Page 102 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Zofia Lubińska-Rosset - "Okruchy Pamięci".

had chronic diarrhea and was afraid of such a long journey. Seeing
our awkwardness and indecisiveness, an unfamiliar young man ap-
proached us and disinterestedly offered help. When he found out
about our situation, he brought Mom a bucket and literally pushed
us into the wagon. How strange tricks can memory play can be
proved by the fact that, remembering so little from this trip, I can
still perfectly picture the tall figure of that blonde stranger, in a
herringbone raglan belted coat, whom I had only seen for a short
while and never met again.
th
After one or two days, on May15 , 1945, we returned to Lodz
and found ourselves back at home at 1a Nawrot St., but not in the
old, pre-war apartment, because it was occupied by the family of
the new house caretaker. Our pre-war caretaker, Jan Kocieba, took
us into his apartment and after a few days we moved to the 3rd
floor to an apartment shared by several families. This is where my
nanny Frania found us, bringing our family photos and some other
trinkets that she had kept throughout the war.
It can be said that history has come full circle, during which I
went through the Lodz ghetto and three concentration camps.
From my immediate family, driven to various ghettos in the coun-
try, only those who were in the Lodz ghetto survived the war, i.e.
my Parents and I, and my aunt Reginka with uncle Salek and his
brother Moryc. The other survivors of the Holocaust were my
cousin Tereska (the daughter of my Mom's youngest sister), who,
saved from the transport during the evacuation of the ghetto in
Stanislawow, found shelter in the monastery of Lubien Kujawski.
The so-called "good appearance" of my Dad’s cousins allowed
them to survive in Warsaw on false Aryan papers. All the others
from Bialystok (where my Mom came from) and Warsaw (my
Dad's family) died, most likely in the gas chambers of Treblinka.
How deep the psychological wounds were in those who sur-
vived may be proved by the fact that the aforementioned cousin
Tereska, our closest relative, after the end of the war, when found
by my Parents, refused any further contact with us, so that it would

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