BRONKA CHUDY KRYGIER
Excerpts from Bronka Chudy Krygier about her experience on the 2004 March of the Living.

I was not prepared to be a partisan. On September 1, 1939, I was happy. The
next day all, whom I knew and loved, were condemned to die -- simply because
we were Jewish. This led to six years of torture, loss, and destruction.
Leaving Poland in 1946 with a broken heart and spirit, I was orphaned with
no place to go. Poland no longer existed for me. The life I knew was gone, I was afraid to live there and had no desire to return ?- ever.

In some ways, however, I am glad to have returned now, especially with March
of the Living. Supporting and being supported by the wonderful young people
who went, was inspiring and needful. I needed to see the camps and the
tragedy even though it was a difficult and hard thing to do and didn't know
what to expect or how I would react.

Treblinka, the cemetery of my parents, my sister, much family, and my
community, was and is my cemetery. I lived through those very difficult
times and have troubles coping with the truth, the pain, and reality of the
horror.

After 60 years, it is both so long ago and yet much too recent.

Surviving in the forests of Poland all those years was a life of hell. I
never saw the death camps in person. To see them now, to touch them reminds me of the tragedy of my people and those Six Million who should not have died, who should not have been murdered. Those we must remember. Every
Jewish person, especially the children, must be witness to the truth of this
past. The tragic lessons and legacy must be passed on to the children so
they can be watchful, so they can be certain the world does not forget.

To the Children on the March, this is history, for me this is my life.

Some believe we must forgive and go on. Well, we must go on. Others will have to forgive -- if they can, but not in my name or in the name of my lost family, my lost past. For me this 'history' happened only yesterday and
still happens today.

Though my younger years in Poland had many happy memories, they were unfortunately also marred by the intense climate of anti-semitism I experienced throughout my childhood. I can site many such examples - too many indeed - but I will just relate one of them to you:

For seven years, I went to a Catholic school in Warsaw located at 911 Dzika
Street. The first homeroom teacher I had was Klara Milobencka. Then. in the fifth grade, we got a new homeroom teacher- Bronislawa Urbanska.

Most times, she left school by 1:00. One particular day, I was slower than usual in packing up my books and some of the girls were waiting for me so we could leave. From the doorway, the girls called to me:
"Bronia are you coming?" I replied that I was.

The teacher, Bronislawa Urbanska, picked her head up and shouted.
"Who is Bronia?"
I, of course, replied: "I am Bronia."

She came toward me in a rage all the while yelling, "No, I am Bronia, you are Bruchla!" (Bruchla is a traditional Jewish name for a girl; Bronia is a
common Polish name.)

She grabbed all my scribblers and reading my name on the covers tore
pages out of all my books and scribblers all the while yelling, "You are
Bruchla! You are Bruchla!"

This was extremely upsetting and disturbing. My father came to the school
the next day to talk to the School Director and was told, "Your daughter
should use her Hebrew name."

After that incident, Jewish students at the school were required to use their Hebrew names and not their Polish ones. This occurred in early 1938.

On a personal level, I was so shaken and distraught by this incident, that I could not attend school for a few weeks, so great was my fear for her. When I finally returned to school, the children would tease me, chanting "Bruchla, go to Palestine! Bruchla, go to Palestine!"

Leaving Poland and arriving in Israel is the perfect conclusion for March of the Living. It is uplifting to witness with great joy and laughter what we as Jews built and continue to build from the ashes of Europe.

We did not and do not merely survive -- we thrive, we build, we excel. This is the best way to commemorate and honour all those so brutally murdered --
not all that long ago.

Bronka Chudy Krygier