LITTLE HELPERS
We met with a witness of history, Mrs. Emilia Pluta, daughter of Piotr and Maria, to learn about the help provided by Mrs. Emilia’s family, to people of Jewish origin.
– Halt! Halt! – The Germans were shouting at the children who were fleeing from them.
Ten-year-old Emilka and her brother were feeding the cows on the meadow when they noticed German uniforms moving towards their house at the edge of the forest in the village of Knapy. – Mila, you have to go warn the partisans – the girl’s frightened brother whispered. The children moved forward – deaf to the occupant’s calls. Shots were fired – salutary for the partisans, yet unlucky for the siblings… The bang of rifles alerted the partisans staying on the farm of both children’s parents. – Quickly! Take cover! To the dugouts! – in a flash, those in hiding organized themselves. The shooting saved their lives, although the children, and later also their parents, paid great price in terms of health – mental and physical.
The Germans didn’t find any partisans on this occasion. Thus, they were furious. To unleash their fury, they beat the hosts – Maria and Piotr. – Talk, where do you keep them? Where are the Jews?! Where are the partisans?! – The ” guests” were shouting. The Poles remained silent. As a punishment, Emilia’s father was beaten: his teeth were knocked out, he was kicked with heavy boots and left unconscious in the dung. – We take the youngsters to Nowa Dęba for forced labor – Germans decided. – Thay may still be useful as a garbage boy and for scrubbing floors – they assessed with contempt.
The punishment suffered by Emilia Pluta’s family was – given the occupying law – „well-deserved” and actually „extremely gentle”. Because Poles – apart from helping the partisans and Soviet prisoners who escaped from the camp in Majdan Królewski – in the years 1941-1943 they were hiding Jews, among them a man named Habus. After 1943, when the situation got worse, family delivered them food to the forest. In 1944 Emilia and her brother were accepted into the ranks of the Home Army (AK) and with the greater eagerness they carried the reports „to the forest”, reporting there all information available to them about the movements of Germans in the area. Until the memorable July 1944. After the war the children returned home from the camp. Later Emilia undertook psychiatric treatment. She never recovered from the trauma that the Germans brought to her as a child.
