Summary Of The Holocaust By Cristine Damski

Cristine Damski holocaust story starts out in Chelm, Poland on December 13, 1918, where she was born. Her maiden name is Sara Rozen. She and her family is an upper class Jewish family with a younger brother and sister whose father owns a bank, a distillery and 7 breweries.She grew up in Zamosc, Poland where her family accepted everyone as equals. Growing up her friends were both Jewish and Polish. During college at the University in Warsaw for the study of journalism, they announced that Jews had to sit on the left side of the Lecture Hall. Christine and her family are very patriotic so Christine and others rebelled and stood in the back of the right side. After the first year of college she came home to Zamosc. She didn't want to be in Poland
anymore or Warsaw. So she applied to Sorbonne and got in, she got a passport and a Visa for France for the middle of September, but on the first of September the Germans invaded Poland. On October 9, 1939, Sammel Rozen, her father, gave Christine and Julian, her brother, three thousand gold rubles to send over to Russian Territory. They selected they selected a city where other Polish refugees went there who didn't want to be under German rule, Lvov. Julian was three years younger than her but only one grade behind her, “He was such a genius” said Christine. The Russian drafted him to the military a couple days after Julians twentieths birthday to Vladivostock, that's all the way near Japan. Julian was everything to her. She arranged a meeting with the Soviet who was in charge of the draft board, and gave him a beautiful oriental rug. He deferred Julian's draft. She had only the best intentions, but it was a big mistake. Julian would have been safer in Vladivostock; he may have lived then. During the time they were in lvov the Germans kicked her parent out of their home and confiscated Christines fathers business. Sammel was lucky though, the man who took it over was very honest. He even told Mr.Rozen, “they turned me out of my business, too. Just pay me a monthly wage and consider this to still be your business." And the Germans saw him as a national so Sammel had some protection. The honest man also employed him so they were financially stable until the end of the war. The Germans returned to lvov in 1941. Julian and Christine where walking home from the movies on June 22, when they heard the bombs, “the war has started again in Russia,” said Christine. Her father sent word that he was sending someone to bring them back home. In September Christine's friends’ brother, from school, came with a car. Her and Sammel trusted him, they knew him since he was young, Samuel also paid him a lot of money. He took Julian first then came back two weeks later for Christine. They had to hide because the Germans considered every Jew that was leaving lvov to be a communist. They hid at a relatives' estate at Siedliska, a little village near Lublin where they had a big house and farm land. “All of the peasants around there once work for their relatives,” said Christine. When the Germans came the farm owners had to move out of their house into something like a stable. The peasants where really nice, one guy even gave up his hut for them and three of Christina's friends who were in the same type of situation. Of course the paid the guy handsomely for his genuine kindness and hut. The five of them were living there for a mouth, but one day the Gestapo pulled up. She wasn't alarmed, she just thought it her father sent for Julian. They're used to S.S.and military men coming to buy beer, at the time he still owned a brewery. There was only one entrance to Their hut. The Gestapo never knocked; they just pushed the door, and barged in. They were sitting at the table--Julian and Christine, and her three friends. They asked, “which one is Julian Rozen?” Slowly he stood up and they put handcuffs on, and took him away. “My heart stopped. I couldn't think. There was no telephone; I couldn't communicate with my parents.” Christine thought. Early the next morning she walked seven kilometers to the railroad station. Only one car at the end of the train was allowed for the Poles, and you had to give a bribe for a ticket. She got a ticket for Zamosc, and went straight to her parents' home. Christine later found out the man father hired, her friends brother, later betrayed them to the Gestapo, it was a tense situation. He told them that my father had brought them back illegally, and that Julian was in hiding. They arrested her father and tortured him so terribly, he broke down and told them where Julian was. She know just how badly they treated my father because a few days later she saw him myself. Christine sister Helena and Christine were talking in the kitchen. She was wearing a fur coat, without an armband, at that time Jews no longer had fur coats, the Germans had taken them all away. Her mother had gone out, to find money for bribes to release her father and brother. Then suddenly, the door was pushed in, and there was the Gestapo, two big tall guys; and behind them, her father, all beaten up: a big gash in his temple, no teeth, his nose smashed in. Sammel looked straight at her. “What is this Polish girl doing here?” he said. “She doesn't belong here. Make her leave!” They didn't ask her anything. The Gestapo yelled, “You! Out!” She flew out. He saved her life. The next day Helena told her that they had thought she was Christine. They even went through all the picture albums to find out what they looked like. Her father just kept telling them she was not the one they were looking for, and finally they believed him.
A few days later they let her father out of jail, for a big bribe, but not her brother. Julian was sent to the Polish prison in Zamosc. Not realizing he was Jewish, the prison authorities put him in a cell with Poles. Then they transferred him to Zamek, the biggest prison in Lublin. She stopped speaking to her father. She couldn't believe her father would tell the Gestapo the whereabouts of his only son. “It was hard to forgive him,” Thought Christine. The Germans told the Jews to move out of their homes to a new part of town. And so the Rozens did, they moved in with John Damski.(pic of john here) John was friendly with her parents, they had lived in the same house for two years, almost in the same apartment. He always knew everything that was going on in there place, and had been helping her parents with many small things. When the Germans took all the furs belonging to Jews, John took her mother's coat to his German friend in Crackow for safekeeping. Because they had money from their business, her parents could always afford to buy coal on the black market, but Jews were not allowed to keep coal for heating their homes. There were two coal bins at the back of the house, one on the owner's side, the other on her parents' and John's side. When the Gestapo came around asking whose coal was in our bin, John always said, “This is mine.” When Julian was sent to the Zamek prison, John brought him Christine's parents' packages. And when Julian contracted typhus in the prison, it was John who brought him medicine. He did a lot. Christine always went one night here, one night there, going from place to place, visiting her mom, dad and sister in the evenings. She ran out of places to stay so she just stayed at her parents’ apartment for a few days. Around 8:00 at night a car pulled up, she knew it wasn't poles because they didn't have any cars. It was the Gestapo.
She was looking out the window when they knocked on the kitchen door, she jumped back and Johnny caught her.
He grabbed her hand. “Let's get away” he said. She didn't have time to be surprised; she just wanted to get out of there. They had never met, but Christine knew who he was; she had heard his voice when I was with my parents. Johnny told her not to go back. He said she didn't look Jewish, that she should never wear the armband, or go into the ghetto, or tell anyone she was Jewish. He promised to help her get Polish papers.
A few days later Christine left with johnny to Warsaw but stopped by Lublin to drop of a package for julian. She stayed a few nights in Warsaw until Johnny brought the Polish papers. She went to Czestochowa and Johnny went back to Zamosc to his job.
For the first few days she stayed in a hotel while looking for a place to rent. Because the Germans had taken over all the best apartment buildings, many people were renting out their rooms. She knew that the most dangerous thing for Jews in hiding was simply to sit in a room all day. If you didn't go out, and never had visitors, right away you were under suspicion. Before long someone would report you to the Gestapo. She immediately started looking for a job, and soon was working as a manicurist in a beauty salon. So Christine had a job and a nice room with a young family, an engineer and his wife, and their seven year old girl.
Around this time she learned that Julian had contracted typhus. He survives, but the authorities learn that he’s jewish. They sent him to Majdanek concentration camp. She was trying everything she could think of to get her brother out ,going back and forth in Lublin.
The Germans in Poland took the best dentist, the best doctor, best tailor, shoemaker, and so on, in every town, and let them live in the Gentile districts, so the Germans could have their services available to them. Christines cousin's husband was a great dentist in Lublin, they still lived in their beautiful house, where he had his dental office. All the S.S. big shots came to him, he knew them all. They knew that once in a while, for a lot of money, the S. S. would arrange to release someone from prison. Her cousin's husband started working on it. One month she made at least five trips to learn if her cousin had found a contact who could get Julian out of Majdanek. Each time he said the same thing, “Come back next week. Next week So and So from the S.S. is coming to have his teeth fixed.”
Then she got a telegram: “Bring four thousand American dollars and a new suit of clothes.” That meant civilian clothes, to replace Julian's prison uniform. She got the suit and money and set off for Lublin and arrived at Her cousin's door. The lady from across the street had seen her come there before, she probably thought Christine was a patient. “Ohhh lady,” she said. “They are all gone. They took the dentist and all his family, everybody who lived there.” “My cousin, her husband, her father, an uncle, her children, they liquidated them,” thought Christine. “And now I lost all contact with Julian, completely.” In the spring she got a letter from her mother in Zamosc, saying that they were beginning to liquidate the Jews in Zamosc, she wanted to come out.
Johnny got polish papers for Helen, Christine's mom, and Johnny later found out that his cab driver was blackmailing his brother, Threatening him for money or telling the Gestapo about his runs. And refused to pay so he couldn't go back to Zamosc. He gave up his job and moved to Czestochowa. Christine and Johnny told everyone that their married. Thats when she changed her name to Christine Damski and it just stuck.
Her mother was close to them in Olsztyn, but her father stayed on in Zamosc with Helena. Johnny offered to help her get Polish papers too, but she said no. She and Samuel thought they were safe, she was young, only sixteen years old, and was working for her father's brewery business, which the Germans considered essential. Her father went to work all day long, coming home only at night, there was no reason for him to run away. Besides, it was dangerous to live on Polish papers, especially for a man. If the police asked him to pull down his pants, they would know immediately he was a Jew. Polish people recognized Jews.
Everything was going good in Czestochowa until the night janitor warned them of someone who knew them from Zamosc. They immediately packed up to go to Olstyn, to be with her mother.
The farmer's family her mother was living with rented Christine and John their one room. The five family members slept in the kitchen, by the stove, “ they were that poor.” commented Christine. Her mother had settled in and become quite friendly with the farmer's wife; she was even going to church everyday. The wife was expecting a baby. They had one cow--their main livelihood--and the cow was pregnant too. The wife said if the cow gave birth first, they would be able to afford a nice party when her child was born, and her mother would be the godmother. This prospect scared my mother, she was afraid of the attention it would bring to her.
Everyday the wife set out to the forest and collect firewood to sell in Czestochowa. One day she came back, carrying the wood on her back, but now there was a baby in her her shawl as well. She delivered the child herself in the woods. The calf was not born yet, so Helen was saved.
Even in Olstyn the rumors started again; they knew they had to find a safer place for her mother. Oddly enough the only safe place seemed to be in Germany. The Germans had employment offices in nearly every town in Poland, to recruit volunteers for work on German farms, in factories, and businesses. Nearly the entire German population had been drafted into the military, and they badly needed a workforce. It was so hard for a poor person to make a living in Poland, a lot of Polish people were volunteering. In Germany they would at least have a place to live, food, and a little money.
She took Helen to register at the Czestochowa recruitment office. Her mother was wearing a babushka, looking very much like a peasant woman. But she didn't stop to think, she was dressed elegantly, in silk. The guy in the office looked at Christine, looked at her mother, then at Christine again. He walked to the front of the office, and looked up and down the street. He was suspicious. Then he came back, and said, “Okay. Come tomorrow for the physical examination.” They didn't know what to do with themselves for the rest of the day. They first went to the biggest church in Czestochowa, the holiest church in Poland, where the church held masses every hour, all day long. They moved from one part of the church to another until the evening curfew. The next day they went back and finished the registration; her mother signed up to go to Bavaria, to work in a family restaurant in the German Alps.
In the Spring of 43’ Shortly after Christine's mother left for Germany, it happened again; someone in Olstyn told Johnny that she wasn't really his wife and that she's Jewish. They left right away for Warsaw. At first they lived in this beautiful villa of Johnny's friend, Danuta Majewska. Her house was full of underground worker: pilots, refugees from western poland, everyone was involved. There was an arsenal as well. There was about twelve others in the room with them.
While she was in Danutas’ she learned that the Polish government-in-exile in London was sending money to be distributed to Jews in hiding.
They needed couriers to deliver the money, so she volunteered. And thats how she found her dad in hiding in Warsaw.
One day she was told to bring some money for six people from Zamosc, the contact was a man named Veigler. When she went to give him his money and his first words were, "Your father is here!" He told her the story about the Germans who were rounding up the last Jews from Zamosc, her father and several others were able to bribe the railroad station attendants, and escaped by boarding the train for Warsaw. One of there family friend, Mr. Garfinkle, had a relative in Warsaw who was married to a Polish lady.
The polish lady had a friend, an old widow lady, who lived in a six-seven story apartment building that was damaged from a bomb in 39’. One selection was almost completely destroyed, some rooms were still intact, somewhat. She placed a large armoire in front of the door of the only room leading to the destroyed part, and behind that door Christine's father was hiding, another lady from Zamosc, and fifteen other Jews. She asked for absolutely nothing from them in return, not one
cent.
She had not talked to her father since he was released from Zamosc prison, “it was hard to forgive him for betraying Julian,” said Christine. Her mother never forgave him, but she had been through so much lately that she went to go see him. They became very close again.Each day she spent a few hours there and brought food and tobacco where her father would make cigarettes and she would sell them.
Johnny and Christine found a room of their own on the top floor of an apartment house near the Polish Opera building, of course this is the time when both knew they liked each other. Everyone on that floor shared one bath, but now Johnny and Christine were by themselves at last, not sleeping on the floor with ten other people. She was so happy. She hung beautiful curtains in the window. Johnny was working. She was visiting her father, and getting letters from her mother. She was even baking cookies for her mother, making up packages to send to her. Helen was living in an attic without heat in the Alps. About all they gave her to eat was black bread, ersatz coffee, and one bowl of soup a day, and this was a restaurant!
August 1st was the start of an uprising. When they started burning down houses, she instinctively first grabbed the bacon then for some bread and her fur coat. She was very clever you see in sewing diamonds and gold rumbles, all the money she collected during the war, in the shoulder pads of the fur coat.
When the Russians finally liberated Johnny, Christine,her mom and dad, they thought they would return to Zamosc, back to this town where Christine had grown up, gone to school, where before the war, “she was really somebody,” Christine thought. No one wanted to see her now; no one greeted her on the street, and no one invited her to their home. Before the war she had never felt any anti-Semitism in Zamosc, but when she returned, people turned their backs. She didn't want to stay anymore.
“Thank God, my mother and father survived”said Christine. Her sister, Helena died in Treblinka. She had to dig her own grave. After the war, Mr.Rozen was still hoping that her son, Julian had survived. When he didn't come back, she divorced Christine's father; Helen said “ she couldn't live with him.” She has a letter from her father after the divorce, full of tears. He wrote that her mother, Helen, was an angel, and he was the most unhappy man. She keep it with her all the time.
After the war John and Christine married officially they’re four years apart. From Zamosc, they moved to Gdansk, and subsequently emigrated with Christine's mother to the United States to California. About the same time, Christine's father, Samuel Rozen, emigrated to Israel. Christine died at age 80 in November 02, 1999.