Bitter Freedom

By Jafa Wallach

Subjects: Jafa Wallach, Today's Heroes, Survivor stories, Holocaust Survivors, Bitter Freedom

Description: The four adults managed to survive for 22 agonizingly long months in the grave-like space (around five feet long by four and a half feet wide and about four feet high) with the help of Józef Zwonarz, the town’s mechanic. He alone knew of their hiding space and he alone had to secretly supply them with whatever food and water he could manage to sneak to them (mainly old potatoes and very small amounts of water). Jafa Wallach graphically describes the darkness, the hunger, the insects, and the constant fear of discovery. They had to be especially quiet since the hole they were in was located less than twenty feet from a Gestapo headquarters, the Ukranian Militia and the German police in the small town of Lesko. In addition, Zwonarz and his workers were fixing Nazi vehicles on a daily basis and the Nazis were constantly in and around the building. Jafa recounts their terror when they realized they had to flee from their crumbling hole to a new hiding place. She then hauntingly describes their new struggles up until the liberation by Russian troops on September 15, 1944.