Ewa Cichy

"Leopold Majet Fundation was situated on Okopowa 55a and on the some street there were two schools. One flank of the building was occupied by polish school, the second one by the Jewish school. Any celebrations and ceremonies were arranged by together. The headmaster of the Jewish school was Mrs Anna Natarblutowa. When the German occupation began, the Jews were immediately taken to ghetto, and Mrs Natarblutowa and her husband as well (he died in ghetto). From time to time the Jews from ghetto were got down to work to the town center. Once, she Mrs Natarblutowa went outside ghetto with the group of Jews to remove some rubble. They walked along the street when she jumped into the side gateway. The group passed the gate but she left. She arrived to our house to Prague. We kept her and hid her for 7 days. We knew and it was posted in those days that the penalty for hiding Jews was death. Afterwards Mrs Zofia Szyszko, professor Bardach wife took care of her. Mrs Szyszko found some hiding place for her and arranged some job. Mrs Natarblutowa started to work, I think she was embroidering the patterns on the stockings or something like that".

"I was involved in many charity organizations in Praga but I never took money for anything. My father used to say – Charity and social work should never be salaried. You are a social worker or you are not. And also he said – Poland is like a sun and there are enough sunbeams for everyone. I remember him waiting every single night until midnight when the radio played the national anthem. He was always very moved".

"My mum taught secret lessons in the school situated on the corner of Okopowa and Wolska streets. It seemed to be a good and easy place for kids to get together. A headmaster of the school, the one on Praga, was Mrs Rzeszotarska. During the occupation Mrs Rzeszotarska founded an ‘Undergarments school’ because it was a type of school that Germans allowed. My daughter attended to that school and therefore she can sew really well. Girls officially had arts and craft workshop so they always kept materials on their tables but in the same time the teacher, Mrs Wadowa, was giving them secret lessons"

"My husband worked in a secret service. His job was to inspect some German agencies, collect information, code them and send. He applied the machine which was invented and built by himself. Codes he was using turned the message into a few dots. I guess a small coded note was much easier to smuggle across the border so the couriers did it successfully. One of the couriers was my husband’s brother Stanislaw (I’ve got his picture here if you to have a look). One day he was denounced by Slovak, some Slovakian shepherd. Stanislaw was then arrested and imprisoned in Pawiak. And finally he died in Pawiak, he was executed in the ghetto ruins. Before he died he had helped many people in Pawiak, he looked after wounded prisoners in Pawiak, and he helped people tortured by Gestapo. There is a book telling about his life and activity in Pawiak. We’ve got this book, here, in our home archive".