From a Child’s Eyes, Part Two

By Sherri Stewart

“Hatred doesn’t end with the signing of a piece of paper.” What happened to the holocaust survivors when the war ended in 1945? Most couldn’t go home either because their homes had been destroyed or because anti-Semitism reigned supreme. With few possibilities for emigration, tens of thousands of homeless people migrated to other European territories where they were housed in hundreds of refugee centers and displaced people (DP) camps in Germany.

A few months ago, I interviewed Zofia Zsibinski, a petite 84-year-old woman who captivated me with her story about growing up in Nazi Germany.  Zosia, as she was called, was only three when the Nazis showed up at her family’s small farmhouse in Poland and gave them fifteen minutes to gather their belongings. In Part One, I wrote about her life during the war. So what happened to her and her family when the war ended?

Local German farmers needed people to work the farms since the work force had been depleted when young people were recruited as soldiers during the war. The Nazis took advantage by housing Zofia’s family and other prisoners in a farmers market. Farmers came from far and wide to look them over as if they were animals, then bid on them to become slave laborers. A farmer’s son named George won the bid for Zofia’s family and took them to work on his parents’ cattle and potato farm. When Zofia’s father asked him not to make their sickly aunt work, the farmer said, “She’ll learn, or she’ll die.”

Zofia’s family was taken to the pigsty to wash up and given clothes to wear with the prominent P for Polish on the front and back of their hats. The family was to stay in the loft of the barn, where there was a large bed, two chairs, a table, and a potbelly stove. All five members of the family slept in the bed, some facing the head; others facing the foot of the bed. Each morning before the sun came up, Zofia’s parents went to work in the fields until dark. During the day, George removed the ladder to the loft so the children couldn’t get down. Malnutrition set in because they were only fed a watery broth with a piece of potato and bacon floating in it for dinner. On some Sundays they were given a treat—a butter sandwich or a piece of cake. The potbelly stove didn’t work, so Zofia and her sisters spent the days half frozen.

Little by little, the children got used to the routine and were eventually allowed to walk in the orchard or stay by their mother if she worked close by. During one of those outdoor times, Hitler boys came marching by, saw the P on their hats, and the three girls were beaten to a pulp, all the while calling the girls, “Polish swine.” 

Serbian POWs were brought to the farm to work. Father advised Zofia and her sisters, “If you see a pile of eggs, they’re probably rotten, so call a farmer. If you see a chick laying eggs, pocket them.” One of the Serbians stole the eggs from a pile and swallowed the chirping eggs.

Zofia learned a few phrases in German, and when she had her daily break outside, she approached George’s father and said, “Wie gehts?” How are you? The old man and his wife were so impressed they gave her two pieces of bread a day. George’s sister Maria wasn’t a good person. She discovered Zofia’s sister, Mariana, took her to the cellar, and dropped her by the head into a milk can then left her in the cellar. From that point forward, Mariana ran away whenever she had the chance.
The farm wasn’t Zofia’s last home. From age five to eleven, Zofia, along with her family, were transferred from DP camp to camp. They lived in military barracks with up to six families in a room where there was no toilet paper and only one bathing area. Babies were born and sometimes drowned in the toilet. Couples walked into the woods and were later found hanging from a tree.

When Zofia was nine years old, she needed a tonsillectomy, so she was sent to Munster. For this procedure without Novocain, Helga, the nurse, yanked her arms back and slapped her if she screamed as the doctor cut her tonsils out. That night all the patients got ice cream, but not Zofia because of the P on her hat. Instead, tomatoes were shoved in her mouth, which burned her throat. When she ran away from the hospital later that night, a soldier picked her up and took her back to the guard station.

In the midst of all the darkness, there was a shining light. Her father filled out an application for a family to sponsor them to move to the United States. 

Stay tuned for Part Three.

Selah Award finalist Sherri Stewart loves a clean novel, sprinkled with romance and a strong message that challenges her faith. She spends her working hours with books—either editing others’ manuscripts or writing her own. Her passions are traveling to the settings of her books and sampling the food. She traveled to Paris for this book, and she works daily on her French and German although she doesn’t need to since everyone speaks English. A widow, Sherri lives in Orlando with her lazy dog, Lily. She shares recipes, tidbits of the book’s locations, and other authors' books in her newsletter.

A Song for Her Enemies

Tamar Kaplan is a budding soprano with the Haarlam Opera company. Her future looks bright, despite the presence of the German soldiers guarding the Haarlam. But when Nazi soldiers close down the opera company, families start disappearing in the middle of the night, and Jews are stripped of their freedoms, Tamar realizes her brother Seth was right about her naiveté. She joins the resistance, her blond hair and light features making it easy for her come and go under the watchful eyes of the German guards. Tamar becomes Dr. Daniel Feldman’s assistant, as they visit families hiding out in forests and hovels, tending to their sickness. But when she returns home to find her parents gone and the family store looted, she and Daniel must go into hiding.  As they cling to the walls of an alley, Tamar recognizes a familiar face—that of Corrie ten Boom, the neighbor, who beckons to them to follow her. Can she trust this Gentile woman who talks about God as if he’s standing next to her? https://bit.ly/40Yucjv