Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents
• Map

Cyla Wiener - July 13, 1992

Were there people being shot in Płaszów?

Oh uh..Oh yes, a lot of people were shot. I have one...a cousin, my husband's cousin, from my husband's side and she, she went, and she had two, two children together, you won't believe this was a story. Yeah, she had two children. One girl was four years old and one girl was nine months old. Though, she gave the children to the Polish family, you know, the older girl and the younger little one too. And she thought when she was here, when she came to P_ Płaszów, up from the concentration camp, together with us, you know, and she thought when she was once in his barrack where she was, was not far, we have a special place in, in Płaszów, where they were bringing the Jews when they were, you know, hiding by Polish people, you know. When they find the Jew hiding by Polish people, they were bringing up and they were killing, you know, shooting, you know. And uh, they call this very, very bad for this, but uh, I, I, I don't want even to say how they call this, the Jew. We are, we were calling this a special, gourka something for, for, which was terrible thing what was going on. They were bringing a lot of Jews from, who were hiding on the Irish papers, you know, by the Polacks, you know, by the Polacks, they were bringing Jews, they were bringing children, you know, and they were killing them all, in this, in this special place and they, later they were leaving them, burning, you know.

On a hill?

On a hill, like on a hill, so. We're told from the fathers, you know.

The shooting?

Yeah.

The children's fathers.

Yeah, the children. And she was not far from this place. And she thought bringing the Polish woman, she left her daughter with her, and his little girl and she saw how they killed his daughter and the Polish woman. The cousin of mine. He was telling after the war, we met in Kraków, you know, and he was telling me. I was asking him what happened with these two children, you know. And the other girl, when he came after the war back, his wife went to Auschwitz with me, and she, she was killed, you know, she didn't survive Auschwitz, you know. His mother, you know. His wife, you know, and he was telling me, after the war when we met in him Kraków, that he went to the Polack, where they left the youngest daughter, the nine month old, you know, younger daughter, and he saw the little girl and he wants her back and the Polish woman said to him, you know what, wait a little while, you will get, you will get your daughter back, but uh.., settle down, or, or maybe you'll find a woman, you'll get married and then you take her. We're taking good care of her, we love her. No...he, he said, nope, he, he says, no, look how you could take the baby away, he just came from, back from the concentration camp. He said, okay, so please take good care of her and I will, I will come everyday to see her. Next day he came, they disappeared with the child. And he's never find his child...never. He was telling us this after the war, we met him in Kraków, you know. Yeah, I was in Auschwitz.