Jerusalem
My Grandma Chana
Photo: Stanislawa and Garndma Chana planting a tree in Yad Vashem in honor of Stanislawa, 1981.
I got to know Grandma Chana. When I was ten years old, in 1986 she died of cardiac arrest when she was only 56 years old.
Grandma Chana was one of those Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto who remained orphaned and slipped out of the walls of the ghetto.
In early April 1942, twelve-year-old Chana Borowska escaped from the Warsaw ghetto, bruised and disheveled, and roamed the streets. After being raped by an extortionist on her way out of the ghetto, she encountered Stanisława Trębska a Catholic, who had a daughter her age. Stanislawa was her light. Stanislawa realized that the girl was Jewish, took her to her home, fed her, and treated her injuries. Despite the danger, she pitied the Jewish girl and decided to give her refuge for reasons of altruism rooted in religious faith. Over the next several months, Chana became friends with Trębska’s daughter Ewa and received sympathetic care. Later on, Trębska moved Chana to her acquaintances, Jadwiga and Roman Gołędzinowski, who knew that she was Jewish and employed her as a domestic and caregiver for their children until the liberation. After the war, Chana Borowska settled in Israel but stayed in touch with Trębska and hosted her in her home.
Grandmother Chana expressed the struggle for survival of the Jews during the Holocaust. She had the privilege of immigrating to Israel and having children.
Grandmother, Chana, wrote her life story, She wrote about her life during the Holocaust. Most or all of the pages were found by my uncles and my mother. It seems that she did not complete her writing or that some of the pages were lost, but apparently she managed to write about the majority. To date, the manuscript has been scanned, and us the grandchildren, the third generation, have the task of edit them for as a collection or more and continuing to preserve and tell.
Despite her words, we know almost nothing about her family. We do know little about her mother, almost nothing about her father. About her grandparents, uncles and cousins of the Borowska family, we do not know anything and we probably will never know.
But we are committed to continue to investigate and tell. To tell about her life during the holocaust and to tell about those heroes who multiplied the light. About Stanislawa and the Gołędzinowska couple, which we also here today thanks to them. On this too, we must continue to tell. About the heroism of the few, about the hand that was extended to help and the human bridge built by the Righteous Among the Nations between humans of two different religions.
On October 22, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized Stanisława Trębska as Righteous Among the Nations.
On January 28, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Jadwiga Gołędzinowska and Roman Gołędzinowski as Righteous Among the Nations.
In 1992, when I was in 10th grade, I went with a delegation from School for the March of the Living. In Warsaw we met Stanislawa, she boarded the our bus and told us how she saved my grandmother, while we were driving around the streets of Warsaw. This is one of the most powerful moments I have experienced despite the kind of shock I was at the same time from the intensity of the emotional experience. Stensilva passed away in 1996.
We are committed to remember, tell, respect and build a better future. Tomorrow, Israel will commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day - Yom Hashoa. Holocaust Mertyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2019 - The War Within the War: the Struggle of the Jews to Survive During the Holocaust.
I miss Grandma Chana.
By Amit Barak
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amit Barak is one of the initiators of the historical movement to integrate Arabic-speaking Christians into the IDF and the Israeli Society and worked with Father Gabriel Naddaf from Nazareth for five year. Amit is An Expert about Christian-Jewish relations in Israel and abroad. Born and raised in Nazareth illit and currently living in Gush Etzion (Judea). Serves as an active reservist in a special paratroopers unit with both his father and his brother. Amit builds bridges between Jews and Christians in Israel and between both Jews and Christians from Israel and around the world. He also lectures in Israel and abroad on issues related to the Christian community in Israel and Jewish-Christian relations. Amit researches the historic roots of the Aramean-Christian identity. He documents and researches the activities of anti-Israel Christian organizations and their connection to the Palestinian liberation theology.
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