Holocaust survivor Janet Singer Applefield shares the details of her evasion of detainment, forcing her to live under many names, how she survived to be reunited with family, and the struggle to forgive those who wronged her.Hear Janet's full interview in Episode 51 of Let's Talk Legacy.
The word Holocaust conjures up so many emotions for people even now, almost 80 years later. You have an incredibly unique vantage point as an actual survivor of that event.
So tell us about your perspective and share your story of how old you were when your home in Poland was invaded, how your small town was impacted, what happened to your family and how this whole thing came about for you that you're still a survivor.
Well, I was born in Krakow, Poland, and I lived with my family in a little town 50 miles south of the city of Krakow. And I had a wonderful, idyllic childhood there. first grandchild in the family. I was loved. I was pampered. September 1st, 1939, all this came to an abrupt end. At first, my family tried many, many attempts to escape. We first ran away to Russia. Then we returned.
And after so many attempts to escape, my parents ran out of options. And they made this amazing, most difficult decision of their lives, and that is to give me away. And for the several years after that, three and a half years to be exact, I was with different caregivers. I was away from my family. My identity was changed completely. several times, and I ended up on the street.
I was abandoned, and I was picked up by a righteous Christian woman. Ended up on a farm where I spent most of the time with very kind people. I always knew I was Jewish, but I was able to keep my Jewish identity a secret. I was just seven years old when I was separated from my parents. But I was able to keep that a secret. And I ended up in an orphanage after the war.
And miraculously, my dad found me.
No way.
But he found me. And we eventually immigrated to the United States.
So when you were reunited with your father, he had been in the slave labor camp. And when he found you, he insisted you give him all the details of the time you were separated so he could make sure it was documented. It was those handwritten pages rediscovered years later that started the new road of discovery for you. How was your father able to survive? What happened to your mother?
And what was it like rediscovering the details of your escape as an adult? What was it like?
Well, it was very, very sad and very tragic because the day that they gave me away, there was an order issued that all the people from that town and the surrounding towns had three days to report in an area outside of Krakow called Wieliczka. So they went there, although independently, because they decided to separate from each other. Their thinking was that if they were separate,
maybe one of them would survive so when they arrived at that appointed place there was a selection and my father was one of thousand men that were selected for slave labor another approximately thousand old people and children were selected and they were directly taken to the forest and shot And the remaining people were put onto boxcars, 53 boxcars. And my mother was a victim of that selection.
And they were sent to Belzec, a death camp. And so my mother and my grandmother, many of my relatives were victims of that camp.
What was your original name?
I was born Gustava. And then my family called me Gija, which means baby.
Okay.
But I was never Gustavo again.
But that still has a place in your heart.
It does.
What was your last name?
Singer.
So that's why you have the singer still in the middle, right?
Yes.
Did you find a sense of forgiveness for the people that wronged your family? Or is there still a piece of your heart that has a hard time with that?
I'm very fortunate because my dad, who was my hero, did not believe in general responsibility. He felt that there were good Germans and bad Germans, good Poles, bad Poles. And because of that, I adopted the same philosophy. I judge people on the basis of their character and actions. I will never forget what happened, but I'm not hateful. And of course, I don't know who I can forgive.
For me, forgiveness means that someone has to acknowledge what they did wrong and then have some remorse, and then I could forgive. But there's no one I can forgive.