Ewa Cichy

"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".

"After we moved here, to Wileńska Street, one day NKVD invaded to our house (NKVD was a kind of soviet organization whose job was to protect the Soviet army). One day all of sudden they arrived and burst into my house and they took my husband away, claiming he was an AK (Armia Krajowa-Home Army) member. And they took him somewhere. They took him to the place where W-Z road is today, to Marki. I said to my son – ‘Follow them and find out where father will be taken’. So my son ran after the car and he found out that his father was arrested. In a building where my husband was placed, he met his friends from AK but none of them admitted they knew each other’s. He had a hearing but he never pleaded guilty, he didn’t say he was an AK member. He just told them – ‘You keep me in this place while my students who are just kids stay without a teacher!’ He was a teacher indeed. Zofia Szyszko, a wife of the professor Bogusz stood up for him as well (The professor was a Jew, and Mrs Zofia Szyszko was also a Jewess. He came back to Poland from Russia and I remember him often recollecting his mother’s words. His mother used to say ‘it is embarrassing to be a bourgeo but nonetheless it is also so ‘haraszo’ [nice]’). Zofia Szyszko stood up for him and they let him go. They released him and he came back home! I can’t remember this moment when I saw him. I just remember I threw my arms around him and I cried. I cried because my brother died in war".

"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".