Stefa (Sarah) Sprecher Kupfer - July 24, 1987
Receiving Help
How did they know that?
Wierzbicki was known, in the village, to be involved with whatever was against the Germans, be it help Jews in hiding, help Jews that were in the woods, help to black marketing, underground, you name it, whatever was against the Germans, Wierzbicki was involved. So, we got to Wierzbicki's house, a few minutes later his wife came home from church and he says, "Jesus, Maria, what am I going to do with you?" He went like this. He says, "I can't keep you in my house. I'm traif. I am just as un-Kosher as you are." So Momma said, "what can we do? We have nowhere to be, you have to help us." So he rented us a place. The man knew that we were Jewish and he was paid well and he rented us, he let us stay for a month, it was rented for a month. Just before the month was up, Wierzbicki came to see us and he says, "you're not going to stay the full month here, you are going to leave." Momma said, "what's happening?" Because it sounded like a safe place, you know, he was a man with two daughters, not much commotion going on in that house. He said, "somebody knows about you. I don't know how, but they found out and they are going to take you out in the woods and they are going to chop your heads off." They are not going to denounce you to the Germans because they don't want to endanger the man's life or his daughters. But they'll pretend that they are transferring you from one place to another, you won't know where you are going, and in the woods they'll take care of you. So what are we to do? I am sending you back to Mrs. Orlewska just like you came. Then, hiring a sled, with a wagon with a safe driver I'm sending you back to Krosno. We had no choice, so we went to Krosno. We came in an early afternoon, we didn't want to drive up to Mrs. Orlewska so we drove up to a restaurant and we stayed there and Momma went by foot to Mrs. Orlewska and she went in and she told her what happened. She said, "Okay, what can I do?" At night, bring the children. So in the evening when it was dark, she came and got us, we went back to Mrs. Orlewska. Back to the basement. And, this is where we stayed until the Russians came the first time. They came twice.
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