Every wave carries a souvenir for me - the story of Halina Friedman

The story of Halina Friedman unfolds a fateful period. As a young child, she experienced pain and turmoil following the separation from her beloved mother and faced daily existential danger. But that was not the end of the challenges that were presented to her by the challenges of her life. She faced all of them with courage, bravery and great wisdom.
Halina built a new life and raised a glorious family and chose to give her skills for a community in need. It's all a huge giveaway

Lodge, childhood memories

Helina (Helinka), was born in 1932 in Lodz, Poland, to Wolf (Zev) Herling and Lena (Anja) Kriszek. Her birth, after seven years of marriage, brought great happiness to the family and thus, from a young age, Halina received the treatment of a princess and countless treats. Later, her father told her that he had paid a bribe to give her a Polish name, thus preventing bullying at the local school.

Since the Polish environment was not friendly, Halina was not allowed to go out to play alone in the yard. From time to time Jozia, the Polish maid, took her to ice-skate in the rink piled up in the center of the city. When Ima and Yujia went to buy poultry at the local market, the little lodger joined the carriage ride.

Halina's father was a partner with his brother in a leather factory and warehouse for shoe soles. During the summer, after the snowy winter, close to their invasion, the extended family went on a long vacation in a pastoral village on the outskirts of Lodge. The men stayed to work during the week and joined at the end.
Her maternal grandparents, Perla and Eliezer Krishak, ran a book store. Halina did not get to know her paternal grandparents, the Haring family, who died before the outbreak of World War II. Mina, Ima's sister, married Shmuel Glazer and they owned a successful factory for the production of men's shirts, "Verits". Later, her aunt Mina and her husband had a central role in shaping Halina's life.

Spirits of war

Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the Germans invaded the lodge. equipped with lists of wealthy Jewish families. They broke into houses, including the house of Tula, Halina's aunt, at 8 Piotrkowska Street, and murdered all the family members.

Immediately after, all the Jewish families in the lodge were expelled from their homes and moved to a spacious hall that was used as a factory before the war. During their stay there, her mother, in her resourcefulness, sewed her a hidden pocket in the hem of her skirt, in which she hid some of their money, which was of great help to them during the war.

escape from the lodge

"Thanks to her good looks and command of Polish and German," says Halina, "mother managed to escape from the hall and rent a horse-drawn cart. Fortunately, the guard was not yet strict at the time, which allowed father and me to escape from the hall and join mother."

The cart made its way along the Hatchim road, and after long hours of traveling in silence, the family arrived in Warsaw, where they met Mina and Shmuel. The two's luxurious home in Lodz was nationalized for the benefit of the German headquarters and they managed to escape to Warsaw. With the money they smuggled, they rented a house there, which Halina and her family joined for a few months.

in the Warsaw ghetto

After the occupation of Warsaw by the German army, in the fall of 1940, its Jewish residents were deported to the ghetto. Halina and her parents moved to an apartment on Leshno Street in the ghetto, together with Mina, Shmuel and his father. Later, they were joined by two of her mother's brothers and a cousin, who also managed to escape.
Meanwhile, operations began in the streets of the ghetto to catch those without work permits. Shmuel, obtained a managerial position at the "Tabens" factory in the ghetto, where German army uniforms were sewn and repaired. Halina's parents and her aunt also found work at the factory, while 8-year-old Halina remained in hiding in the apartment with "the grandfather", Shmuel's father.

Kindergarten children and "finger of God"

"The situation in the ghetto kept getting worse. Halina recounts. "The horrible sights, of the bodies being loaded onto a cart, bloated from hunger and covered in flies, give me no rest to this day."
In the factory where many of the ghetto residents worked, an announcement was made about the opening of a kindergarten for the workers' children on the ground floor. Halina's parents, like many others, were afraid to send their children, but the promise to provide the children with a meal of milk and meat every day, which were luxuries in the life of the ghetto, did its work. In retrospect, it was a cruel trap.

"One day," says Halina, "the kindergarten teachers organized all the kindergarten children, about fifty children of different ages, and took us for a walk from the factory to a public garden, further down the street where we lived in the ghetto.
While we were standing in the garden, and before we could understand what was happening, SS men who were hiding behind the bushes came out and shot us with machine guns at short range. All the children immediately fell to the floor, dead. I fell too.

I have no idea how I didn't get hurt. Luckily for me, I realized that in order to survive I had to lie still without moving next to the corpses of my child friends. Only later did it become clear to me that thanks to my resourcefulness, I stayed alive. It was like the finger of God intervened and pulled me out of the gate of death."

Halina continued to lie down for a long time and only when it got dark, when she was sure that the SS men had left the place, did she dare to raise her head slowly. Only then, she realized that all her kindergarten friends were dead and she was the only survivor. She got up shocked and quickly ran to the apartment. Word of the brutal slaughter of the kindergarten children spread quickly and her parents, who had meanwhile returned from the factory, were happy to see her alive.

the angel

Staying in the apartment became dangerous and every day, when the members of the household went out to the factory, Halina and the "grandfather" hid in the small hiding place that her father had built and was hidden behind the coal stove.

The worsening situation in the ghetto led to the flourishing of an "industry" of food smugglers, nicknamed "Schmugler". These were Polish boys who made a living by smuggling basic food items into the ghetto through the sewers for zloty coins. Among them were also those who risked their lives for the Jews of the ghetto out of pity. Such was 18-year-old York Kozyminiski.

"York was his mother's stepson. Every time he managed to smuggle food for us, my mother used to iron his clothes and mend the holes in his socks. With her motherly feelings, my mother gave him a sense of home and in fact, thanks to the special bond created between them, we stayed alive."

The big action

The situation in the ghetto was getting worse. Death reigned in every corner. The German soldiers passed through the streets of the ghetto and called the Jews to come out and stand in rows, rows of eight people each. Soon after, the ghetto began to burn.

"While we were standing in the lines," Halina recounts, "whispers passed from those standing in front of us, regarding the sort that awaited us: life or death. Those who were turned by the Germans to the right, would win life and return to work and to their homes. Those turned to the left, their punishment is death."

Under cover of the crowded lines, Halina was quickly put into a huge backpack with fabric straps that her father carried on his strong back. But when her parents realized that they would not be able to pass successfully without a thorough search by the Germans, they decided to run away.

"My mother was the first to run away. After her, father, grandfather and I. We all managed to escape and locate the bakery where mother was waiting for us, where we hid all night behind two huge sacks of flour. All the while we heard the sounds of the selection, the screams and the blood-curdling gunshots.

Early in the morning, mother, with her resourcefulness and courage, managed to bribe a German coachman to take us away. We set off. After a long detour, we were able to return to our apartment in the ghetto after the action ended."
In the meantime, the Jews who were alive were getting ready for Passover. Those whose conditions allowed, baked impromptu unleavened bread. "It was Passover Eve, 1943. "Grandpa" insisted on having a symbolic Passover ceremony. We sat on the floor in the vestibule, "Grandpa" served the improvised matzah he had prepared and said a prayer. Suddenly, through the windows, we saw a blood-red sky. That evening, the Germans burned all the houses On Novolipia Street, which borders our street in the ghetto. The ghetto was in flames."

Mother is gone

A few days after the action, York managed to bribe an SS man, and collected Halina and her family in a limousine, and brought them to the small ghetto. From there, split up and arrive at a pre-arranged meeting place. In the meantime, Halina's parents were caught following a tip from a Jewish policeman and taken to a field in the ghetto area, surrounded by a high fence.

"Father bent down and asked mother to hang on his shoulders to get over the fence and run away," Halina recalls with a shudder. "Mother was seized with fear and refused to go up. Time was critical. Finally, father had to jump over the fence alone and arrived at the place where we all waited anxiously. Mother, as we later learned, was sent to Auschwitz."

the bunker

York, with whom my mother formed a special bond, arranging for the family ahead of time a house on Frosta Street, where two Polish sisters lived, as a stopover for escape. There the family has now gathered, trying to digest the loss of Anja.

From there, the family members split up and took the suburban train. Without identity documents, and while managing to avoid the eyes of the many informers on the train, they managed to reach the intended hiding place at the home of York's parents, in Wawer on the outskirts of Warsaw, on the eastern side of the Vistula River.

All that night, the men diligently dug, emptied the ground under the living room of the house, and created a sort of room underneath, which served as a makeshift bunker for Halina and her family. the bunker ceiling, supported with pilings and hoped for the best.

Carol Vernia - Hassidic of the Nations of the World

For a year and a half, Halina and her family members stayed in the bunker, under difficult conditions, and Halina, who grew up in one against her will, had to face many challenges. The daily war of existence in the face of the many dangers did not allow the young Helina to mourn her mother.

"When I realized that I had lost my mother, I didn't want to live," she recalls. "I had no one to vent my feelings to, I needed a supportive hug from an adult. But the daily stress and existential danger did not allow space and leisure to be sad."

At some point, other Jews who managed to escape joined the bunker, including Israel, Halina's aunt. More than once, the Germans searched Carol and Rania's house, knocking with their guns on the living room floor accompanied by loud screams as Halina and her family sit on the floor of the bunker, cowering in fear. Luckily for them, Carol and Rania were loyal to the family and their hiding place was not discovered. Later, York and Larenia were awarded the badge of the Righteous Among the Nations.

The Russians are coming

In August 1944, a few months before the end of the war, the Germans occupied Warsaw and expelled its Polish residents. "Our bunker," says Halina, "was right on the front line. The army forces were standing right above us. Leaving the hiding place meant immediate death. The hunger was severe. Rania and Carol were also expelled from their home, but from time to time Rania would risk her life for us, sneaking to us at night and brings us some bread that allowed us to survive."

The Poles continued to fight with all their might. "At a certain point, the soldiers' voices alternated between Polish and German, the Russian language. One day, we heard Rania, calling us to open the bunker door. As soon as we opened the door, five rifle barrels were pointed at us from above. After long moments of fear, which I will never forget, The guns were fired.

Rishon climbed the ladder of the grandfather, who received an emotional hug from the Russian-Jewish officer. Slowly we all climbed up and hugged the officer and his soldiers for a long time. It was an exciting class like no other. The officer gave us food and warned that in view of the severe hunger we experienced, we should eat little and gradually."

And again on the run

"The moment I set foot in the yard of the house, for the first time in a year and a half, I will never forget. From the outside, we saw the outer walls of the house where we were sheltering, pierced by rifle and cannon fire, a living testimony to the shelling that we heard clearly. A short time later, the house collapsed. Once more , we experienced a miracle.
But our troubles did not end there. The officer explained that we were still in danger, as the front was still dynamic, and instructed us to walk along the railway, to the Russian camp in Plenica. After a long and difficult journey on foot, we arrived in Palenica, where we joined many refugees who had gathered densely there. The Russians took care of us except for food and sleeping on blankets spread on the floor."

Collect the fragments

A few weeks later, Halina and her family managed to get tickets for the packed train to the lodge, where the survivors gathered in search of their relatives. There, among the ruins of their hometown, they met some family members who also survived the inferno and together they began to organize for a new life.
Also during this period, Halina had to find her place with their older husband around her and in the apartment, in the bosom of her family members, she had to go through difficult bumps.
When she was 13 years old, for the first time in her life, Halina was sent to school and placed in the XNUMXth grade, together with Polish boys. "Being the only Jew in the class," she says, "I was bullied a lot on anti-Semitic grounds. I felt lost. I didn't belong.

About two years later, the accommodation was moved to continue her studies at the "Tarbut" Hebrew school, which was opened in the meantime in the lodge, and she participated in the activities of young Holocaust survivors in the Gordonia movement. There, the messenger from Eretz Yisrael told them about the homeland and taught them songs in Hebrew. "I didn't understand a single word," she says, "but sitting together was very enjoyable."

Haifa beaches, a new life

In January 1950, after a window of opportunity opened for Jewish immigration from Poland, Halina traveled with her father and his wife by train to Italy and from there joined a roller ship. "It was a stormy winter," Halina recalls. "It was cold and crowded and the ship almost sank on the difficult journey. But when we saw the sight of the night lights of Haifa before our eyes, we were overcome with great excitement."

From the port of Haifa, the ship's passengers were taken by trucks to a transit station in Camp Israel in the Lod area, where several families were housed together in a barracks. "Once again we dealt with food sparingly," she says. "In order to defecate in the field toilets, we had to walk a long distance from the hut, wallowing in the deep mud."

The family, Gal's death

After some time, the three moved to the Gev Yam housing, later Kiryat Yam, most of whose residents were Holocaust survivors, where they began their new lives in Israel. Halina enrolled in the "Beit Olim" studio, where she studied Hebrew. One day, while waiting for the bus, she met Avraham, also a Holocaust survivor, who was wounded in the War of Liberation. The two went dancing at the "Eldorado" club and became a couple.

A few months after they settled in Gev-M, Halina joined the army and served as its secretary at Dr. Bores' dental clinic at the Haifa naval base. In April 1952, Halina and Avraham were married, in the halls of "Beit Hamalch" in Haifa. They moved to Neve Shanan, and with the expansion of the family, moved to Bat Galim. In Bat Galim, her third son, Gal, was born. A talented and handsome boy, who later, being only 18 years old, died of cancer. "It was my second Holocaust," says Halina in pain.

Volunteering in the Aran

On the advice of her friend Moshe Kessel, who ran the ARAN branch (psychological first aid) in Haifa, Halina went to a course in 1982 that qualified her to volunteer with the organization. At the end of it, she began to participate in internships and at the same time studied in the department of social work at the University of Haifa.

Halina, who started her career as a volunteer in Aran, found herself contributing and contributing to the important work of the organization and volunteered within it for 35 years. She held a series of professional and managerial positions in the organization, guided dozens of volunteer groups and trained new generations of volunteers. At the same time, she conducted special communication workshops For disabled IDF soldiers at Beit HaLochem in Haifa.

Author's note (Yel Horowitz)

Halina, a resident of Haifa, is a brave woman, a true hero. Survivor of a large family, most of which was destroyed in the Holocaust, who gained a new, united and embracing family. She is very proud of her sons, Moshe and Oded, who make an army: Moshe, chairman of the IDF employees' organization and the foreign relations department of the Histadrut, and Oded, an engineer and karate person.

During the work on her book, I got to know an inspiring woman, full of giving, who, in the face of many challenges and hardships, maintains a rare optimism. Cheers and wishes for health, happiness and contentment!

(Excerpts I edited from the book "For me every wave carries a souvenir - the story of Halina Friedman", produced by "Mash'oli Haim" (November 2018).