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"So I would go there and pick up, let's say, a little three-year-old." | |||
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Tina Strobos Born 1920 Amsterdam, the Netherlands 
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When we started taking in people we realized that they had to get away if the Gestapo came. So we had a first floor on which electrical button could open the door and so you could look through a wall window to the door downstairs on the first floor and see who [was] coming in. Then we had a alarm that we rang for the third floor so the people on the third floor could creep out the window in the gutter and get lost and go to the attic on the back side of the house, of the school that was connected with us. There were two, a front, part of it was a school, they had this wing, we had this wing, and then in the back was the school behind the courtyard, and there were, there was an attic that we had access to. So they could, you could go in hiding there. And that we had as escape route. And we rehearsed that, to get out of the window and out in there quietly, very fast. So when, uh, uh, time, time came and a man called and he said, "I'm a carpenter from the underground." And he had tools with him, and he looked so honest and reliable, we trusted him. My mother said, "Do you know this man?" I said, "No, but let him make a hiding place." And he made such a good hiding place that when I go back to that house it's very hard to find. It doesn't hold too many people, though, two or three, crammed sitting together. | ||
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Tina Strobos Born 1920 Amsterdam, the Netherlands 
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For instance, I would get a call, "Could you pick up such-and-such a person at such-and-such an address and keep that person till we have his, uh, further, a further address for him?" This was mostly in code we said, said all those things. So I would go there and pick up, let's say, a little three-year-old. And then, um, they would call me and say, "Would you do an errand for us to, uh, Inghausen or, uh, Horne?" And I knew what that was, some contraband had to be transported, like a radio sender for, uh, contact with England. Of course that was very highly punishable. And so, and they did have these little check, you know, these little, uh, how you call it? Little wooden houses for soldiers on the roads everywhere--checkpoints, and they would, uh, check you and if you had food they would take it and keep it. Uh, sometimes they would take your bike, they could do that, they would take your bike and and you had to walk home, wherever you were. And if you had a radio sender, well that was, you would be shot. So I would bring things like that. We also hid weapons that were stolen from the Wehrmacht [German armed forces]. I would get a call if we would keep stuff for a couple of days, usually it was longer than a couple of days. And then, uh, if you were one minute after eight on the street they would arrest you and you would go to jail. And they would always pick people from the jails to be shot if there was any, uh, if any soldier was killed, or any railroad blown up, whatever subversive activity, they would take 100 people and shoot them. Innocent people, uh, people in the camp or in the jail. Innocent in the sense that they were one minute late after the curfew. So, but if you had to bring people to the country it was very hard to get back before the curfew was over. So I sometimes had to travel, uh, at night. And then when it was eight o'clock, uh, you just slinked from doorway to doorway in the dark to find shelter yourself, to get back in time. | ||
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Dr. Johan Hendrik Weidner Born 1912 Brussels, Belgium 
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Johan was the eldest of four children born to Dutch parents. His father was a minister in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Johan grew up in Collonges, France, where his father served as a pastor. After attending French public schools, Johan graduated from the Seventh-Day Adventist Seminary in Collonges, and went on to study law and business at the universities of Geneva and Paris.
1933-39: After completing my studies in 1935, I opened an import/export textile business in Paris. Business prospered and three years later I also opened a shop in Collonges. The town was near the Swiss border, and I liked to go mountain climbing. Around this time I went to Geneva to attend sessions of the League of Nations, and I saw firsthand how ineffective that body was in preventing the outbreak of war in 1939. 1940-44: Germany invaded France in May 1940. I moved to Lyon to help organize the "Dutch-Paris" underground network to help Dutch Jews and political refugees to escape to Switzerland and Spain. In February 1943 I was arrested. During my interrogation by the Gestapo, a guard repeatedly held my head in water until I almost drowned. Then I was forced to kneel on the edges of steel rulers. I was released, but was later caught in a roundup of men to be sent to Germany as slave laborers. I jumped off the train and hiked to Switzerland. Johan fought in the Dutch army during the final months of the war. After the war, he served in the Dutch diplomatic service. In 1955 he emigrated to the United States. |
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Gabrielle Weidner Born 1914 Brussels, Belgium 
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Gabrielle was the second of four children born to Dutch parents. Her father was a minister in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. She grew up in Collonges, France, near the Swiss border, where her father served as a pastor. Gabrielle was baptized in the Seventh-Day Adventist faith at the age of 16. She attended secondary school in London, England.
1933-39: Gabrielle became increasingly active in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, eventually becoming the secretary at the French-Belgian Union of Seventh-Day Adventists headquarters in Paris. Her student travels in western Europe and her knowledge of foreign languages proved useful in her work. On September 3, 1939, two days after Germany invaded Poland, France declared war on Germany. 1940-44: German forces invaded France in May 1940, and Gabrielle fled to the south. After the armistice, Gabrielle returned to Paris and resumed working for the church. On Saturday, February 26, 1944, the Gestapo arrested her during 10 a.m. church services. Along with 140 other members of the "Dutch-Paris" network that helped Dutch Jews and political refugees, Gabrielle was implicated by a fellow member who was tortured. On August 24 Gabrielle was deported from the Fresnes Prison in Paris to the Ravensbrueck camp in Germany. On February 17, 1945, Gabrielle died of malnutrition in Koenigsberg, a subcamp of Ravensbrueck, just days after being liberated by Soviet troops. |
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Danuta Justyna Born 1923 Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland 
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Danuta was born to Roman Catholic parents in the small industrial town of Piotrkow Trybunalski in central Poland. Her father and mother were school teachers. She and her younger sister, Maria, became friends with two Jewish girls, Sabina and Helena Szwarc. Although their houses were more than a mile apart, the girls often played together.
1933-39: I was planning on attending college in September 1939, but on September 1 Germany invaded Poland. Four days later, German soldiers streamed into our city. That October, the Germans established a ghetto in Piotrkow for the Jews, and our good friends, Sabina and Helena, were among those forced to move into the ghetto. Only a few weeks after Piotrkow was occupied, my sister, Maria, and I joined the resistance movement. 1940-44: My sister and I delivered weapons and illegal newspapers for the Polish Home Army [Armia Krajowa], and Mother sheltered resistance fighters in our home. When the Germans liquidated the Piotrkow ghetto in 1942, Mother hid Sabina and Helena in our house until they could sneak out with false IDs. In 1944 Maria and I were caught smuggling two resistance leaders out of Warsaw. We were sent off to a concentration camp, but on the way we escaped from the train. A month later, the Gestapo caught me in Czestochowa smuggling revolvers. Danuta was liberated from a Czestochowa prison by Soviet troops in January 1945. After the war, she was reunited with her family in Piotrkow Trybunalski. |
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Kazimiera Banach Justynowa Born 1893 Mierzen, Poland 
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Kazimiera was born to Roman Catholic parents in the town of Mierzen. After graduating from a teacher's college in Staniatki, she married Wincenty Justyna, a secondary school teacher. The couple settled in the small industrial city of Piotrkow Trybunalski and raised three children, Jerzy (a boy), Danuta and Maria. Kazimiera worked as a school teacher.
1933-39: With their combined incomes the Justynas were able to buy a plot of land and build a house. The Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and four days later, German troops streamed into Piotrkow. One month into the occupation, the Germans divided the city into a section for the non-Jewish Poles and a ghetto for the Jews. Only a few weeks after the occupation, Kazimiera joined the resistance movement. 1940-44: Kazimiera's house became a contact point and shelter for resistance fighters in the Polish Home Army [Armia Krajowa]. When the Germans liquidated the Jewish ghetto in 1942, Kazimiera hid the Szwarcs--a fellow teacher who was Jewish and her two daughters, friends of Maria and Danuta. Kazimiera used her contacts in the resistance to get the Scwarcs false IDs. In 1944 Kazimiera was arrested by the Gestapo, tortured, and deported to Germany, first to the Ravensbrueck concentration camp later on to the Bergen-Belsen camp. In April 1945 Kazimiera was liberated at Bergen-Belsen. After the war, she went to Sweden to recover from typhus, and then returned to Piotrkow Trybunalski. |
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Maria Justyna Born 1925 Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland 
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Maria was born to Roman Catholic parents in the industrial town of Piotrkow Trybunalski in central Poland. Her father and mother were school teachers. Maria attended grade school and secondary school in Piotrkow. She and her older sister, Danuta, became friends with two Jewish girls, Sabina and Helena Szwarc. Although their houses were more than a mile apart, the girls often played together.
1933-39: The Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and occupied Piotrkow four days later. Most schooling for Poles was banned so, at 14, I had to stop attending secondary school. That October, our good friends, Sabina and Helena, were among those forced to move into the ghetto the Germans established for the Jews in Piotrkow. Only a few weeks after Piotrkow was occupied, I joined the resistance movement. 1940-44: I was a courier for the Polish Home Army, guiding saboteurs who parachuted in from England. I also delivered weapons, explosives and underground newspapers. When the Germans liquidated the Piotrkow ghetto in 1942, Mother hid Sabina and Helena in our house until they could sneak out with false IDs. During the Warsaw uprising in 1944 I was caught smuggling two resistance leaders out of Warsaw. The men were shot on the spot. I was sent off to a concentration camp, but on the way I escaped from the train. After the war, Maria reunited with her family in Piotrkow Trybunalski. In 1963 she obtained a medical degree, and became a general practioner. |
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Stefania (Fusia) Podgorska Born 1925 Lipa, Poland 
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Stefania was born to a Catholic family in a village near Przemysl. They lived on a large farm and cultivated several different crops. While her father worked with the farmhands in the fields, Stefania's mother, a trained midwife, managed the house and cared for her eight children.
1933-39: My father died in 1938 after an illness. With my mother's approval, I joined my sister in Przemysl in 1939. At 14 I worked in a grocery store owned by the Diamants, a Jewish family. They treated me like family, and I moved in with them when the Germans invaded [Poland] on September 14, 1939. But two weeks later, the Soviets occupied the city [under the Nazi-Soviet Pact]. The grocery store stayed open; I shopped in the market for food to sell to our customers. 1940-44: The Germans again occupied the city in June 1941. Like all Jews in Przemysl, the Diamants were forced into a ghetto. My mother was sent to Germany for forced labor; I was 16 and left to care for my 6-year-old sister. I found us an apartment outside the ghetto and traded clothes for food. In 1942 news spread that the ghetto was being liquidated. I decided to help some Jews escape the final roundups by hiding them. I moved into a cottage for more space. Soon, 13 Jews were living in a secret space in my attic. Przemysl was liberated on July 27, 1944. The Jews that 17-year-old Stefania helped to hide all survived the war. In 1961 she moved to the United States with Josef Diamant, whom she married. |
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