Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Miriam Monczyk-Laczkowska Ferber - December 7, 1999

Oh [laughs].

So now uh, he comes back. First of all, we are in a contact by telephone. I didn't have a telephone in my house, but he called. There was a Jewish man in Poland, in Sosnowiec--a religious man and I get, they made arrangements. And I got notified that at this and this date Mr., Mr.--Rabbi Hirsch--didn't know he was a Rabbi--Mr. Hirsch is going to call. And I go there and he says, look, your mother obviously gives us difficulties. She uh, because I, I met with him later on by myself with the translator and they told me exactly what the plan is, that they really don't want me to come back. They want me to, they want to get me out of Poland and they will try to get me together reunited with my uncles and I should really think about it and, eh. There is no future for me in Poland and so on. So I'm kind of doing a little things behind my mother's back. And when I go to, to the telephone, to this home of the Jewish guy and I talk to Mr. Hirsch, all of a sudden a woman gets on the phone and she speaks a beautiful Polish. And she says, "I am a wife of, of Rabbi Hirsch and I will come to Poland with him so your mother will feel at ease, because I can communicate." She's from Łód?, she's a concentration camp survivor. And, and she comes to uh, she, she comes to Poland. She's only a few years older than me, you know, so, uh. She was at the Łód? ghetto and then she was in a concentration. She's a survivor. And she comes in. Now my mother feels at ease, because she sees a woman...

Mm hm.

with him. Now he doesn't need the translator anymore because she speaks perfect Polish. And spending some time, but my mother doesn't want me to go alone. So they said no problem, Pani Łączkowska, we are going to get you a ticket and you're going to come to Belgium to see where, you know, we will visit Europe and so on and so on. And July 25, nineteen...uh, nineteen-six...oh, excuse me, I mixed up the year. That was 1960. One, one more year I want them to, to uh, give me time. I'm thinking about leaving. So in 1960, I finished the matura, I get into that school, I go to that school for one year into the theater school. And then in July 1961, we're leaving. So I, I, I'm finishing one year of the, of the theater school in...