On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hannah Lewis tells Sophy Ridge about her time in a Nazi concentration camp in Poland, where the majority of her family was murdered and explains why she never forgave herself for the death of her younger cousin.
Hannah Lewis was seven years old when she witnessed the Nazi execution of her mother.
In 1943, Hitler’s forces picked up her family and forced them to march to a labor camp in the Polish hamlet of Adampol.
Adam, the father of Hannah, fled the concentration camp to join the partisans, a Jewish resistance force during World War II and returned the night before his wife’s death to warn of an impending Nazi raid.
Haya, Hannah’s mother, hesitated to go because she feared her daughter, who had fallen ill with a high fever and typhoid, would not live.
Hannah told Sophy Ridge, “I will always wonder how she survived that night for as long as I live.”
“How did she arrive at her decision? Was it correct?”
Hannah heard “yelling” and “screaming” the following morning after the arrival of the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazis’ mobile assassination organization responsible for the mass execution of Jews.
Hannah explained, “Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and my mother knelt, took me in her arms, and gave me a hug and a kiss with great dignity.”
“She neither ran nor made any noise. She proceeded to the door, opened it, and then firmly shut it behind her.
“I waited for her return… but she did not return.”
Blood on the snow is the expression.
Hannah, an only child, went searching for her mother and witnessed her and others being “pushed” in front of a village well.
She recalls that her mother appeared calm but avoided eye contact with her.
Hannah, holding back tears, stated, “I decided I would go down and take her hand as I always had.”
“As I was ready to walk barefoot, someone yelled an order and they began shooting.
“I witnessed her fall…and the blood on the snow.”
In addition to Hannah’s mother, her grandfather, uncle, and younger cousin Shlomo were all slain at Adampol.
Hannah, now 85 years old and a resident of north London, is speaking to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
During the Holocaust, six million Jewish men, women, and children were slaughtered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Only Hannah and her father survived in her family.
I have never forgiven myself for the loss of my cousin.
Hannah referred to her deaf and speechless cousin Shlomo as “the brother I never had” and “the one person I genuinely admired.”
She recalls being outdoors in the camp with the three-year-old boy when she heard the sound of approaching Nazi cars.
Hannah stated, “He was unable to hear or speak, so I grasped his hand.” “I pulled it so that he would know he needed to come, and we hurried inside the nearby barn.”
Hannah reported that she dove under a mound of straw where she and Shlomo frequently hid, only to discover that he was absent.
She was ready to leave her hiding position to locate him when she noticed her cousin waiting by the barn entrance.
She stated, “When the door opened, the Nazis noticed him and grabbed him up by the scruff of his neck.”
“My final view of my charming cousin was his back… His legs were kicking. I never again saw him.
“When I lost Shlomo I never forgave myself.”
Entering hiding
Hannah’s family was residing in the little Polish market town of Wlodawa at the time of the Nazi invasion.
She stated, “Suddenly there was a curfew.” “Suddenly, my grandfather was unable to trade. Suddenly, you were required to wear a mark.
“Before things became terrible, I recall my father putting me in a sled and taking me to a photographer.
“I am attempting to smile while standing there with tears in my eyes because I am aware that something terrible is occurring and it is wrong.
“I was likely six”
The family went into hiding at first, sheltering in a barn that required a “special knock” to enter.
Hannah stated, “There were two or three other families present, and when they saw me, they were not happy.”
They were not interested in hiding with youngsters.
Hannah reported that after one night there, “the barn door fell wide” and “everyone froze.”
As the Nazi soldiers “poked around,” she recalls seeing “the point of really glossy boots” and “peak-topped helmets.”
“We sat there like statues,” Hannah said.
“Fortune ran out”
Hannah stated that the family’s “luck ran out” and they were given an hour to pack up their stuff, even though they narrowly escaped discovery at the time.
Hannah, aged six, reported walking over five hours to the Adampol labor camp.
“No one assisted you if you tripped or fell,” she explained.
“I recall that they recently shot someone.”
There was no electricity or running water at the camp, and the security measures consisted of barbed wire fencing and a watchtower.
Hannah, a young child at the time, attempted to cope with the pain of witnessing her mother’s death by initially refusing to believe that she had been murdered.
Instead, she persuaded herself that Haya was injured and pretended to be dead to protect herself.
Hannah finally realized the truth after being liberated by a Soviet soldier and reuniting with her father, who had also witnessed the murder of his wife.
“He grabbed me, laughed, sobbed, and hugged me,” she recounted of her father.
“I said: ‘Where’s mama?’ He stated, “Mama is not returning. Mama died. You saw it.’
“I recall him shaking me since I allegedly remained silent for several hours.”
Children inquire, ‘Do you despise the Germans?’
Hannah and her father resided in the Polish city of Lodz after the war, and she confesses she felt “jealous” of children with both parents.
Her father left Poland for Israel in 1953, while she relocated to England in 1949 to live with her great-aunt and uncle.
She married in 1961, had four children and eight grandchildren, and now discusses her experiences in schools and universities through the Holocaust Educational Trust.
She stated, “Occasionally, the children ask me, ‘Do you tell your story because you despise the Germans?'”
No, I tell you my tale because I care about you.
“Beware of those who promise you the world but fail to deliver”.
