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Well, when my parents heard that, they insisted that I go with Giza. Father literally wouldn’t let me get out of the car. He wouldn’t even let me change – he packed me off in what I was wearing. That was the Monday, and war broke out on the Friday. I didn’t want to leave Cracow.
With the child, the nurse, and my little case, which I have to this day, and in that one dress, Father put me in the carriage and sent me off to Jaroslaw with Giza. My husband didn’t know about any of this. He thought I was on a shopping trip in Cracow, and that day he was at work as normal.
I only managed to take my trunk with my furs and some silver, which had been at my parents’. My parents stayed. My father was as patriotic as anything! He said he wouldn’t leave Cracow, wouldn’t shift. The train was incredibly packed, because it had come from Silesia, where people were fleeing en masse. We all had cases. At the station in Jaroslaw it turned out that my things, which had been sent on, had disappeared. It had all gone, and I was left with what I was standing up in.
We went to Giza’s parents’-in-law – well, Halinka and I to a hotel, and Giza and her parents to their in-laws. Then in the morning it transpired that I had nothing to pay for the hotel with, because after all that they’d forgotten to give me any money. I’d gone from Kalwaria to Cracow thinking I was going for a half-day shopping – I usually had 100 or 150 zloty with me. And here I was in a strange town, alone, with my child and the nurse, and I had 9 zloty. And I dashed off to my mother-in-law in tears – mother-in-law didn’t have any money either, but I remember that she said sharply to Giza, who didn’t really want to lend me any money: ‘Do you know what a scene there’d be if Julek saw Misia crying?’ Giza reached into the till and gave me some money, and I paid the hotel bill.
And soon my husband arrived in Jaroslaw in the car. He’d come just as he was, too, in plus fours, because he wore short trousers for work, and a jacket. Without a coat, even – and he had a leather coat hanging in the garage. All he told me was that on the way to Jaroslaw he’d jettisoned his pistol in some orchard. He had this small pocket revolver that he always carried. But he was afraid that if they’d caught him and searched him and found he had a gun, they’d have shot him. Because that was the first day of the war.
On the Sunday we drove further east in the car. Heniek and his family and their parents went separately, so this time we only had Giza and Irena with us. And Giza’s things – and my, she sure did have some things. She had 6 cases, because she had Karol’s clothes, his linen, his money… because Karol had gone into the army convinced that he was going for 2 weeks. As a doctor, a major. Jozek had been called up as well; I think he was a colonel. Both of them had served in the Austrian army, you see.
We had all sorts of escapades. First we headed for Romania – where the government had gone [9]. Przemyslany [then a Polish-Romanian border crossing], that was the place, and there they told us straight off that they wouldn’t let us through Romania in a car. And then, as it later turned out, Karol’s regiment passed right under our noses, as they say. And Giza’s husband went past too. No, they weren’t serving in the same regiment, but they met up later in Romania. At that time everything was going through Przemyslany, but who was looking? There were crowds of troops marching past, but it never occurred to us that our relatives were among them.
In the end we landed up in Lwow, and there we were advised to destroy our passports. So of course we did, both I and my husband. In Lwow we stayed in a rented apartment. Giza had Karol’s money.
With the child, the nurse, and my little case, which I have to this day, and in that one dress, Father put me in the carriage and sent me off to Jaroslaw with Giza. My husband didn’t know about any of this. He thought I was on a shopping trip in Cracow, and that day he was at work as normal.
I only managed to take my trunk with my furs and some silver, which had been at my parents’. My parents stayed. My father was as patriotic as anything! He said he wouldn’t leave Cracow, wouldn’t shift. The train was incredibly packed, because it had come from Silesia, where people were fleeing en masse. We all had cases. At the station in Jaroslaw it turned out that my things, which had been sent on, had disappeared. It had all gone, and I was left with what I was standing up in.
We went to Giza’s parents’-in-law – well, Halinka and I to a hotel, and Giza and her parents to their in-laws. Then in the morning it transpired that I had nothing to pay for the hotel with, because after all that they’d forgotten to give me any money. I’d gone from Kalwaria to Cracow thinking I was going for a half-day shopping – I usually had 100 or 150 zloty with me. And here I was in a strange town, alone, with my child and the nurse, and I had 9 zloty. And I dashed off to my mother-in-law in tears – mother-in-law didn’t have any money either, but I remember that she said sharply to Giza, who didn’t really want to lend me any money: ‘Do you know what a scene there’d be if Julek saw Misia crying?’ Giza reached into the till and gave me some money, and I paid the hotel bill.
And soon my husband arrived in Jaroslaw in the car. He’d come just as he was, too, in plus fours, because he wore short trousers for work, and a jacket. Without a coat, even – and he had a leather coat hanging in the garage. All he told me was that on the way to Jaroslaw he’d jettisoned his pistol in some orchard. He had this small pocket revolver that he always carried. But he was afraid that if they’d caught him and searched him and found he had a gun, they’d have shot him. Because that was the first day of the war.
On the Sunday we drove further east in the car. Heniek and his family and their parents went separately, so this time we only had Giza and Irena with us. And Giza’s things – and my, she sure did have some things. She had 6 cases, because she had Karol’s clothes, his linen, his money… because Karol had gone into the army convinced that he was going for 2 weeks. As a doctor, a major. Jozek had been called up as well; I think he was a colonel. Both of them had served in the Austrian army, you see.
We had all sorts of escapades. First we headed for Romania – where the government had gone [9]. Przemyslany [then a Polish-Romanian border crossing], that was the place, and there they told us straight off that they wouldn’t let us through Romania in a car. And then, as it later turned out, Karol’s regiment passed right under our noses, as they say. And Giza’s husband went past too. No, they weren’t serving in the same regiment, but they met up later in Romania. At that time everything was going through Przemyslany, but who was looking? There were crowds of troops marching past, but it never occurred to us that our relatives were among them.
In the end we landed up in Lwow, and there we were advised to destroy our passports. So of course we did, both I and my husband. In Lwow we stayed in a rented apartment. Giza had Karol’s money.
Period
Interview
Emilia Leibel
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