United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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I carried something and this was what the underground gave me to smuggle out to the Polish side and to give it to our leaders on the Polish side, to Mykolay. This was a description of Treblinka, already, and I was hiding this in my shoes and, uh, of course I have to deliver this to Michal Klepfisz who will be waiting for me, and to get out with the group. But while going out, they singled me out, I was among the few women, of the two women or three women, to go in and to be "controlled." And they took out everything what I had in mine pockets and, and asked me to take off the jacket, and it was the cold. The jacket, it was in, in December at that time. And I took this down and I was thinking, "My God, if he ask me the shoes then it will be...." And he did ask finally, "Take out, take off the shoes," but at the same time somebody was running away, or something came in to him and he said that he has to go out because something is happening there, and he left me. So I put back the shoes--I didn't take them off--but I, I, and I put everything back and I went out. I said, "If some...." I was waiting, he doesn't come back, so, and I went out, and the people understood that I was "controlled" already. I joined back the group and went out with the group and over there I took off mine Jewish armbands, with the star, with the blue star, and I went away, as a Polish girl, actually, as a Polish girl, and came to Gornoszlonska 3 and over there I met Michal Klepfisz and I gave, I told him what happened and he said, "Oh yes, things like this happen." He was not taken too much, not too much excited. And, uh, at that time I gave him what I took, the brochure describing Treblinka.

I carried something and this was what the underground gave me to smuggle out to the Polish side and to give it to our leaders on the Polish side, to Mykolay. This was a description of Treblinka, already, and I was hiding this in my shoes and, uh, of course I have to deliver this to Michal Klepfisz who will be waiting for me, and to get out with the group. But while going out, they singled me out, I was among the few women, of the two women or three women, to go in and to be "controlled." And they took out everything what I had in mine pockets and, and asked me to take off the jacket, and it was the cold. The jacket, it was in, in December at that time. And I took this down and I was thinking, "My God, if he ask me the shoes then it will be...." And he did ask finally, "Take out, take off the shoes," but at the same time somebody was running away, or something came in to him and he said that he has to go out because something is happening there, and he left me. So I put back the shoes--I didn't take them off--but I, I, and I put everything back and I went out. I said, "If some...." I was waiting, he doesn't come back, so, and I went out, and the people understood that I was "controlled" already. I joined back the group and went out with the group and over there I took off mine Jewish armbands, with the star, with the blue star, and I went away, as a Polish girl, actually, as a Polish girl, and came to Gornoszlonska 3 and over there I met Michal Klepfisz and I gave, I told him what happened and he said, "Oh yes, things like this happen." He was not taken too much, not too much excited. And, uh, at that time I gave him what I took, the brochure describing Treblinka.

Vladka (Fagele) Peltel Meed
Born: Warsaw, Poland, 1921

Describes smuggling a description of the Treblinka camp to underground leaders on the "Aryan" side of Warsaw
[Interview: 1991]

Vladka belonged to the Zukunft youth movement of the Bund (the Jewish Socialist party). She was active in the Warsaw ghetto underground as a member of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB). In December 1942, she was smuggled out to the Aryan, Polish side of Warsaw to try to obtain arms and to find hiding places for children and adults. She became an active courier for the Jewish underground and for Jews in camps, forests, and other ghettos.

— US Holocaust Memorial Museum - Collections