Trying To Escape

By Sunday morning the war was felt in Wielitzka. War planes overhead and bombed out houses were seen all around. The city was in a frenzy. We arranged for ourselves a horse and wagon and once again we were on our way. Joining the group were my sister Dina, her husband and her in laws- the Hershtals.
The roads of Galicia were jammed with people running, just like us making it almost impossible to go anywhere. So we opted to run to ‘Congress Poland’ - there we hoped the roads would be clearer and thus we’d be able to distance ourselves from the German army. There was a river dividing Congress Poland from Galicia so we rented a boat and lead our horse and buggy across the river.
The first town we passed was the city of ‘Neustadt’ where the son of the Holy ‘Maor Veshemesh’ lived and was called ‘the guter yid from Neustadt’. The Jews from town ran up to us and begged that we should stay with them and not run any further. They said that the zechus of the ‘guter yid’ and his ancestors would protect the city from any harm. We decided to move on, for Neustadt was strategically located at the point where the river we had crossed and a bigger river met and it was an industrial city and in all likelihood would be one of the first to be taken over by the Germans.
By this time the roads of Congress Poland were also full of people, all running away from the advancing Germans. All of the sudden war planes were seen in the sky and bombs started to fall. Everyone ran for cover on the side of the road until the bombing stopped. Coming out of our hiding places we met some people that were also running and among them our brother in law’s brother who also joined the group.
And so we ran and ran passing city after city until we reached the city of ‘Staszow’ which was a big city, but to us looked very poor. In town we met a horse dealer who tried to convince us to stay in town. “Where do you think you’ll run to? Don’t you realize you’re running with a horse while the Germans have trucks and tanks it will be just a short while until the catch up to you. Why go thru all the trouble.” Being that we were worn out and tired from all the running and that the arguments the gentleman had told us made sense we decided to stay in town. The next morning father met a few men that had just arrived from Cracow. They told him what was going on back home, and it didn’t sound good. Any man that crossed path with a Nazi was liable to be taken away. They told us to do whatever possible not to meet up with the Germans.
Not needing to hear more we hitched our horse and buggy and once again we were on the road. A few kilometers on the road we met a group of Polish soldiers who told us that the Germans were right behind us. Being that our horse was well rested we were able to rush and make it to the next town the town of ‘Bilgoraj’ safely. Just after we got there and had a chance to rest, the German army arrived. Being that it was a small town, the German came in to town, put up a commander and the army left town.
Our horse and buggy- our only means of transportaion was shortly thereafter confiscated. We just stayed in the first house possible. Right away there was a decree by the new regime “No outsiders are permitted in town, any outsider most leave now!” Understandably outsiders would be prosecuted.
In the house we were staying in there was a small girl who begged us “please leave our house, because of you our father will be taken away!” A friendly neighbor who heard the small girl invited us in to her home and said “Yidden don’t worry stay by us and whatever happens to you will happen to us, Hashem will help us”. She led us to the basement and we hid there.
After being in the basement a few days we decided that if we are under the Nazi regime we might as well be in our own home. So we were once again on the road but this time we were going home. We were stopped along the way by solders a few times and every time they took whatever they saw. Mother had money hidden, but when she saw the soldiers with their guns drawn she got scared and handed over the money.
Rosh Hashana we spent in Staszow. By Yom Kipper we were back in Krakow.