to convince him he was really Jewish. The Joint Distribution Committee had set up orphanages in the area, and he was safer there and got food, but they kept the orphanages small, about 100 kids each, so as not to arouse suspicion among the local anti-Semitic population. One of his aunts had family in England and got them to ask Rabbi Shonfield, who was touring the area looking for Jewish orphans, to take him back with him. Richard lived in England for many years, got married there and had two children, and then in 1970 moved to Israel. He now has 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
He returned to Stolovich in the 1990's and built a stone memorial to the Jews who were killed in the Ghetto there. Of the 1,000 or so he believes he is the only one to have survived. He found Mrs. Teresa and her family again and has helped them financially, to buy an apartment, etc. and she was made a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem. The memorial is looked after by her family. Now Richard tells his story to thousands of school kids, in English, Polish and Hebrew.
posted by Jack Cohen at 7:25 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home