Page 119 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Jesteśmy drzewami wiecznymi.

At the beginning of the war, men had to leave Łódź, they fled to the east. The
wool materials warehouse was confiscated by the Germans, and Hadassa and
her mother had to leave the apartment. Nechamia returned to his home town
only for his father’s funeral to say Kaddish. He gradually moved his family to
Częstochowa. Among them there were also relatives of his wife from Zduńska
Wola. As a member of the Committee of Łódź Residents in Częstochowa, he
had contacts there. In the Łódź ghetto, which had by then already been re-
named the Litzmannstadt ghetto, part of the family was left: sisters, brother,
cousins. Most of them died during the war. Until the liquidation of the ghetto,
it was relatively quiet in Częstochowa. Dziunia (Hadassa) took care of children,
taught them to read and write. Her mother took up tailoring. He father did
not have a job; he maintained the family with money from selling different
things. In the autumn of 1942, deportations to Treblinka began. Dziunia and
her parents managed to avoid the selection once, but then, in unknown cir-
cumstances, Nechamia was shot and Sara was deported. She was murdered
in Treblinka. Dziunia kept together with her cousin Hana (Anusia) Shapira all
the time. They both worked at the Hasag ammunition factory. They managed
to hide when the Germans gathered people for a march to Germany. They
returned to Częstochowa, then they managed to get to Warsaw, and at the
end of 1945, they reached Łódź. Dziunia graduated from a teacher training
college. She left for Palestine as a guardian of children, war orphans.
She changed her name to the name Hadassa in Cyprus. Dziunia died,
Hadassa was born. She met her future husband in a kibbutz in 1948. Josef
Wizenberg (born 1927) came from Warsaw. He lived in the Warsaw ghetto
until its liquidation. He managed to get through the sewers and on to Praga
and hid in Warsaw until the end of the war. His parents had a hiding place
in the countryside, but someone denounced them and they were killed. Josef
Wizenberg went to Germany, and in 1947, got to Palestine. The Wizenbergs
got married in 1952 in the Megiddo kibbutz, but they left it because they
wanted to study medicine, to which the kibbutz did not agree. In the end,
Josef decided to study law, Hadassa worked as a nurse, then graduated in
psychology and worked with young people. In 1957, their son Uri was born,
and in 1960, their daughter, Sheli. “For a long time, my husband and I spoke
Polish at home, but with time, the family spoke Hebrew. Unfortunately, year
by year, I lose my friends with whom I can communicate in Polish”, Hadassa
says in beautiful Polish language. Josef died in 1990. She is surrounded by
the love of her children and grandchildren, she also has two great-grand-
children: Ben and Itamar.
Her son, Uri Wizenberg is the chairman of the Association of Former Residents
of Łódź in Israel. Although he came to Łódź for the first time as an adult, he
knows the city as if he was born here. He married Anat. They have two chil-
dren: daughter Reut and son Ido, and grandson Ben.

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