Anzelm Landesmann Testimony (doc. 301/905)

Typescript, 1 page, 210 x 295 mm, Polish language

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Anzelm Landesmann. Twelve years old. He comes from Skałat. He has two brothers, one is a corporal in the Polish Army and the other, 17 years old, was baptized and stayed with the Ukrainians in the vicinity of Skałat. Anzelm, called Jaśko by the Ukrainians, arrived in Gliwice with the transport of repatriates and was sent to the Children’s Home in Chorzów.

Janek recounts:

There were seven children in our [family]. I got up in the morning. The action. I ran away this way, Mom that way, younger brother this way. When I was running away a German shot after me, he wounded me in the head. I fell. They thought I was dead and everybody trampled on me, I didn’t even gasp and was just lying. The Germans left, I got up and went to the hospital where they bandaged my head. I returned home, parents were no more and I was with a farmer I knew. Then the Germans came again, caught me [and took me] to the synagogue and [loaded me] onto a truck and [took me] to Tarnopol. From Tarnopol everyone was deported to Bełżec. My sister escaped from the truck and fell shot by a bullet. She ran away during the day, that’s why she didn’t make it, that’s why my brother and I escaped in the evening. A German fired, wounded my brother in the leg and myself in the face (Janek was wounded twice, in the head and in the face). But we did manage to escape and we walked at night only. What to do…? We split, my brother went in one direction, I in the other. I went to the countryside and entered a house. There was only a Ukrainian couple, I told them that I was from Drohobycz, that there is hunger there and that I worked there. But I told them that I wanted to work here. They were glad that I would herd cows. I spoke good Ukrainian because at home I used to play with the neighbors’ children. I knew how to pray in Polish and in Ukrainian. I worked for them, I forgot Yiddish but sometimes I wanted to say something in Yiddish to a horse in the stable but something would block my throat and wouldn’t let me. A village head came and asked for the names of my father and mother. I said: Michał and Natusia [Nastusia]. I made up names for my grandpa and grandma. Once, I was herding cows and I heard someone singing, a familiar voice.1Note 1: Anzelm Landesmann used a Ukrainian word for ‘voice.’ I run to the road, I look, it’s my younger brother, I raised my hand, I weep, shout, he stopped, climbed down the cart, he wept too. Then he drove on and I never saw my brother again. I worked like this until the winter of 1944. Then the Soviets came and I thought there were no Jews left but I went to Skałat to see our house, I look and my uncle is walking down the street and he brought me to Gliwice.

Record taken by Gliksztejn Ida. Bytom.