Return home: from the diary of Ms. Gorzędowska
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Irena Gorzędowska initially gave the memoir to the Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. The Registry transferred it to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives in Sept. 1997.
Scope and Content
Collection contains an excerpt from the donor's diary describing her underground schoolwork in the Warsaw ghetto from 1940 to her Gestapo arrest in May 1943. After being beaten in the Warsaw prison, Gorzędowska was sent to Auschwitz until January 1945. On January 17, 1945, she and others were led on a four-day march to an unnamed train depot, packed into boxcars, and taken to Ravensbrück; she arrived on January 25, 1945. In February 1945, she and others were transported to a camp located at Neustadt-Gleve. While there, Gorzędowska was able to be detailed to "house help" in the children's barrack. On May 4, 1945, the German soldiers had left the camp; the inmates tore down the "Arbeit macht frei" signs and raided the food stuffs in the kitchen. Several days later, the French soldiers arrived and brought Red Cross supplies. After being liberated, Gorzędowska describes life in the camp and how the soldiers assisted the inmates. In July 1945, Gorzędowska and others reached a cloister in Czestochowa.
Genre
- Document
- Diaries.