Alicia Appleman-Jurman
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Alicia Appleman-Jurman (b. Alicja Jurman in Rosulna, Poland on May 9, 1930) is a Polish-American memoirist and has spoken out about her experiences of the Holocaust in her autobiography, Alicia: My Story.
The following are non-verbatim excerpts, by section, from the autobiography:
Contents |
[edit] Early life
She was the only daughter and the second-youngest of Sigmund and Frieda Jurman in a family of five children (she had four brothers, all of whom would perish in the Holocaust).
Raised from the age of five in Buczacz, which was roughly 2/3 Jewish at that time, Alicia was sheltered relatively well from the anti-Semitism that plagued her town, as well as the rest of Europe. Unfortunately, this changed on September 1, 1939, when German soldiers invaded Poland, and Alicia would gradually have her whole family brutally torn from her.
[edit] Moshe
Her second-eldest brother, Moshe, was the first to die. The Germans worked out a deal with Stalin and they divided Poland between themselves. Buczacz fell under Russian occupation. A few weeks after the Soviet/German treaty was signed, the Russian army entered Buczacz and occupied it. The communists began removing so-called "Enemies of the Soviet Union" from the area in their effort to "Russianize" this new territory. With the Russian occupation, Moshe decided to go to Leningrad for an education as this was being offered to the students - both Jewish and non-Jewish.
Moshe had determined this would help him and his family. Over time, letters written home from Moshe were strange and seemed cold, something was not right, and his family was consumed with worry at this odd tone. Within a year, he returned home, frightened and gaunt ... he had "escaped" from "school". He told his family how he was forced to write what he had in those letters. He had been treated terribly and the situation in Russia was grim, he explained. He had been forced do hard labor every day after school. He had decided to escape from this "education" and come home.
Within a few weeks, the Russians were looking for him. They did not want anyone spreading rumors of how bad the conditions were in Russia. Moshe knew the truth; he was caught and imprisoned. In a few weeks Moshe would become the first Jurman brother to die.
[edit] Sigmund Jurman
In June 1941, the Germans broke their pact with the Soviets and swept through eastern Poland on their way to Russia - Operation Barbarossa had begun. The Germans, however, had an even worse plan than the Soviets had had for Europe's Jews: it was known as Endlosung (aka The Final Solution).
The plan was to kill them all eventually. In Buczacz, a decree was made that all of the Jewish men were to go to a central place and "register". What truly happened to these 600 leaders of the Jewish community was that they were detained and then taken out to a large meadow and massacred by firing squads. Before the truth was uncovered, however, the Germans pretended that the men were still alive and demanded ransom payments for their release.
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[edit] The Ghetto
Alicia, with her mother, a younger brother, and two older brothers were forced to leave their beautiful home to be "resettled" in the worst section of Buczacz - for this is where the ghetto for the Jews was created. Jewish families that lived in villages and remote areas were rounded up with the help of the local Ukrainian and Polish police and shipped into these medieval-styled ghettos as well. Along with white armbands bearing the Star of David, curfews and other "rules" it was edicted by the occupying Nazis that:
- any Jew who entered the synagogue would be punished by death
- anyone trying to leave the ghetto would also be shot
- any Jew not wearing the armband with the Star of David would be arrested and (presumably) executed
So then out of nowwhere comes this police officer dressed in red Alicia was told she could no longer attend school. She wanted to be in school so badly that every day she climbed a tree and gazed into her former classroom, trying to hear the lessons. Her former teacher could see Alicia, there in the tree, but, out of compassion, said nothing. One day, Alicia fell out of the tree and, because of the commotion it caused and the danger it risked to both women, the teacher was forced to gently direct the young girl to stay away from the school thereafter.
[edit] Bunio
Alicia's elder brother, Bunio, disappeared one day while out getting wood. They would never see him again. This was part of the actions taken by the Germans to secure slave labor. Bunio had been "picked up" and transported to a slave camp called Borki Wielki, about 100 miles away. The Germans informed the Judenrat (the Jewish "government" inside the ghetto) that packages could be sent to these boys twice-a-week. Then terrible news leaked into the ghetto. One of the boys had tried to escape and the Germans, using their typical terror-tactics, had lined the remaining ones up and separated every 10th boy to be executed. Bunio had been of the 10 or so boys pulled out of line - he was now dead from a German bullet. Not even halfway through the war Alicia had already lost 2 brothers and her father in the Nazi genocide.
[edit] Swept-Up in an Action
[edit] Headline text
and many other brushes with death would await her.
[edit] Zachary
Zachary at 17 years old was a beautiful fair-haired boy and was Alicia's only elder brother remaining. She also still had little nine year-old brother, Herzl and her mother, Frieda. These four were the only surviving members of the immediate Jurman family. Zachary, furious at the murder of a sweetheart by the Germans and at being helpless to do anything, took to loosely organized resistance activities. He became active in a group of friends who were trying to find a way to fight back.
One day Zachary was betrayed by a Polish "friend". He was caught and hanged right in front of the police building for everyone to see. Alicia was brought to the place by her friends and that night, they returned, cut him down and buried him in the Jewish cemetery.
Zachary had been the closest of all her brothers, and the utter devastation she endured overwhelmed her but a new resolve came over her. Alicia swore on Zachary's grave that she would protect her mother and only remaining sibling, her little brother, with her life and would speak for her silenced family when and if she survived.
