Introduction and Background

This blog is a chronicle and a reflection of an interview with Holocaust survivors Zenon Neumark. Zenon has written a book called Hiding in the Open, which he asked our group to read prior to the interview (so we knew the context of his experience and so he wouldn't have to repeat things he had written). For the purpose of this blog, I have summarized the book:

Outline of Zenon Neumark’s Book Hiding in the Open

Hometown: Lodz, Poland

Following the German occupation in 1939, Zenon's family was sent to Tomaszow, Poland to live in a ghetto / labor camp. He was 15.

Eventually, the Nazis discontinued education in Tomaszow so he never finished high school.

He worked at a construction company, Org. Todt, at which he learned the basics of the electrician trade.

He got involved with a group organization of young Jews dedicated to taking action and escaping the ghetto. It was called Akiba Cell and was led by Yitzhak Rosenblat, a charismatic 18-year-old. They devised plans to escape and got a few members outside the ghetto, but most escapees were never heard from again. By this time they had begun to be aware of the concentration camps.

At the company he met Mr. Kramer, a friendly supervisor, and Ignac, another Polish Jew and fellow electrician who would become a longtime friend. He and Ignac decided to plan an escape, and after stealing ID cards from some Polish workers and creating false documents they escaped the ghetto and split up. Zenon went to Warsaw, in search of his Aunt Marysia and a few friendly contacts.

Before he could meet with Aunt Marysia (who could not give him her address directly because she was a Jew in hiding) he stayed with friends of hers, the Szokalski’s, and later with a woman named Janina. At Janina’s, however, some Germans burst in looking for him and beat him up. Locking them in the apartment, they took many of Zenon’s possessions and left to get their car. Janina helped Zenon escape the apartment when they were gone, and Zenon fled to stay with Janina’s brother Zygmunt. After a brief stay with Zygmunt, Zenon met up with another contact named Kuba, a well-connected Pole, who helped Zenon find new lodgings. Zenon later learned that Janina had set him up in a scheme to take his possessions.

He was finally able to meet up with Marysia, and after settling in, was able to apply for and obtain a Labor Card under a false name (Zenon Matysiak). He got a job as an electrician at a company in Warsaw called WIFO, and rented rooms with various landlords.

During this time he got involved with several Underground operations, including ZOB (where he met Krysia, a courageous female activist and his supervisor), Miecz I Plug (a Polish nationalist org. where he met Wladek, although he later learned that the org. was Anti-Semitic) and Gwardia Ludowa (which he worked at with Roman, a Polish co-worker and friend). His jobs were mainly to help deliver aid to the ghettos.

Zenon was called on several times to help friends. Kuba connected him with Ludwig, an acquaintance of his from Tomaszow, who he helped find work and a place to live. Later he got a letter from Ignac, who he urged to join him in Warsaw. Ignac came with a friend, Stasiek, and Zenon helped set them up for a bit. The two were more conspicuous than Zenon, so they decided to move them elsewhere. They found a program that would help them escape Poland to Riga, Latvia, so Ignac and Stasiek moved once again. Zenon remained in Warsaw.

Around this time Zenon made a few attempts to contact his family in the Lodz ghetto. Helped by his connections through his Underground memberships he traveled to the outskirts of Lodz. He tried to sneak a few letters in, but was unable to get a response.

Zenon had settled well in Warsaw, and was beginning to hear that the Germans were losing the war. As a cover, he had begun to attend Catholic Mass and pretended to be Polish Catholic. However, he secretly blamed the Catholic Church for its inaction during the Holocaust.

As the Russians were approaching Warsaw the Germans sought to evacuate the city. Meanwhile, the Polish Underground had been organizing uprisings to disrupt German authority. Many people Zenon’s age were sent to concentration camps because they were suspected to be rebels working with the Underground (which was partly true in Zenon’s case, although he never partook in violence). However, Zenon found a connection in the SS who he used to work with in WIFO, and he was instead sent to Vienna as a foreign worker to help replace workers from Vienna who were sent to the front.

Once he arrived in Vienna he was placed in a temporary camp to wait for labor assignments. He contacted a secretary from WIFO, Mrs. Follman, to see if he could get a job with WIFO in Vienna. She was unable to help him due to labor laws. Frustrated, Zenon escaped the camp only to realize that he could not find work and that he could not purchase food without ration cards. He was forced to return to the camp, where he at least had food, and was eventually visited by a man with Nazi swastikas on his lapels. This man was contacted by Mrs. Follman to offer Zenon a job, so Zenon became an electrician in Vienna and was thus able to work and acquire food stamps.

Zenon made good wages in Vienna and started to live comfortably as a Catholic Pole. He made friends, first with a woman named Marianne who was the first person in Vienna to whom he admitted he was a Jew. He soon realized that the knowledge was a burden on those he told, so he did not tell anyone else for a while. Later he met a girl named Friedl while at a bomb shelter he was sent to while Vienna was attacked by the Allies. She became his girlfriend for awhile and was the second person he confessed his identity to. Eventually the Russians liberated Vienna, and Zenon was free and the war was soon over.

Now Zenon was faced with discovering what happened to people from his past. Returning to Lodz he discovered that most of his family was dead, aside from his Aunt Marysia, who he met with briefly. Also his sister Rena was alive, and he tried to find her. In Warsaw he saw his old friend Krysia. At Lodz he reunited with Ignac, who had also returned to look for family but had come up empty-handed. They were joined by Hela, a girl who Zenon knew through Roman, and they eventually traced Rena up to Germany. Rena had survived the concentration camps, and joined up with them. Together, the four of them made their way to Milan, Italy where Zenon and Rena had a wealthy uncle, and they decided to settle for awhile in Italy. Zenon eventually came to America on a scholarships to attended Oklahoma Univ. and UCLA, earning a degree in electrical engineering. He remains in LA and has kept in contact with many of his wartime friends.