Wartime Rescue of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy

After examining Pela, the professor said that she should be operated on without further delay. …

From the professor’s words I realized that we could no longer put off the operation. But I also knew that the Hospital of the Holy Infant Jesus was not a charity clinic. Patients at this hospital were expected to pay for their beds and for their treatment. How was I to raise the money? I threw myself at Prof. Czyzewicz’s mercy. I explained to him that I was at present without funds worth mentioning because I was a former officer of the Polish army in hiding from the Germans. The professor looked at me, and then at Pela. He seemed to understand. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll operate on your wife myself, and I’ll collect the money from you whenever you’ll have it.” I think he suspected immediately that we were Jewish. Later, I learned that he had given a room in his apartment to Professor Beck, a well-known Jewish specialist who had been the hospital’s chief of surgery before the Germans came. Thanks to Professor Czyzewicz, Professor Beck survived the war.

A date was set for Pela’s operation. Meanwhile, I was told to take her home. She was going to be admitted to the hospital only two days before the operation.

I took Pela back with me to Sadowne. Our security problem had been solved. Pela and I now had a legitimate reason for leaving Sadowne and staying away for some time. But what were we to do about Jasia?

We decided to do now what we had so firmly refused to consider doing after Jasia’s discharge from the children’s hospital: We were going to put Jasia into the convalescent home in Swider [Świder, a Warsaw suburb] which Dr. Stankiewicz, the pediatrician, had recommended to us at the time. I told the nuns who managed the sanatorium that I was a former officer of the Polish army, that I was a devout Catholic working for the Polish underground and that I had no money to pay for Jasia’s care. But now my wife would have to go to the hospital for a serious operation and I was desperately in need of a place where our little girl, who was not quite three years old, could be cared for until her mother was well again. If I could not find such a place for Jasia, I would not be able to continue my resistance activities, I said.

The nuns were wonderful. I do not know whether they suspected that Pela and I were Jewish, but they immediately agreed to accept Jasia free of charge. Once again Pela and I had to go through the ordeal of putting our little girl into the care of strangers. We left her in the ward crying bitterly but we knew there was nothing we could have done and we tried to persuade ourselves that Jasia would be in good hands. …

Pela entered the hospital in the middle of January 1944. She was placed into a women’s ward with five or six other patients. In order to bolster Pela’s credibility as a good Catholic, our friend Edward Galewski gave her a little breviary to keep with her in the hospital, along with a religious tract entitled The Life of Saint Theresa. Pela placed both books on full view atop her little bedside table. Before the operation a priest came to her bedside to hear her confession. This was something for which Pela had not been prepared. She did not know the responses used in this sacrament of the Church and she was afraid that her ignorance would betray that she was not the devout Catholic she had made herself out to be. So, when the priest asked her whether she was ready to confess her sins she told him that she was in too much pain to be able to perform the act with the full concentration it required. The priest gave her a sad but understanding smile, made the sign of the cross over her and left. I only hoped that when Pela came out of her anaesthesia after the operation she would not say anything that would betray her as a Jewess.

The operation took almost four hours. …

Almost as soon as Pela was awake again the priest made a return appearance. He inquired whether she was now ready to make her confession. Once again Pela protested; she said she was still too weak and tried to concentrate on repentance. Very well, the priest said, he would take her deadly sins upon his conscience, but he would suggest that she at least attempt to confess her lesser sins. When Pela still refused, he shook his head, smiled and walked away. Pela thought he suspected that she was Jewish, because he stopped pressing her about making her confession but gave her a friendly smile whenever he passed through her ward on his daily rounds. …

Because her operation had been a difficult one, Pela had to remain in the hospital for seven weeks. … Every Sunday I visited Jasia at the sanatorium in Swider. I was happy to see that she, at least, was getting good food, that she had good color and had not only grown but also gained some weight. …

Pela and I worried whether we had been right to leave Jasia in the sanatorium. The Soviets had begun to bomb Warsaw and its railroad communications. What if we could no longer go to Warsaw to visit our daughter? What if the sanatorium itself got hit? Perhaps Jasia was now in no less danger at the sanatorium than she would be in Sadowne? So, just before Easter, we went to Warsaw to pick her up and bring her home again.
After the liberation, Jasia continued to suffer poor health and needed to regain her strength. The Starkopfs again turned to nuns for assistance. (Starkopf, There Is Always Time To Die, p.229.)
But what were we to do? The payment I was receiving for my work with the “Jewish Committee” consisted of nothing more than room and board at the shelter. But the doctor had an idea. She suggested that we place Jasia into a children’s convalescent home which was housed in a convent near Lublin. She explained to us that, unlike the sanatorium in Swider, this institution accepted every child free of charge. “Of course, the generosity of the sisters creates a problem,” the doctor added with a sigh. “Usually, every bed is taken. But I’ll try and see whether they can make room for one more little girl.”

We were lucky; Jasia was accepted by the sisters and remained there for the next four months.

Sandra (Roma) Brand, originally from Niemirów near Lwów, passed as a Polish Catholic in Warsaw. Under the assumed identity of Cecylia Szarek, she had a love affair with Rolf Peschel, a German officer at the Criminal Police Headquaters in Warsaw who helped Jews and the Polish underground. Shortly before the August 1944 uprising, the Germans discovered Rolf’s double life and murdered him and made it look like a crime committed by the Polish underground. During the uprising, Brand befriended Rev. Teodor Bensch, a Polish priest who taught canon law at an underground university in Warsaw. Her conversations with Rev. Bensch, who suspected her of being Jewish, proved to be a great comfort to her.⁵⁷⁴ Unknown to her at the time, Rev. Bensch was hiding several Jews, among them a woman and her teenage niece, in a chapel of an old-age home run by the Franciscans in suburban Konstancin. His kindness towards Sandra (Roma) Brand continued after the liberation, and she has spoken of him many times as a volunteer speaker about the Holocaust in American high schools and colleges. After the war Rev. Bensch returned to his teaching position at the Catholic University of Lublin, but was soon elevated to the rank of bishop of Warmia. (Sandra Brand, Good People, Bad People [Rockville, Maryland: Schreiber, 2003], pp.69–73, 78.)
Father Teodor Bensch who became my friend while I was attending the prayer sessions for the Polish Freedom Fighters during the uprising in Warsaw, passed everyday at the same time by the gardener’s house, which now was my so-called home. Although sick, I waited eagerly near the fence of the garden to hear some news.

He came to my rescue. He heard me coughing and said, “You are sick my child and you seem hungry too. You need help. Why don’t you move into the Home for Retired Actors in Skolimov [Skolimów]. The home receives food coupons. It isn’t much, but enough to feed the inmates, and enough to feed one more person. I will speak to the Reverend Mother. I think the best place for you will be right here. …