RelatioNet  HE MA 23 TO PO

Interviewer:
Shachar Har Zvi and Omri Cohen
Email: 
shachar-har-zvi@hotmail.com
omrico8@walla.com


Survivor:


Code: RelatioNet HE MA 23 TO PO
Family Name: Markfeld (klainman)
First Name: Hela
Father Name: Tzvi Hersh Klainman
Mother Name: Zisel Sofia Klainman
Birth Date:21^st of September 1923
Town In Holocaust: Tomaszow Mazowiecki
Country In Holocaust: Poland 
Profession (Main) In Holocaust: 
Address Today: living in Kfar-Saba, Isreal


Relatives:

Father Name: Tzvi Hersh Klainman
Status (Today): dead

Death Place: Treblinka

Mother Name:Zisel Sofia Klainman
Status (Today): dead

Death Place: in Poland, before the war

Stepmother Name: Ehaja  Klainman

Status (Today): dead

Death Place: Treblinka 

Siblings:

Family Name:Klainman
First Name: Naftali

Town In Holocaust: Tomaszow Mazowiecki

Country In Holocaust: Poland 

Status (Today): dead

Death Place: Treblinka 

Family Name:Klainman

First Name: Abraham (Abramek) 

Town In Holocaust: Tomaszow Mazowiecki

Country In Holocaust: Poland 

Status (Today): dead

Death Place: died in the Holocaust 

Hela's Story 

Hela Klainman (today Markfeld) was born on the 21^st of September 1923, in Tomaszow-Mazowiecki in Poland. Tomaszow is a medium sized town which is split into two by a river. Hela was educated in a Jewish school where she learned three Jewish subjects: Hebrew, bible and Jewish history, apart from regular subjects like math. There were synagogues in Tomaszow but all of them were destroyed during the war. However the family tried to save the Jewish traditions by celebrating the holidays.

The family had a big beautiful house and an iron foundry business which was placed in the garden. The iron was sold to factories. The economic status of the family was good. Hela's father, Tzvi, was a religious man. He was also educated and knew five languages: Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, Russian and little bit of German. Hela's mother, Zisel, was loving and intelligent. She was the head of the parents' counsel in Hela's high school.

 The relationship between Hela and Zisel was very close and strong. Zisel died in 1936, three years before the war began. Hela was at school when she told that her mother was very sick and that she had to go back home immediately. When she got to the house she saw a lot of people outdoors and her mother's body on the floor covered with a black sheet.

Dealing with her mother's death was very hard for Hela but she coped and helped her father and her two older brothers: Naftali and Abraham (Abramek). Naftali was older then Hela by 6 years and Abramek by 4 years. Both of them loved Hela and had a very strong relationship with her. Tzvi got married again in 1938 with Ehajaa kind and genteel woman. Ehajadidn't have children of her own and she took care of Hela as if she was her child. Hela's father had one brother who lived in Warsaw with his wife and children. Their economic status was very good. Hela's grandparents from her father's side were murdered during the war. Hela's grand grandfather was shot to death by the Nazis when he was 91 years old. Hela's mother had one sister and parents who were alive before the war. All of them were murdered too.

On September 1^st the German army invaded Poland and the war began. Hela remembers bombs falling the sky and buildings collapsing with the people in them.

Scared by the bombs the family decided to run away from Tomaszow to an unknown destination. The family took a bit of luggage and a bicycle and joined the people who run away from the town. 15 kilometers from Tomaszow a Polish soldier said that they had to give him the bicycle and they did. Hela's father and brothers carried her because she wasn't able to walk so far on foot. In order to make the escape easier they threw away their luggage and continued hungry and thirsty. In two days the family arrived to a little town called Reva and there they were told that the German army had conquered Poland. They decided to go back to Tomaszow.

The status of the Jews became worse and worse every day. They had to wear a white band with a blue Star of David on their right arms. They weren't allowed to leave their houses at night. They got small quantities of food which included bread and some beans. They had to stand in endless queues for hours in order to get this unsatisfying food. No medical aid was offered to the Jews and they had to give all of their property to the Germans. Any Jews who refused to obey one of these commands was executed immediately. Hela remembers that one day the Germans collected all the Jewish citizen in the town square and killed some of them for no reason in order to scare the others.

In 1940 the Germans ordered all the Jews to close their businesses. The family's iron business closed and passed on to the Germans. A German supervisor arrived at their house and started to manage the business. After a few weeks the Germans decided to transfer all the Jews to one side of the river. Because of that three Jewish families were transferred to Hela's house and started to live with the family in terrible conditions. Hela's brothers, Naftali and Abramek, decided to escape to the eastern side of Poland, which was under Russian control, because of the difficult situation. But the conditions in the east were difficult too, and Naftali decided to return home.

In spite of the difficult situation the family tried to live normally and Hela even signed up to an English course which was operating secretly. One day the Germans told all the Jewish men to stand in the town square. Some of the men were sent to work in a work camp. Naftali was one of them. Six months later Naftali returned home very ill and weak and the family had to take care of him.

At the end of 1941 the ghetto was created. Hela and her family moved to a small house, which until then was a storehouse. The ghetto was very small and they lived there in very difficult conditions. They were separated from the world by a big wall which was guarded by soldiers. The Germans shot Jews without any reason. There were many bodies on the ground after the Germans had shot them. In addition many died because they were starving. These bodies were eventually collected by Jews who were attached to carts and pulled them with the dead bodies.  They took the bodies to be burned or to be buried in a mass grave. The hunger and thirst were terrible.

As time passed everything become worse, and many people started to die. Hela's family had a little advantage because Naftali, her brother, had a job collecting iron for the Germans. His job was out of the ghetto and every time he left, he brought them some food. One day, Hela's father was caught by the Germans without any reason, and after some threats they cut half off his beard, and the other half they left.

Abramek, Hela's brother who had run away to Lithuania, kept in touch with them by letters, and they even got a packet with shoes for Hela's father from him. One day, in 1942, Abramek came to the ghetto, back to his family. They were very happy to see him but they were also sad because they knew that their loving brother was back in the hell that everyone wanted to escape from.

Abramek told them that he couldn't live without them so he had come back to them to try to save them, although he had immigration papers to Palestine. In Lithuania Abramek saw how thousands of Jews were executed and realized that something very bad was going to happen. He also realized that the Germans treated the Jews with jobs a little better, so they tried to find jobs for all the family. Abramek succeeded in finding a job for Hela, and by doing so he saved her life. Naftali already had a job collecting iron. They couldn't succeed in finding jobs for her parents so they decided to build a hiding place for them under their house.  Abramek had no identification certificate so he decided to run away from the ghetto, after he thought that his family was safe.

After some time the Germans started deporting the Jews from the ghetto to extermination camps.  The family thought that if they went in the deportation they might be saved in the selection, or they could try to hide in the hiding place. After the Germans started to bomb the Jews' homes, they decided to leave and not to hide. On second November 1942 they went to the deportation. With the Germans shouting "damn Jews- out" her family went to the church where all the Jews were. The Germans checked them and saw they had a worker's certificate, and they were sent into the church. After that her parents were checked, and they were sent to the train. A few minutes later a German officer came in and chose a few Jews with worker certificates, and sent them to the train. The officer did it because that day the train wasn't completely full and they needed more Jews to be sent to die. Naftali was among these Jews. It was the last time that Hela saw Naftali and her parents. After this Hela lost any desire to live and only the thought of Abramek gave her the strength to move on.

The workers were taken to a few houses in the ghetto, where they lived. To get to work Hela had to walk 3 kilometers on a road between trees. One day, when she walked on the road, Abramek came out of the forest. He only had a few seconds to be with her so before the meeting he wrote a letter, that he brought to Hela in those seconds.

"Heliosha (Hela's nickname), my most loving and dear sister. I have been following you for a few days. Hiding between the trees and seeing you walk to work. I decided to come to you and tell you everything. I, as a "Christian", walked by daddy and mommy to the train. They walked in the middle of the road, under heavy guard, and I walked near them as a free person. There were the S.S everywhere and the armed Gestapo. They pushed the people into the trains hitting them badly. Before they got on the Germans told them to put everything they owned near the train, including their coats and shoes, and like that, without anything, they entered the train where the temperature was 20 below zero (Celsius). After that I saw Naftali, and he also get on the train.

When I saw that I understood that I didn't have anything to live for and I tried to get on their train. The German thought that I was Polish and threatened that they would shoot me if I didn't get off the train. At this moment the thought came to me that I must stay alive for you, my dear child, because for you I made this long journey from Kaunas, to save you. Then I left the train and now I live for you. I don't have any place to be, so at night I sleep in the Jewish graveyard, and during the day I walk in the city. Because it is very cold most of the time I sit in the post office and there I wrote this letter. My only hope is to be with you. Without you I choose to die either by getting on the train or by being killed by the Germans."

Hela was very excited during the meeting and she was happy to know that he was alive. She started to think of a plan of how Abramek could be with her. Hela decided to tell him to join a group of Jewish tailors the next time she met him. After a few days she saw him again, he brought her a few carrots and she told him her plan. It was the last time that Hela saw Abramek. This letter was taken from Hela later in Auschwitz.

In May 1943 Hela was sent with a group of 100 Jews from Tomaszov to the Biliziny work camp. In the camp there were roll calls twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. Sometimes during the roll calls some prisoners were executed by the Germans in front of the others. The camp officer wandered around the prisoners with a murderous dog which killed Jewish prisoners when ordered. Every sick or weak prisoner was executed immediately. In this camp Hela's work was to sort clothing that Jews had left behind in the camp.

 In this camp Hela met Iat Rosen, a woman who saw Hela's pain and adopted her as if she was her own daughter. Iat had been a very rich woman before the war and she succeeded in hiding diamonds. Iat exchanged these diamonds for food which was shared with Hela. She also concealed the fact the Hela was sick sometimes from the Germans which saved Hela's life. Iat accompanied Hela until the end of the war and was released with her.

After six months, on the 31^st of July 1943, Bilzny was destroyed and Hela was transported to Auschwitz. The first memory Hela had of Auschwitz was a red smoky sky and the smell of burnt bodies. In the beginning, Hela was taken to the shower where she took a shower and her hair was cut off. In addition Abramek's postcard and little slice of cloth which had the initials of the mother's name were taken from her. Hela was dressed with a thin dress which wasn't warm at all and had uncomfortable Dutch shoes. After that a German clerk tattooed a number on Hela's arm.

In Auschwitz there were many sheds which were divided into lots. Between every two lots there was a barbed wire fence. Hela "lived" in a shed in lot C – a women's camp. In the shed there were three rows of wooden benches where the prisoners slept. The prisoners woke up at 4:30 AM every morning and went to the roll call. Sometimes the roll calls lasted many hours because of a mistake made when counting the prisoners. The roll calls were managed with shots and in every roll call some prisoners were executed. Some prisoners got different punishments. They were hit badly while they were lying on a special bench. A prisoner who screamed when he was hit would get more hits. Many prisoners passed out while they stood in the roll call and the others supported them so that the Germans would not notice. One day, Hela got punished; she had to kneel on the gravel for ten hours because the Germans discovered she had made underwear for herself.

After the roll call the prisoners went to stand in line for soup, a little water with some small pieces of vegetables. After that the prisoners went to work. Hela's work in Auschwitz was aimless. The workers were divided into two groups: one group dug pits and the other covered them. The work was outside the camp at a distance of one hour. Walking to the work was accompanied by guards.

Hela described the nights in Auschwitz as a nightmare. Stink, overcrowding, hunger, cold and the screams of Roman prisoners who were sent to death and disturbed everyone from sleeping. Hela remembers that at night she could see thick black smoke and white flames coming out of the crematoriums.

 Waking up was even worse than the night. Hela said that waking up to such a terrible reality from the relaxing sleep was deeply depressing. During these times Iat supported Hela and told her that she couldn't give up and that she had to live in order to take revenge on the Nazis'. These words instilled some sense to the inhuman reality in Auschwitz.

Every Sunday the prisoners in Auschwitz had to stand before doctor Mengale for selection. Mengale checked every prisoner and sent him to the right for life or to the left for death. Every prisoner who was too thin, was sent immediately to the gas chambers, followed by classical music.

 Such "life" in Auschwitz continued. People who were taken as if from another surrealistic world, poor creatures, beings that were just skin and bones, wandering around without will to live. Even the babies were separated for their parents and murdered or sent to death with them.  

Eight months after reaching Auschwitz she was transferred to the Schaifenszten camp. The camp was in a pastoral area near a river, where parents went on a trip with their children. The view was incomplete contrast to the harsh reality of the gloomy camp. In this camp Hela worked in a factory, making big machines to cut boards of steel. The work was very hard. They had to bring the boards to the machines, put them on and move them over. In the factory there were also Russian prisoners who looked as forlorn as the Jews.

There was one event that Hela remembers very well. One day she made eye contact with a Russian prisoner, whose face showed how hard his condition was. Hela smiled at him and he smiled back of her, and this gave her a little consolation. 

In this camp there were also parades. One day, Hela was late for the parade by a few seconds and because of this she got walloped and some of her front teeth fell out. Hela had to clean the blood and do back to the parade.

Six months later, when the Russian army was close to Germany, the Germans decided to send all the prisoners to Theresienstadt camp and to kill them. The prisoners were put on a train in crowed conditions and started to move. In the middle of the journey the train stopped, and they had to walk from there to the camp. It took them 2 weeks. When they walked they went through a clean and well kept city, there passersby saw them sadly going to their death. In Theresienstadt they all assembled in a big hall with other prisoners that were already there, some dying or deceased.

After 2 weeks in the hall, Hela saw through the windows that Germans' soldiers were running and abandoning their positions. Others also saw this and came to the window and watched the Russian army coming to them. They destroyed the camp, released the prisoners and gave them food and candies. Hela was very happy and excited, but she also started to think about what was going to happen next, where she would go, live and who would take care of her.

After this Hela went back to Tomasov in order to find out what had happened to her family. She discovered that their home was still there, but a gentile was living there. She understood that she couldn't live there anymore, so the gentile agreed "to buy" the house from Hela for 3 pieces of gold. After this she drove to a displaced persons' camp. There she discovered that a relative of hers had survived, her father's cousin. Together they moved to the displaced persons camp in Bergen Belsen and there they started to work for the JOINT (A Jewish organizations that took care of Jewish refugees and helped them immigrate to Israel). In the camp Hela heard about the independence of Israel and about the war of independence. After some time she got a visa to Australia, but she refused and decided to immigrate to Israel in 1950.

In 1950 Hela came on a ship to Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv she worked in the supply department of HMO, and because she knew English she was in charge of contacting international companies. In Tel Aviv she met Abraham, who was an accountant, and they got married. They moved to Beersheba and there their 2 children were born. One is a boy, called Naftali, after Hela's brother, born in 1953. The second is a daughter, called Orna, born in 1957. Today Hela lives in a retirement home in Kfar Saba, where both of her children live with their families. Today Hela has 6 grandsons and 2 great-grandsons. 

Tomaszow Mazowiecki

Tomaszow Mazowiecki is a middle size city in central Poland. Tomaszow was founded in 1830 and until the end of the 19^th century had a majority Jewish population. After World War 1 the city had a difficult economic situation. In 1930, 27% of the city's population was Jews and in spite of the difficult situation the relations between the Jews and the other population were good.

In the beginning of the Second World War the city was occupied by the Germans. At that point there were 13,000 Jews in the town.  During the war the Polish community suffered and lost a lot of money. But the suffering of the Jews was worse. In December 1940 the Jews of Tomaszow with another 3000 Jews from neighboring villages were moved into the ghetto. All 16000 Jews had to share only 250 houses. The conditions in the ghetto were terrible. A lot of Jews, adults and children died in the ghetto.

The ghetto was destroyed in 1942, and almost all the Jews of the town were transferred to Treblinka. The others, who were left behind, stayed in the ghetto area and worked there for the Nazis; on 29/05/1943 those Jews were transferred too, to different camps. Only few of them survived. After the war some of the survivors returned to Tomaszow Mazowiecki in order to find their relatives. Some of them even resettled on Tomaszow.

After the war the town started to rebuild itself. During the war the population of the town got smaller and by the end of the war there were only 30,000 people in the town. Only in the 1950's the population returns to what it was before the war. Today Tomaszow Mazowiecki is a developed city which has 65,000 citizens.