"Hiding and Seeking" on PBS tv

[suzanne]

The other thread about the History Channel program reminded me of another program I'd recently seen on PBS called Hiding and Seeking. It's about an American Orthodox Jewish family with Polish roots whose relatives had survived the Holocaust by being sheltered by a Polish family. The father of the family did this research and traveled to Poland and actually found the now very elderly couple who had rescued his parents. He brought his sons with him as a sort of spiritual journey for them all and to expand their world views.

I happened upon this program and the complicated, touching story just drew me in and I ended up watching the whole thing. If anyone's interested, I'm sure it will be rebroadcast at some point:

www.pbs.org/pov/pov2005/hidingandseeking/index.html

[jimpres]

More of these stories need be published so the world can read about what happened during those tragic times.

[justjohn]

Jim,

I watched that. It was very emotional.

[jimpres]

I can understand the emotion. When I walked through Stutthoff with my cousin who was enterned there it was very emotional. He was third in line at the gas chamber but was needed to work on the roads and was saved. His memoirs are quite emotional as well. He passed last year.

[suzanne]

JustJohn,
It was indeed an emotional program. I'm pretty stoic most of the time, but this one brought tears to my eyes.

Jim,
That is quite a story. May I ask (just out of historical curiosity) what caused your cousin to be imprisoned? Was it just the "crime" of being Polish?

[jimpres]

Suzanne,

The Germans were looking for people to help built the camps and roads and such. He was taken near Rypin, Poland and transported to Stutthoff on the Baltic sea. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you like I can send you his memoirs but they are still in Polish. I am going to translate them when I have time.

[suzanne]

I never knew that people were taken purely for reasons of "work." I thought people were taken purely for reasons of extermination, although that was probably the ultimate goal, and I know there were so-called work camps. (Boy, I'm getting quite an education on this board and also end up revealing all the big gaps in my rather scanty knowledge of history!)

Thank you for your generous offer of the memoirs, but I only know a handful of words in Polish, unfortunately. I hope you do translate them eventually. Like you said before, more of such stories need to be shared.

[jimpres]

Suzanne,

I just complted correcting the Polish diacriticals in the text. It's about 40 pages long. Now I just need the time to put it in English. I went to Stutthoff and got his release document which I encorporated into the book. I am also going to send the museum there a copy in Polish and English.

[Pawian]

suzannem said:

I never knew that people were taken purely for reasons of "work." I thought people were taken purely for reasons of extermination, although that was probably the ultimate goal, and I know there were so-called work camps. (

Nazi Germans organised the slave industry in which millions (about 7 million) of people worked. They were people from all parts of Europe occupied by Germans. The reason was very simple: German men had to fight in the war but industry needed work force. Clever Nazis decided to use foreign labourers.

In occupied Poland Germans tried to make people voluntarily decide to work in Germany. When they found out very few Poles wanted to go, Nazis started to organise "street hunting" ("łapanka" in Polish, roughly translated as "catching" ) in major Polish cities, especially in Warsaw. Suddenly, the street was blocked from all sides by the armed police and everybody there was arrested.
The detainees` documents were checked first. If they had good "papers," they were sent to Germany to slave work. If they seemed suspicious to Germans, they were executed sooner or later.

[suzanne]

Pawian,
Wow, how chilling. I guess one could say that system was very clever in a completely sick and gruesome way.

[justjohn]

pawian said:

suzannem said:

I never knew that people were taken purely for reasons of "work." I thought people were taken purely for reasons of extermination, although that was probably the ultimate goal, and I know there were so-called work camps. (

Nazi Germans organised the slave industry in which millions (about 7 million) of people worked. They were people from all parts of Europe occupied by Germans. The reason was very simple: German men had to fight in the war but industry needed work force. Clever Nazis decided to use foreign labourers.

In occupied Poland Germans tried to make people voluntarily decide to work in Germany. When they found out very few Poles wanted to go, Nazis started to organise "street hunting" ("łapanka" in Polish, roughly translated as "catching" ) in major Polish cities, especially in Warsaw. Suddenly, the street was blocked from all sides by the armed police and everybody there was arrested.
The detainees` documents were checked first. If they had good "papers," they were sent to Germany to slave work. If they seemed suspicious to Germans, they were executed sooner or later.

My aunt on my mothers side, catholic, was in Auschwitz. She is 80 years old and still won't talk of the experience.

[gardenmoma]

See you there

GM