We Follow Avraham's Footsteps

October 15, 2015

This was a big surprise.  Despite the tragic information and the revelations I learned of my cousin Avraham, my heart was warmed by following his steps in and around Ligowo, Poland some 73 years later.

The bare bones that I can share: Avraham was almost 7 years old when he made a daring escape from the Gostynin ghetto with his mother Chava and two younger siblings.  The family walked for several days through the woods and countryside.  Chava wanted to find shelter for her children.  After placing Avraham's sister with a childless, Catholic couple Chava was captured.  She and her youngest son were murdered and Avraham was left hidden in the forest.

He was later contacted by the Polish farmer who helped them out of the ghetto and was informed his mother was not coming back for him.  Avraham struck out on his own.

Here is where our friend, Benek Wegner of Skępe, surprised us.  Last year during our first trip to Skępe we left a copy of Avraham's book (Pile of Pine Needles) with Benek.  Afterwards Benek received local help to translate the book into Polish.  After he completed the book's section of the Holocaust experience Benek retraced the route Avraham wrote about, found the landmarks and then began interviewing people to see if anyone remembered his story.

Understandably, no lives who would have known Avraham personally.  But Avraham's captivity by the Polish farmer and his mere presence in this rural community continues to be the stuff of conversation and memory if you find the right people.

Benek found friends and relatives of some of the key people who contributed to Avraham's ultimate survival.  Some of the stories include:  1) outside Sierpc Avraham was being accosted by a drunk Pole, when a woman presented herself and declared "This boy is my sister's son, you leave him be".  The woman then took Avraham to a business in Ligowo some 12 km away which was run by either a very close friend or a relative of hers.  They suspected Avraham was Jewish and after a meal he was put up in a room.

Avraham was brought to this business 73 years ago.

Shortly after his arrival Avraham was asked if he would be willing to work on a farm.  He agreed to go.  And by bike he rode with the Ligowo businessman to the farm which would be his home for the next three years.  Benek was amazed by the precise directions:  turned left before the town Gozdy; about a kilometer later there was a religious way station (still there) he was taught to bless himself at; and another kilometer later there was the farm near another tiny village Florencja.

As we retraced Avraham's three year sojourn in and around Ligowo we spied a horse and cart which Benek informed us would be exactly the kind Chava and her 3 children would have been hidden in as they escaped Gostynin;

and the church in which Avraham attended on at least two occasions;

we looked down the lonely road that he traveled and wondered what was going through his mind at the age of seven and the next three years while he lived on the farm.  The road at twilight looks as if it may never end; and perhaps it never did.  Our time in Poland and Skępe comes to an end.