Wala Wandgling-Wala Wollensky

MAIL: mailto: edendv@gmail.com
Survivor: Code: RelatioNet WA WA 26 SO PO
Family Name:Wollensky
Previous Family Name:Wandgling
First Name: Wala
Brother Name:Tovia
Date of birth: 1926
Country of birth:Poland
City of Birth:Sosnowiec

Interview with Wala

I was born in Sosnowiec, Poland. My family has been orthodox for ages. My parents were Zionists. I had a good and comfortable childhood. While I was in elementary school, I was a good student; I was popular and had a lot of friends.

My father who was an orthodox Jew and had a beard, stayed in a nearby town, Zawiercie. When my parents got married, both were very young, my mother was only 19 years old.

My mother, brother and I lived with our grandmother .My grandmother worked in a store and my mother helped her. We were a wealthy merchant family.

Sosnowiec was a commercial city; most of the people were merchants so a lot of people came to buy from the Jews.

In 1939, the Germens marched in, I was 13 I wasn't interested in newspapers and politics.

One day, I went up to the attic. Our maid, Martha, was taking care of the laundry. I saw from the window soldiers, I told Martha that it was the Polish army which came to save our homeland. I was a big patriot, but it was the Germen soldiers, they came into our city and sent messengers to each house with microphone to tell the Jews that all the men had to congregate next to the city hall to get I.D.s.

News came to our house that we should stay home according to German orders. My uncle lived with us. That day he was after his wedding and he didn’t hear about the calls, so he didn’t go to the city hall. After he heard about it, he became afraid and so did we.We heard that the German didn’t want to give them I.D's but hit the Jews and cursed them. All the Jewish children were expelled from their schools and all the Jewish stores were closed.  

 My dad came to us every weekend and we were doing Shabbat together. But these days it was forbidden for Jews to use trains, the simplest life was halted and forbidden so we didn't want him back home ,because we were afraid. As a result, all the money he earned stayed with him in his city.

My uncle's profession was making candies, therefore he taught my father how to do that. We were making candies every night so the Germans wouldn't see us and that was how we made our living.

After that, all the Jews were ordered to work for the German army. My mother worried about  my brother and I, we wanted to keep studying so we had a private teacher that taught 4-5 children at his house. Studying was very intensive. It was not allowed to go with books on the street ,therefore, I took the books in a shopping bag. Every morning I had to take my brother to our grandmother, then I studied four hours and returned home.

Kindergarten teachers opened small kindergartens in their homes. My little brother, Tuvia, was so smart, he knew he should not yell, he had been very good.When I was studying at home he repeated my words, and so life went on.

Until one day I had to go to work for the Germans. The German Folk took girls to work for them, I was taken because I looked 16.I was making clothes and costumes for theatres and then they sent them to Germany. During that time, we didn’t think where we were. We were laughing, wearing the costumes, we were optimistic.
One day, I received a letter from the council.  It said I should be recruited to the Municipality of Sosnowiec. They wanted to send me to work out of town.  My mother wanted me to run away.

 She was born and raised in Sosnowiec and therefore knew many people, some of which worked in the police of the city. She asked them about the work camp where they wanted to send me and what to do about it. The policeman told her that she should send me there because in a few months the Germans would take all the children to extermination camps. My mother agreed and told her she had a cousin in a labor camp and asked them to make sure that I was send there.

The day I had to leave, my parents accompanied me there with two large suitcases; one suitcase was full of food and the other suitcase contained my best clothes so I had exchange them with the Poles to work in the camp and they in return, would bring me food. I reached the camp where I met my mother’s cousin who was staying there for one year. She was experienced, so she helped me and in return, I let her take some of my clothes. She let me send letters home via a German she had known who lived in her home town.

 In the Labor camp, we ate each day a quarter slice of bread and soup for lunch. Our mothers passed on letters in packages they sent us with food so we knew where to look for them. On Friday evenings, we recited Kiddush, we had no candles but sang and everyone would tell what they were doing at home and we felt better.

One day on a holiday, we decided not to work, we made a change, showered and slept under the sun. The German commander suddenly came and caught us, and he shouted at us and expelled us to another camp. In 1943 I was transferred to another camp.

I was sent to Bergen Belsen. I had two kinds of Tifus. I knew I did not want to die in Germany and I survived. At this camp we could not receive letters, but I felt better when I wrote songs. When I wanted to shower, the water was cold, my skin tightened and didn’t return to normal. My legs hurt badly, so when I was going to the bathroom I was leaning against the wall.

Finally, the Russians and the Americans came to save us. At the same time, the Germans attempted to hide evidence, but they realized they were losing.
After liberation, everyone ran to where food was kept ,but I didn't. Thousands of girls were killed in Bergen Belsen fighting over food. Every morning the Germans were taking the bodies of the dead and piled them one on top of the other. I left Germany in 1945 and since then I have never gone there. My uncles and cousins and I wanted to make aliyah but they didn't let us. We did not give up. Through illegal immigration to Israel, with a forced stop in Cyprus, where I spent 9 months, we finally reached Haifa. We returned to the ship and from there we went to Atilt and Kiryat Motzkin. We were put in camps. The Israeli people asked us if we were Jews, and what Political party we belonged to. We told them we did not know the Political parties, so they told us they would have a Political party called "Pioneer Youth consolidated ".

I had a friend that was a pioneer, she told me I had to learn a trade. I wanted a profession that took a short time to study, and my friend suggested I should take care of babies because I had to learn this for a year and a half only.

In 1947, I learned this profession and I worked then at Hadassah Hospital, Tel Aviv. I married in 1948 with my husband who was a partisan in the forests. My uncle gave me an apartment, but I did not want it, so I bought a house from my uncle in Ramat Gan, he moved to another apartment.

The City - Sosnowiec

Sosnowiec is a city in southwest Poland.

This locality has existed since 1780, and was officially established as a city in 1902 thanks to industrial cities next to Sosnowiec.Sosnowiec became an important crossroads.

In the beginning of World War 2 its population was 130,000 people of which 28,000 were Jews. The Germans entered the city in September 39, shortly after the judenrat was established.

The deportations to Auschwitz began in 1942, as the ghetto was established.

In 1943, thousands of Jews were deported from the ghetto in Sosnowiec to Auschwitz and after two months the ghetto was liquidated.

The Jews that left were sent to Auschwitz too, and some of them were placed in a labor camp that was in the area of the ghetto. The labor camp was liquidated in 1944. The Jewish community in Sosnowiec was destroyed in World War 2 and the city’s Jews were exterminated by the Nazis.

Thousands were murdered and thousands were sent to incinerators.