RelatioNet  RG JE 12 WA PO

Interviewer: Daniella Gabbai, Shir Arditi

Email: gncv1@walla.co.il

Survivor:

Family Name: Jetelny
First Name: Regina
Birth Date:  1912
Town In Holocaust: Warsaw
Country In Holocaust: Poland 
Profession (Main) In Holocaust: Actress
Address Today: Living in Ramat Gan, Israel. 


Interview:
 

Regina Jetelny was born in Warsaw in 1912, in the Jewish quarter. The people who lived there were hard working people. Her father was a cobbler, her mother was a housewife. She had 7 brothers. Regina wasn't religious, although her parents were Hasidim. They never forced religion on her, they let her live her life as she wished.

Because of the family's economical difficulties, Regina went out working, when she was only 12 years old. She worked ironing in a wealthy person's hour. Regina didn't go to high school, she studied as much as she could with one of her class mates, who taught her.

At the age of 15, Regina joined the Communist Movement. She was very active in this movement, she believed with all her heart in the movement's values, and learned a lot. Regina was active in the movement's demonstrations. In one of the demonstrations, when she was about 18, she was arrested, and became a political prisoner for a few months.

At the age of 16 she joined a theater group, and without any previous knowledge in acting, she started acting in several plays. She was naturally gifted and she danced and sang in the plays. During her acting career, she got married to Shimon and had Lena with him, her eldest daughter.

When Lena was 4 years old, and Regina was about 27 years old, Warsaw was bombed by the Germans. When this happened, Regina put on all of the clothes that she could with many layers, put Lena underneath all of her clothes and ran a long way through the bombing with her, until she found a bunker to hide in. She stayed there with Lena until the Germans stopped dropping bombs. At that point Regina wanted to return home but she couldn't go. She found her house had been completely destroyed. She decided to leave Poland and move to Russia, because in Russia the Communist Movement was more acceptable and because the Germans had not yet gotten there. She ran away with Lena to Bialystok, a town on the border of Russia. She stayed there for a few months. She wrote a letter to her immediate family, her parents and her brothers, and begged them to come immediately to Bialystok, because she was certain that the Germans would kill the Jews in Poland. It was due to Regina that all of her family arrived in Bialystok, and were saved.

Regina thought that the Germans wouldn't come to Bialystok, and so she could stay there with her family until the war ended. However, the Germans did arrive. From the moment the Germans arrived the situation became terrible, they started picking on Jews, and sending them to concentration camps. Regina was afraid that she and her family would be captured too. attracted the attention of a German soldier, who was there. She was a fine looking woman, and the soldier offered her shelter to hide in if she would agree to be with him. Regina didn't want to be with him but she was desperate for shelter so she said yes, although she didn't intend to be with him. That night she gathered her family and told them they needed to run again.

They walked through many forests, until, after a few days, they arrived at the Russian-Polish border. They feared that they would be sent back to Poland, as many Polish refugees were, so Regina bribed a Goy, who hid them in his basement. Regina ordered Lena to put her hands tightly over her mouth if she wanted to cough or sneeze, she told her 4 year old daughter to be careful not to make any noise and she was careful. Lena knew she would die along with her mother if someone heard them.

After all that, Regina and Lena crossed the border on a train on a very difficult journey, along with all the other Polish refugees. They were all sent to a work camp in Siberia, a Gulag.

The camp they lived in was in the city of Magnistok. They lived there for seven years, seven years of poverty, hunger, cold and snow. Everyday Regina went to work at sunrise and came back at sunset. They got a little piece of black, dry bread, which was not eatable. Regina put it up, on the high shelf, so she would not take it and so the bread could be kept for Lena, her daughter. Lena took the little bit of bread and ate it slowly, in tiny bites, so that it could last for the whole day. Every day Regina walked in the snow for miles, she did not have shoes so she wrapped her legs with paper, so the heat would be kept in. Regina walked great distances with some people to a place that people told them had some rotten potatoes. Then they took the food back all the way to cook these rotten potatoes. During those years, of poverty and deprivation, Regina became very thin, her weight was only thirty kilos, and she got gum disease. There were no doctors; therefore, she could not get treatment and every day one tooth fall out of her mouth, with horrible pain.

The Russians recruited her husband for the Polish-Russian army. After a short time, her husband disappeared and no one knew where he was. Regina never saw her husband again. He probably died in the camps in Siberia. After a few years, Regina met her second husband, Israel. Hanna, her second child, was born, she was born at such a low weight that they did not believe she would survive. Then, when Regina went to work, Lena stayed in the house and took care of Hanna. The only good thing over this period was that they were all together, Regina, her parents and her daughters. All of the other things were bad. They were not used to the situation of having no culture, no money. Regina could not act in the theatre, as she used to.

The war ended and Regina came back with her family to Warsaw. They found the city completely destroyed. They received a furnished house from the Germans. Soon they found out that the whole family had been murdered in the ghetto. The only one who survived the ghetto was Shmill, Regina's grandpa. Shmil, Regina's grandpa, was in charge of the cemetery. The goy at the cemetery told Regina that Shmil left the ghetto with all of the family, but he had succeeded in running away to the cemetery. He wrapped himself with shrouds and asked the goy to bury him next to his mom's grave, when he died. Then, he stayed next to the grave for two weeks, didn't eat and drink until he died.

After the family went back to Poland they rebuilt their life from the beginning. Regina went back to play in the theatre and succeeded a lot. She was very talented and won a lot of prizes. Then, Regina's third child was born. They named her Shoshi. Although Regina and the family did not think about Aliya to Israel, because they thought that Israel was an empty desert and full of Arabs, finally they made Aliya because of the Anti-Semitism. Before they made their final decision, Regina's aunt who lived in America, suggested they move to the USA, but her husband Israel refused; he decided to immigrate to Israel. In order to do that, they needed certificates. It had to be sent by mail. Every morning they asked the postman about the certificates, and after few days he gave them the certificates, and the family made Aliya to Israel.

The family had a wonderful settlement in Israel. After a short time, two artists from Poland came to Israel too, and wanted to open a theatre where the shows would be in Yiddish. Regina wanted to join the theatre, but it was not acceptable in Israel to talk Yiddish, only Hebrew. Regina stopped being actor, and became a housewife. Regina started to build her family. At first she lived in Pardes Hanna and then in Ramat Gan, where she lives until today. Regina has three daughters, six grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren, and one great-great-granddaughter. 

Town:

Pre-War Warsaw

In 1897, 626,000 people lived in Warsaw. Warsaw was the third largest city of the Russian Empire. Only in 1918 Warsaw became the capital city of independent Poland. During world war two, Warsaw was ruled by the Nazis. All higher education was immediately stopped. 30% of the population, who were Jewish, was taken to the ghetto as part of Hitler's "Final Solution". Some Jewish fighters took part in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Even though they didn't have guns, they managed to hold out for almost a month. When the fight ended, almost all of the Jews were murdered. Only a few managed to escape.

Post-War Warsaw

In September 1944, Warsaw’s eastern suburb, Praga, was liberated. in January 1945, the main parts of the city on the left bank were liberated by the Soviets. About 6,000 Jews participated in the battle for the liberation of Warsaw. Two thousand Jewish survivors were found in underground hideouts, when the city was liberated. When the city stadium was built, the bones of approximately 100,000 people were found in a mass grave and reburied in the city cemetery.

By the end of 1945, 5,000 Jews settled in Warsaw. The population doubled when Jews who survived the war in Russia returned to Warsaw. The city became the seat of the Central Committee of Polish Jews and a number of Jewish cultural institutions were opened in 1949.

Over the next two decades, waves of immigration were stimulated by anti-Semitism and communist persecution. The first large group left for Israel in 1946-47 following the Kielce pogrom. Others left in 1957-58 and 1967-68. By 1968, most Jewish institutions ceased to function.

Present-Day Warsaw

Currently, most of Poland’s Jewish population lives in Warsaw. The Union of Religious Congregations has its main office in Warsaw. There is both a Jewish primary school and a kindergarten. Warsaw also houses the offices of the Main Judaic Library and Museum of Jewish Martyrology. It is the home also of the E.R. Kaminska Jewish Theater, the only regularly functioning Yiddish theater in the world. Most of its actors today are not Jewish. While parts of Europe have seen an upsurge of anti-Semitism, this has not occurred in Poland.

While Jews living in Warsaw feel their situation today is good, few are in prominent positions. One of the major issues for the community remains the restitution of property taken from Jews during the war.