My
Bobba’s Story (Ann Monka)
by Shari Lippa (2003)
The word Holocaust means devastation, destruction, and total
consummation by fire. The Holocaust was the worst genocide in
recent history. Today, the word specifically refers to what is
one of the darkest periods in modern history. Years of terror
during which one nation and its leader, Nazi Germany and Adolf
Hitler, tried to annihilate the Jews of Europe, and succeeded
in destroying six million of them. World War II, a global military
conflict that, in terms of lives lost and material destruction,
was the most devastating war in human history. It began in 1939
as a European conflict between Germany and an Anglo-French coalition
but eventually widened to include most of the nations of the
world. It ended in 1945, leaving a new world order dominated
by the United States and the USSR. Ann Monka, my grandmother,
is a survivor of World War II, and shares with me, her most astounding
years as a child in World War II. Adolf Hitler was a German political and military leader and
one of the twentieth century's most powerful dictators. Hitler
converted Germany into a fully militarized society and launched
World Was II in 1939. He made anti-Semitism a keystone of his
propaganda and policies and built the Nazi Party into a mass
movement. He hoped to conquer the entire world, and for a time
dominated most of Europe and much of North Africa. He instituted
sterilization to enforce his idea of racial purity among German
people and caused the slaughter of millions of Jews. Jews were
not the only victims of the Nazis during World War II. The Nazis
also imprisoned and killed people who opposed their regime on
grounds of ideology, such as Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, Germans
who were mentally impaired or physically disabled, and captured
Soviet soldiers. Hitler began to form his political views: a
strong sense of German nationalism, the beginnings of anti-Semitism,
and a distaste for the ruling family and political structure
of Austria-Hungary. Like many German-speaking citizens of Austria-Hungary,
Hitler considered himself first and foremost a German.
My
grandma, Ann Monka, who I call “Bobba,” miraculously
survived World War II. It is hard for her to tell her story at
times, so this is why I chose to interview her. I finally got
a chance to better understand her story and pass it on to others.
My grandma is a very strong woman who faced a hard life. She
has a great personality and always makes others feel important.
Ann was at the tender age of ten when World War II broke out
in 1939. This began a decade of horror and displacement for her
and many others. She witnessed the destruction of her town, mass
executions, and deportations of Jews to concentration camps.
Her life as she knew it ended abruptly. Ann said, “I
still remember, although sixty years have passed since the war
began,
all the atrocities that took place. Being so young when the war
broke out and because the Holocaust years had such a great impact
on my childhood and growing up, I haven’t forgotten anything.”
Ann
Monka was born in the city of Lida, Poland. It is located in
the
eastern part of Poland. Ann said, “It was a small
city, which had a population of 30,000, of which 12,000 were
Jewish.” Her immediate family consisted of her parents
Leon and Sarah Stolowitzki, her sister Bella, and brother Michael.
Her father was a controller of a large brewery in Lida. Ann lived
in a middle class neighborhood in a wooden, three family home.
The house belonged to her grandmother, who had three children
and gave each child an apartment. They spoke Yiddish in their
home. Ann attended a public school from first grade through fifth.
She attended a Jewish school where they spoke Hebrew and Polish.
She later attended a Russian school where she learned Russian.
In
1941, after a very heavy bombing, the city of Lida was occupied
by
the Germans. Ann’s first recollection on this bombing
was that her home was burned down right in front of her eyes
and she remained homeless. A ghetto was formed and all the Jews
needed to wear the yellow Star of David in order to be identified.
Schools for children were interrupted. My grandma’s family
lived under the Germans for a year and a half. Ann said, “Eventually
there was not enough room for 10,000 people in a small ghetto.” The
Nazis took the entire ghetto out to a field, where mass graves
were prepared and shot 6,700 Jews. Among them, she lost her aunts,
uncles, cousins and her little grandmother who she adored. Ann
said, “As a child I found it very difficult to understand
what was happening.” She lived under the Germans until
1943 when the second elimination was done by putting the remaining
Jews on trains headed for Maidenek Concentration Camp.
My
grandma and her mother were separated from the rest of their
family
because they were hiding in an attic above the brewery
where her father worked. The Germans who were looking for all
the remaining Jews never found them. Ann’s father, sister,
and brother were put on the train. At this point my grandma and
her mother had no hope that they would ever see them again. Ann
and her mother escaped hiding in the city. Ann said, “During
this time there was only one thing on our minds and that was
to join the Partisans.” They spent eight days looking
for the Partisans in the woods. Susan Bachrach in her book Tell
Them
We Remember, explains that, “Life as a partisan in
the forests was difficult. People had to move from place to place
to avoid discovery, raid farmers’ food supplies to eat,
and try to survive the winter in flimsy shelters built from logs
and branches.” They came across a man who led them to a
group of about twenty people. Finally, my grandmother did not
feel so alone. They slept under the trees and berries were their
source of survival. “The partisans lived in constant danger
of local informers revealing their whereabouts to the Germans.” Weeks
went by without the Germans finding them.
Ann
said, “I
got up in the morning after sleeping a whole night in my
mother’s lap. I got up in a very good mood.
For some reason I felt warm that morning and from a distance
I saw my sister.” She thought she was dreaming. “The
first words out of her mouth were that Papa and Mike are alive,” Ann
said. Bella told Ann the story about how they were herded onto
the trains and that they had the notion to try to escape. The
Germans put about fifty people in each train car and locked the
cars from the outside. Every train car had a little window, small
enough for a child to pass through. Ann’s brother Mike
managed to open the door from the outside by climbing through
the window. “Fifty people had the opportunity to jump
of this moving train; however, they froze from fear except for
eleven
people who courageously jumped. Among the eleven people were
my father, brother, and sister,” said Ann. Her family
reunited in the woods about three months after being separated
and joined
the partisan group in the forest of Naliboki, close to Minsk,
Russia, under the command of Tuvia and Zeush Bielski.
My
grandmother Ann and her family owe their lives to the bravery
of the Bielski
brothers. The Bielski Brigade and “family
camp” was different than most partisan groups. Most of
the partisan groups consisted of single men. Because their sole
purpose was to fight and inflict as much damage as they could
on the enemy, membership was limited to able-bodied men prepared
for battle. Those unable to fight were left to fend for themselves.
What made the Bielski camp different than other partisan groups
was the fact that this camp provided shelter for women, children,
and old people. In the confines of the camp the fighters protected
them. The Bielski was primarily immobile. They built a small
city within the confines of the dense Naliboki forest.
In the Bielski camp, everyone worked. A school was established
for the children. The forest camp was half- jokingly called Jerusalem,
a sardonic comment on harsh conditions in the forests. The groups
survived by raiding local communities for food and by serving
as a civilian support system for other partisan brigades. Killing
the enemy was only one of their tasks. Helping the members of
the camp was of equal importance.
My grandmother and her immediate family were the one and only
family unit that survived in tact in the Bielski camp. The
Bielski brothers saved 1,200 Jews from slaughter. Today, there
are over 5,600 people who owe their existence to these brave
men. I am a direct survivor to the Bielski brothers.
After spending two years in hiding, Liberation came to all
members of the Bielski camp. In December 1944 the camp was liberated
by the Russian Army. Some of the partisan fighters met up with
the Russian soldiers and were told that the war was over. The
people were free to return to their hometowns. For my grandmother
this was impossible since there was nothing remaining in their
town to which to return, since her home had been burned down
when the Nazis first entered her town. At the end of the war,
the city of Lida became part of White Russia. Her family decided
to try and return to the city of Lodz, Poland, where her father
originated and had a large family. As a result of the war, my
great-grandfather lost contact with his relatives. He had not
been in touch with anyone from 1939 to 1945. They traveled to
Lodz together to search for survivors. Sadly, they discovered
that not one member of his family had survived. In Lodz, my great
grandfather lost his mother, three brothers married with two
children each, two sisters married with children, and many aunts,
uncles, and cousins.
Since
no family member could be located and since conditions in Poland
were awful after the war, my grandmother’s family
thought that their best bet would be to go to Palestine. There
was nothing left for them in Poland. However, in their attempt
to leave Poland they were faced with many obstacles. They tried
to get papers that would allow them to leave Poland and journey
to Palestine but the British, who were in control of Palestine
at the time, refused them entrance. Many ships of survivors en
route to Palestine were detained in Cypress. When survivors who
were still in Europe heard about this they became afraid to attempt
the journey. As a result my grandmother’s family left Poland
by train and traveled to Czechoslovakia. They traveled like gypsies
not knowing where they would end up. From Czechoslovakia they
traveled to Hungary. In Hungary they learned of an organization
known as “Unra.” This group assisted survivors and
set up D.P. (displaced persons) camps throughout Europe. With
the help of the Unra my grandmother’s family received assistance
and were sent to Austria. In Austria they were moved from camp
to camp. They resided in four different D.P. camps. “The
displaced persons camps were a short-term solution for may refugees
who were on their way home, or who showed no desire to return
to their countries of origin, or who were unwilling or unable
to remain in their homes once they did return.”
Life
in the D.P. camp was a paradise in comparison to the life they
left behind in the woods and in finding refuge after the
war. In the D.P. camp the children were not allowed to go to
school in Austria. The adults were not allowed to get jobs. Food
was rationed and restrictions were placed on all the people.
The survivors themselves organized makeshift schools to occupy
the children’s time. It took some time, but eventually
the ORT organization (a non-profit organization designed to train
people in a vocational trade) came to the rescue of the survivors.
ORT set up trade schools. These vocational schools provided opportunities
to learn a trade. In 1947, my grandmother received a diploma
in sewing from ORT. That degree proved to be very useful when
she finally arrived in America.
Meanwhile,
months turned into years and the survivors made new lives in
the camps. However, they were anxious to move forward.
My grandmother’s family continued to apply for visas to
immigrate to Palestine, but was refused. Miraculously, through
the newspaper they found relatives in America who were looking
for any family survivors. These relatives came to the United
States through Ellis Island after W.W.I. They were my grandmother’s
great aunts. Once these aunts made contact with the family in
Austria, they immediately sent out an affidavit for the entire
family to come to America.
Immigration after W.W.II was a difficult time because millions
of people lost their homes due to the war, and were desperate
to come to America to find freedom. These immigrant Jews were
arriving to the U.S. all at the same time, so it was difficult
for the U.S. to take everyone from one ethnic group at one time.
Our government at this time closed their eyes to the truth of
what was happening in Europe. President Roosevelt sent ships
back to Germany at the onset of W.W.II because our government
did not let them in, or even off the boats onto our shores. People
that had contacts in the U.S., mainly family members, who were
already citizens, could petition for relatives to come to this
country because they had first priority. Otherwise, they had
to wait for a quota, which is a predetermined quantity of refugees
that were allowed in this country each year. They also had to
pass medical tests in order to come into the U.S., so they had
to be relatively healthy.
The
United States government did not honor my grandmother’s
family’s visa on a preference quota as survivors trying
to enter a free country. Instead, they had to continue waiting
for the quota. The entire process took four long years. Finally
permission was granted and on November 21,1949 my grandmother,
her mother, and father arrived in the United States. The three
of them traveled on one ship. My great uncle, (my grandmother’s
brother) arrived on another ship and my grandmother’s sister
arrived with her husband, whom she married in the D.P. camp on
Thanksgiving Day, 1949.
My grandmother was twenty years old when she finally came to
America. Ten years of her life was stripped away due to the war.
She lost her youth, her teenage years, and education. All she
wanted to do when she arrived to America was catch up with her
education; however, her father was fifty years old and could
not find work in his profession as an accountant. My grandmother’s
brother was immediately drafted to the Korean War, even though
he did not speak English. Thus, my grandmother, at the age of
twenty had to go to work to support her family. Her trade in
sewing came in handy and she was hired to work in a millenary
factory. Sewing hats became her trade. As a matter of fact, she
has always had a passion for hats and is rarely seen without
one.
Immigrants viewed America as the land of opportunity and a place
where if one worked hard, one could achieve great things. Many
immigrant Jews did not fit in with other existing Jewish communities
because the American Jews grew up with a different background
then the European Jews. The European Jews had a different approach
and mentality, so this made it difficult for immigrant Jews to
fit in.
America
eventually provided her family with the opportunity for a new
beginning
and a wonderful life. My grandmother met
my grandfather in 1951 and was married in 1952. He is also a
survivor with his own unique story. They bought a business in
my grandfather’s trade and through hard work achieved the
American dream. They raised three children, sent them to college
and graduate school. Each of their children is successful and
has careers that give back to society. My mother has taught me
to cherish my freedom and my heritage. I am proud to be my grandmother’s
first granddaughter. I have driven her to schools in New Jersey
where she talks openly about her experiences during the war.
It is amazing to think that after all she has been through she
is able to educate my generation about the atrocities that occurred
to our people. I only hope that the students that she addresses
will learn to be tolerant of all human beings so that we can
live in a country that truly symbolizes “The American Dream.”
My
mother said, “My mom is the strongest woman I know.
Given all that she has endured, she maintains a very positive
outlook on life and has never complained about her suffering
as a child during the Holocaust.” My grandma is a
very special woman in my life. I am very proud to have such a
wonderful
grandma and I will never forget her horrendous story about the
Holocaust.
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Lippa, Rosalyn. Interview by Shari Lippa. Montville, New Jersey,
14 October 2003.
Monka, Ann. Interview by Shari Lippa. Montville, New Jersey,
17 October 2003.
Monka, Ann. Telephone Conversation with Shari Lippa, 5 December
2003.
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