{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/1r6n011j28/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Sikorski, Mathew (Presentation)"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/082/original/TheBreman_SecondaryMark_Horizontal_Blue_Black.png?1713640889","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2003-04-27 (captured)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Baxter, Liliane (Presenter)","Sikorski, Mathew (Presenter)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["video"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source"]},"value":{"en":["William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum","Esther and Herbert Taylor Oral History Collection","Jewish Oral History Project of Atlanta"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eMathew Sikorski was born Eustachjusz Maciej Sikorski on March 20, 1929. He was the only child in a Roman Catholic family that lived in Warsaw, Poland. His father, Boleslaw Sikorski (1896-1945), was a successful tailor. His mother, Jadwiga Maria Sikorski (1898-1991), helped manage the business. Mathew enjoyed a very happy childhood until the Germans invaded Poland and occupied Warsaw.\u003cbr\u003eUnder German occupation, Mathew’s family were subjected to many restrictions. When the Germans closed all schools above the 4th grade, Mathew attended a clandestine school. Mathew witnessed the brutal treatment of the Jewish community and saw the conditions in the ghetto. Meanwhile, his family lived in constant fear of the German roundups and executions of non-Jewish civilians. Mathew witnessed the burning of the ghetto after the uprising. Eventually, he would also witness the Warsaw Uprising. Escaping from their burning apartment, the Sikorski family was sent with hundreds of other civilians to a transit camp on the outskirts of the city. From there, they were sent on trains to Germany. In the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, they were separated. Mathew and his mother were sent with other women and children to a labor camp in Hameln, Germany via Bergen-Belsen, while his father remained behind. Mathew and Jadwiga worked in a wool factory for the remainder of the war. \u003cbr\u003eAfter the war, Mathew and his mother learned Boleslaw had not survived. They decided not to return to Poland. Mathew completed high school while living at the Wentorf displaced persons’ camp near Hamburg, Germany. After studying at the University of Madrid in Spain, he immigrated to the United States in 1951. Mathew joined his mother in Chicago, Illinois, where she had immigrated two years earlier.\u003cbr\u003eMathew earned his B.S. and M.S. in Physics at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1957, he married another Polish immigrant, Barbara Debrowiecka (b 1928).  Mathew began his career at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He was awarded 11 patents for his work in acoustics. The family moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1965 when Mathew was offered a job at Georgia Technical University. He then completed his Ph.D. at the University of Manchester in England. \u003cbr\u003eIn Atlanta, Mathew and Barbara became active members of their church. After raising their three sons, Barbara went on to open a popular deli. In retirement, Mathew wrote a book about his experiences in World War II and became a regular speaker at the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum. Dr. Sikorski passed away on February 10, 2013.\u003c/p\u003e (bioghist)","\u003cp\u003eSikorski briefly introduces his childhood. He recalls the German invasion of Poland and siege of Warsaw. Sikorski discusses the restrictions placed on all Poles. He describes some of the Jewish restrictions he witnessed. Sikorski talks about a gift he received from his father’s Jewish friend. He remembers different incidences when Germans terrorized civilians. Sikorski reports the executions he witnessed. He chronicles the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising. Sikorski recounts the evacuation of civilians from Warsaw. He talks about arriving in Germany and being separated from his father. Sikorski details the end of the war. He recollects a German officer’s act of kindness. Sikorski outlines the end of the war. He considers his past.\u003c/p\u003e (scope content)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, recorded by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written consent of the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum.\u003c/p\u003e"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eMathew Sikorski was born Eustachjusz Maciej Sikorski on March 20, 1929. He was the only child in a Roman Catholic family that lived in Warsaw, Poland. His father, Boleslaw Sikorski (1896-1945), was a successful tailor. His mother, Jadwiga Maria Sikorski (1898-1991), helped manage the business. Mathew enjoyed a very happy childhood until the Germans invaded Poland and occupied Warsaw.\u003cbr /\u003eUnder German occupation, Mathew\u0026rsquo;s family were subjected to many restrictions. When the Germans closed all schools above the 4th grade, Mathew attended a clandestine school. Mathew witnessed the brutal treatment of the Jewish community and saw the conditions in the ghetto. Meanwhile, his family lived in constant fear of the German roundups and executions of non-Jewish civilians. Mathew witnessed the burning of the ghetto after the uprising. Eventually, he would also witness the Warsaw Uprising. Escaping from their burning apartment, the Sikorski family was sent with hundreds of other civilians to a transit camp on the outskirts of the city. From there, they were sent on trains to Germany. In the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, they were separated. Mathew and his mother were sent with other women and children to a labor camp in Hameln, Germany via Bergen-Belsen, while his father remained behind. Mathew and Jadwiga worked in a wool factory for the remainder of the war.\u0026nbsp;\u003cbr /\u003eAfter the war, Mathew and his mother learned Boleslaw had not survived. They decided not to return to Poland. Mathew completed high school while living at the Wentorf displaced persons\u0026rsquo; camp near Hamburg, Germany. After studying at the University of Madrid in Spain, he immigrated to the United States in 1951. Mathew joined his mother in Chicago, Illinois, where she had immigrated two years earlier.\u003cbr /\u003eMathew earned his B.S. and M.S. in Physics at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1957, he married another Polish immigrant, Barbara Debrowiecka (b 1928). \u0026nbsp;Mathew began his career at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He was awarded 11 patents for his work in acoustics. The family moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1965 when Mathew was offered a job at Georgia Technical University. He then completed his Ph.D. at the University of Manchester in England.\u0026nbsp;\u003cbr /\u003eIn Atlanta, Mathew and Barbara became active members of their church. After raising their three sons, Barbara went on to open a popular deli. In retirement, Mathew wrote a book about his experiences in World War II and became a regular speaker at the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum. Dr. Sikorski passed away on February 10, 2013.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSikorski briefly introduces his childhood. He recalls the German invasion of Poland and siege of Warsaw. Sikorski discusses the restrictions placed on all Poles. He describes some of the Jewish restrictions he witnessed. Sikorski talks about a gift he received from his father\u0026rsquo;s Jewish friend. He remembers different incidences when Germans terrorized civilians. Sikorski reports the executions he witnessed. He chronicles the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising. Sikorski recounts the evacuation of civilians from Warsaw. He talks about arriving in Germany and being separated from his father. Sikorski details the end of the war. He recollects a German officer\u0026rsquo;s act of kindness. Sikorski outlines the end of the war. He considers his past.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, recorded by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written consent of the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/082/original/TheBreman_SecondaryMark_Horizontal_Blue_Black.png?1713640889","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/272/476/small/Sikorski_Mathew_Presentation.mp4_1746716238.jpg?1746716240","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Sikorski_Mathew_Presentation.mp4"]},"duration":3752.18177,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/272/476/small/Sikorski_Mathew_Presentation.mp4_1746716238.jpg?1746716240","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-thebreman.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/272/476/original/Sikorski_Mathew_Presentation.mp4?1746716227","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":3752.18177,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Sikorski, Mathew [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=0.0,2.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baxter: Dr. Sikorski is a Polish Catholic raised in Warsaw [Poland] who grew up on the other side of the wall, so to speak, and has a fascinating and important story to tell of what he and his family lived through during those years. We are very fortunate to have Dr. Sikorski here with us as one of our speakers. We are lucky to have him here with this group to tell you about his life, especially his earliest years. Mathew Sikorski.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2.0,55.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Thank you very much, Liliane. It's a real pleasure to meet all of you and be with you this afternoon. I don't know whether I can compete with coffee! It was a privilege for me to, I guess, give talks to children here for about three years. It was a real pleasure. I think I can do things more for the kids than I would reveal, but it's a different thing. I'll start by saying that I'm going to divide my talking to essentially three sections. One, before the ghetto wall was constructed in Warsaw, during that time, and later on. I'll come to that. In case you don't remember, my name is Mathew Sikorski. My Polish name was Maciej, but I changed that when I came to this country in 1951 to make it easier to handle, Mathew. But it still gives people trouble because I use one 'T' in my name and not two, because I want to be too American. If you have John, you say 'Jack.' If you've got William, you say 'Bill.' Why not have Mathew with one 'T'? And I've regretted that ever since. \u003cSpeech pauses; then resumes\u003e I was born in Warsaw, Poland, a Christian family, Catholic family. I would say that my childhood was wonderful and that I had loving parents. My father was a tailor. He had a tailoring business, was doing quite well. The only problem I had when I was little was that I was somewhat sickly. I was born with a bad heart defect. So, often, instead of playing with children, I could only watch them through the windows as they were playing in the courtyard. As Mariana mentioned, there were big apartment buildings and a courtyard in the back. We had a three, third story apartment building. Half of it was for my father's work and half were private quarters. When I was ten years old, there were rumors that Germany was about to attack Poland. It happened when I was ten years old. On September 1, 1939, the Germans attacked. Almost immediately, I could view through the windows how people were trying to flee from the West to the East and going through the main thoroughfares that were under us. It was a very sad situation to watch this. Not long after, I guess, two weeks or so, the Germans came to the outskirts of the city of Warsaw and started a siege. We protected the windows from being seen by putting black paper over the glass areas. I witnessed a lot of air raids and bombs were flying, but fortunately none of the houses near my house were damaged. On the tenth day, roughly tenth day of the siege, I remember this incident as [if] it had happened yesterday. Namely, I was standing in my parents' bedroom. My father was standing here, my mother was here, and I was right here, and their bed was behind. This was a bedroom. I had a little dog--a tiny chihuahua--which was right next to me. My father said with a somber face to my mother, \"I think tonight we have to go to the shelter.\" I don't know why they were not afraid. My parents were afraid to go to the shelter. Somehow, they felt everything would be okay. So, my mother said, \"Well, if you think that we ought to go to the basement, we will.\" For me, it was something new, because I never imagined I would go to the basement, which was supposed to be full of coal, prepared for heating up the apartment during the winter, and be able to sleep there. So, I was somewhat excited. Father said, \"Okay, let's pick up whatever we can, blankets.\" I was ten years old. We picked up pillows and blankets and went downstairs. It took a little bit of work to move the coal aside, but we spent the night. The next morning, I felt that ... I woke up first. I felt it was too long being in the basement. It's time to go upstairs, and maybe have a drink of water, have some breakfast. I said, \"Let's go upstairs,\" so my parents followed me. We went up to the third floor, opened the door, which was in the hallway of the business section. We went through the hallway, and then the waiting room, and then, my bedroom was next. I entered with the dog to the bedroom and checked up on my toys, if somebody had bothered them. I just wanted to make sure. I looked at the door toward my parents' bedroom and I was surprised that the door was shut closed. I felt that last time we were leaving it was some ajar. Anyway, I picked up the door handle, and opened the door and I couldn't believe what I saw. In this incredible silence, there was total destruction. All of the furniture was torn up and my parents' bedroom was full of shrapnel. What happened was that, during the night, a big projectile from a German gun probably across the Vistula River, entered the apartment through the outside wall. It was very thick walls like they used to build for a thousand years, but the walls were about 25 years, so things were being destroyed quite quickly, whatever. The wall was quite thick, so the projectile passed the floor and across one room, entered another wall, and exploded in my parents' bedroom. So, they would have been killed instantly. I would have become an orphan at ten, and with my poor health, I probably would not have lasted very long without their help and their love. Within a few days, the Germans overpowered the city and the defenses. The first thing that they'd done was to arrest all the intellectuals, university professors, put them in prisons, and a lot of executions. This was, of course, done regardless of religion. Whoever had an important function in the government or depending on the educational area, they all fell victims. Then, the next order was no radios. Everybody was supposed to turn in the radios. Well, we had two: one, a crystal radio that I liked to play with; and just before the war started, my parents bought a beautiful vacuum tube radio that has never been used before. So, what to do? We turned in the crystal radio and left the other one but put it in the attic with the idea that when the war was over, then we can recover it. Well, the way it happened was we never got to that. All the weapons had to be turned in as well. The curfews were imposed so that this limited a lot the interaction among the people. Rationing cards came into place. It was tough. If you had family in the outskirts of Warsaw, then it was easier to get food. You could buy easily the bread with rationing card, but other things were rather scarce. I can't ... I don't have figures similar to the beautiful figures of Mariana of what the rations could have been. One thing that was really a problem for me later on, was that I was ready to go to high school. In fact, my parents had signed me up before the war to go high school, one of the private high schools. The Germans put out an edict that all the high schools were to stay closed. They cannot open because we all knew the idea was that as Slavs, we were not as highly developed intellectually that we would learn something from higher education. But we never gave up and what happened was that the director of the high school decided that they would try to do something. There was a big building in Warsaw, which was rented by the school, and it was called the school of fisheries. On the walls of the rooms, there were all kinds of fish and we had desks. The students had desks similar to this so if you read a book on history, for example, you would hide it when an inspector would come. Well, this stayed open for about ten days because it was too dangerous. From that point on, about five or six students and the teacher would meet in private homes. We would change the location roughly every week in order not to be uncovered by German spies [noticing] that something is unusual, too much traffic, and so forth. Now, one of the things which I'm most grateful to my parents was that they felt that I would be needing foreign languages, so they hired a tutor for me. I would take lessons one day in German, one day of English. Associated with this, I tell another story which is directly related to the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Now, in 1940 ... Seemingly, the start of, beginning of the genocide activities against the [Jews] had already started. The Jewish people had to wear a Star of David, or Shield of David, on arm bands and there were other humiliations. For example, I remember how a man, who was a Jewish man, was walking down the street and a German soldier was coming from the opposite direction. The order was for the Jewish person to step off the pavement onto the street and wait until the German soldier would walk by them, then they were allowed to go, things of this nature. Sometimes, a German soldier would bump into a Jewish woman. It was terribly demoralizing and I couldn't understand really what was going on. The order then came, or rather announcement, that Jewish families would have to be moved. Some Jewish families were moved from one part of the city to the other. All of this was planned so carefully that we really didn't know from day to day what was going on. [Unintelligible.] Then, it turned out that all of the Jews were [unintelligible]. Then, we saw the walls of the ghetto rising. We didn't even know what the brickwork was about. One of the stories that I want to tell you in connection with the move of the Jewish families, which was [unintelligible] so close to my heart, was that my father, in his business, had a number of Jewish friends who were also doing business with him. They would bring all kinds of supplies for making suits, to measure, so, buttons, thread, and so forth. I remember one afternoon my father called me into the business quarters. I stepped in. There was a man I've seen occasionally, in the first room, and there was a big box on the table. My father said, \"This is a present for you.\" I was surprised and what I did was come to the box, open it up, and inside was a beautiful, precision-made 16-millimeter movie projector. You turn the crank and the people go fast, or go slow, or stop. It was great. I was always so inclined to work with mechanical and electrical things. I was making my own toys, electrifying cities on the floor of one of the rooms. One thing in particular had electric bulbs inside. There were tiny bulbs. I had airplanes, which were made out of cut-outs--you could buy those things--houses, railroad stations, airplanes, tanks, and so on. I would make those, glue them together. I had a plane flying over the city and the train was also pulled on a string. I really liked that, so I imagined that I would have an awful lot to do with this projector. It was just fantastic. I was beside myself. Then, my father said this: \"This friend of mine gave you this projector that thus far belonged to his son, who's about your age.\" He said the order came that they would have to move from where they are now--a large apartment--to an area designated especially for the Jewish population. This person realized that there will be so little room inside that apartment that they would simply have to abandon this projector when they were now, so they wanted me to have it. On one hand, I was overjoyed getting this toy. But on the other hand, was a big thorn in my heart. How awful this boy must have felt of having his toy taken away for somebody else. Every time I think about this, it's just ... It brings tears to light in my eyes. A little bit about this projector maybe. Since I was fixing my father's sewing machines and so on, he said, \"Well, this one's not being used. Why don't you use the electric motor and see if you can hook it up to the projector?\" I did and it was incredible. I just plugged it in and the people were running, but they wouldn't slow down because I had no means of slowing down. Anyway, these childish memories are really fantastic. Well, other things that were happening in Warsaw were roundups of people in the streets and people were disappearing. Once they were caught, they were sent to Germany most likely. Also, the Germans were pulling people off overcrowded streetcars and also these people would disappear. One particular day, I remember my parents ... I was the only child and a spoiled one at that. We were going to visit my uncle and aunt. We proceeded down the street and a man, who was almost running, passed by, running in the opposite direction, and whispered something to my father's ear. My father said, \"Turn around. We're going home.\" So, we immediately turned around. After I cleared the corner, I saw that if we had proceeded, then we would have been caught in that section of the street between one street and another because the two trucks came in, German trucks full of soldiers. They would have got everyone in that section. So, this is how we avoided that. Another thing which was absolutely horrible was executions of men in the streets of Warsaw. After the war, when I went to Warsaw, which was rebuilt, everything was rebuilt. My area looked exactly as I remembered it at 15 years old, except a hotel nearby, Hotel Bristol--if you go to Warsaw, it's the foremost hotels--appeared to be small. Of course, for a small boy, it appeared to be huge before. Anyway, the executions were conducted in a very perfidious way, in that the loudspeakers, which were attached to the lamp poles in the street and telephone poles were, in the morning, giving names of men who were caught from the streetcar or just caught in the street. [They] were giving out names of those men. Then, as we found out later on, they were being shot in the streets. I have another incident, which I almost escaped being shot in that way. There's about 700 such places where the executions were done all over the city of Warsaw and this activity intensified, particularly after the Jewish ghetto already burned down. I want to tell you what happened one day. I left my teacher just after a lesson of German. I was riding my bike home. Before I turned the corner, I smelled smoke. What is this smell coming from? Where is it coming from? As I cleared the corner, I saw that all of the buildings that I could see on the other side of the walls of the ghetto were on fire. This was the only way I could proceed in going home. As I approached the wall, I saw a silhouette of a man on one of the upper floors in the window with the background of flames. I could not see the details of the wall, just the black silhouette. Obviously, he was running away from the part of the building because it was about to collapse. I saw his silhouette here in this window, and then the next one, and then he fell down. It was absolutely horrible, a horrible experience to see this. As a child, my first thought was, 'Was this perhaps the benefactor who gave me the projector?' It was fantastic. But it is what it's like. I continued going. This was a section on Miodowa Street. I have ... I'm looking at the ghetto somehow, I'm still learning. There must be a wall that exists between the [unintelligible]. As I was continuing down the street, I noticed that all of the people on both sides of the street were running against [or] in my direction, but not walking, but running. I thought, 'What could be happening?' I was quite curious about what I will see next and didn't have to wait long because, when I came to the edge of the building, I could see five German soldiers across the street. One was [unintelligible] like this, and the other was coming up here, and the other was here. I didn't know what to do because they were lifting their carbines about to shoot down the street. I thought to myself, 'Well, if I turn around and try to go the other way, they will for sure see me, so they'll plant a bullet in my back.' So, I thought, 'Well, just go for it.' Go for it meaning that I started pumping my bike as fast as I could and stopped right in the middle of the group of German soldiers. This is the first time that I used the knowledge of my German. [I asked,] \"What do you want me to do?\" The German said, \"Raus,\" which [in German] is 'Get lost!' Then, I started pumping. As soon as I crossed the street, there was a volume of bullets going down the street. What happened was, while I was at the lesson, the building where the Germans were now standing in front of, the wall of the building was the site of the execution of ten men on that afternoon. What normally would happen is that the people, after the execution and the Germans took the bodies, they would bring candles, flowers. Apparently, this is what must have happened. People started bringing those things, and the German's wanted to disperse the crowd. So, the people were going in the direction of the Royal Castle. They were shooting at them. Whether they shot them or not, I don't know. But so this is another thing that happened. As far as my experience with the Jewish population was a scene I can relate to you. One time ... Actually, we didn't move much around town because there was some sort of an injury, so I didn't get far away, but I was going to visit with someone. I took a streetcar. We are going down. There were homes on the left side and the wall of the ghetto on the right-hand side. It must have been one of the twenty-two gates that you mentioned. The streetcar stopped right in front of it. There were a bunch of German soldiers and I didn't see any people inside. But there were three bodies of men hanging from the lampposts on the other side of the wall. I just ... I said, 'What reason would it take for them to be hung like this?' It's just a horrible fact. It was really debilitating. When I read--correct me [if I am wrong], Mariana--but I read about the ... I have a book on the uprising of the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. I understand that ten people escaped through the sewers and to the Christian area outside of the ghetto. Interestingly enough, I found out recently, one of the docents here at the museum knows one lady who had come out from those sewers at that time. I wanted to meet her here. She said, \"No, she lives in Chicago.\" So, anyway, at least I know of one person who had survived the experience of escaping the ghetto and then surviving to be able to leave Poland. I believe that she went to Israel next and then off to this country. The city of Warsaw had a population of 1.25 million and--I have the same figures as Mariana--350,000 Jewish people were taken from Warsaw and there were others, up to 450,000, who were taken, who were brought from outlying areas. Now, a year and a half after the ghetto was no more, the Polish underground army staged an uprising against the Germans. The Allies had already landed in France. So, there was a great hope that that city could be liberated from the Germans and then we would become free. I remember that before the uprising started, one of my father's clients asked him to make a uniform for an officer, that he would carry a flag during the victory parade after the uprising was won. Unfortunately, that did not happen. When the uprising was about to start, I was vacationing with my mother just 35 kilometers [22 miles] away. My father sent a taxi car to pick us up. I remember standing in front of this farmhouse where we stayed. The taxi came very fast, blowing a cloud of dust behind it. And the driver yelled out, \"Where's your mother?\" So, I ran into the house. She came out and he said, \"Get whatever things you have, suitcases or whatever, and get in the taxi. Your father, your husband asked me to bring you home.\" He was really rushing us. He said, \"If you don't go now, then I'll take somebody else.\" I had no idea what was in [unintelligible] take somebody else, no idea. We got in and then, after about an hour, came to the house. My father was in the doorway. He says, \"I brought you here so we can be together tomorrow because tomorrow the Warsaw uprising is starting.\" That was a big shock, because I've seen what could happen during the war. My parents would have been killed and I would not have survived. I really had a queasy feeling in my heart and my chest about what was going to happen. Well, the next morning, I went over to the outside windows looking down the street. I was curious what an uprising looks like but there was no traffic, no cars, no people. Then, I looked to the right and I saw a body of a dead man. So, I came closer to the window and bang! The glass in front of my face broke and a sniper was across the street shooting at me. This bullet was meant for me. When I turned my head, the bullet was lodged in the window frame right next to my head. This was the last time I ran up to that window--not because I was scared only. Now, I was 15 years old then, and two or three days later, our house was set on fire by a German flamethrower in the basement. Also, the house next door was on fire and the cinders were flying down on the roof of our house. Pretty soon, the smoke was unbearable. We couldn't see, and we only could go by voice to find ourselves. My father and mother said, \"Okay, we're going downstairs to the courtyard through another staircase.\" The staircase was the one that we entered from the basement before. And so we did. My mother said, \"Take the two things that are most dear to you.\" One of them was the accordion, which my father had given me for my birthday earlier in that year. I had a piano, but ... And the second one ... Now, what I'm going to do is perhaps ... My wife said, \"Don't do that. You can do it for children, but don't it.\" My son gave me a present for Father's Day and I want to ... Please close your eyes for a moment. Please open your eyes. My most precious thing was my little chihuahua dog. I put the dog under my jacket and lugged the heavy accordion in the other [hand]. So, we went downstairs. I stood with my back toward the wall of the building and I thought to myself, 'I have a wonderful life. I have toys that I make myself. I have friends. When I feel well, I go biking, and skiing, and skating, and so on. Could it be that this is the end of my life?' Because the house is on fire. Still, you don't see the flames, but the smoke comes out and besides us, there are about 100, 150 other people from the courtyard. It was a question of time when the buildings will catch on fire, real fire. I started praying and almost immediately there was a bang, bang, bang on the iron gate separating the street from the courtyard. The German soldiers ran in with carbines, with bayonets on the ready. Then, the first one was close to me. This was the second time that I could use my German. What I was afraid of was that they would tell us to line up under the wall and just simply execute us. But instead, he said, \"Follow us,\" which was a good sign. So, they surrounded everybody there. It was a large number of soldiers who said, \"Just follow us.\" So, we went across the street to the Hotel Bristol, to the basement. There were no beds, just crowds and crowds of people with whatever things they could have brought with them, blankets, bed covers, whatever. We stayed there. I don't think we ate anything or had anything to drink. After a day and a night, middle of the night, the Germans said, \"Now, you're leaving the building.\" So, at 12 o'clock at night, we're leaving. I thought, 'Maybe I can see my house.' Probably it was burned by then. But there was no moon and no light. It was total darkness. There was some glow in the distance. So, the Germans took us under heavy guard and started leading us across the big square and then into an area of some gardens. What I was really scared by was in the German uniform, there were some soldiers from the USSR with flat faces, Mongols or something. Apparently, they were taken into the German Army, but they stayed away. I was afraid of them. Well, then they said, \"Okay, now we're going to walk.\" I looked for ... This is in the back of the gardens, and there's a street, relatively narrow street, and houses on both sides were on fire. As we approached the street, we could feel the radiant heat coming at you, and there's sparks everywhere. I said, \"How in the world can we walk down that street?\" But we did, the entire night. We walked until the morning, and ended up in an area which was, before the war, used to repair railroad equipment, cars, locomotives, and so forth. Now, these big hangar-like buildings were used to house the people, thousands and thousands of people. In the afternoon we spent ... There was nothing on the floor, just concrete. We stayed there and then, overnight ... I'm skipping something very important. If I have time, I'm going time to share with you. But the next day, we were let go of this building and pointed toward a train, which was a cattle train, standing about four miles away. Everybody, thousands of people were directed there. I drive into one of the cars, and we stood right beside the window next to the ceiling. It was a good thing, because there was no air to breathe. As it turned out, there were probably 80 people pushed into that one building. So, there was no possibility. My mother was worried that I walked all night, therefore I should sit down. So I did sit down, but I couldn't stay down very long because the people were moving in into the car more and more, so I had to stand up. Would you believe that this is the last thing I remember? My memory is wiped out of this entire trip until, I don't know, maybe two days or so later, the train had stopped. My father said, \"Let's see where we are. I'll lift you to the window because it's too far to see.\" So, he lifted me up and I read the name of the town, Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg, and we knew from underground press that this Sachsenhausen is one of the biggest concentration camps. So, that was bad news. When I mentioned Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg, then the conversation in the car, I remember, stopped because most of the people knew what that meant. We were let out. We were led out of the train and then told to walk down the street of the little town, because there must have been factories nearby, and so the children were playing and flowers everywhere. The children, however, were looking at us and yelling, \"Polnische Banditen! [German] Polish Bandits!\" I don't know. I didn't see the resemblance between me and bandits. I suppose that's what the parents were told by the Nazi propaganda and so forth. We walked for a little bit and there was a group of prisoners from the camp walking against ... We were walking this way. They were under heavy guard and dogs. They were moving. Their column was moving back. I thought, 'Is that how we're going to look?' Because obviously they were from the concentration camp and they must have been so depressed, and disinterested, and everything, you know, that they didn't even--anyone--lift their heads toward us. It was an awful scene. We got to a big square and we were told on the loudspeakers, that \"Now, you're going to take a shower.\" Well, I really needed that shower after that long trip. After the showers, they said, \"Now, you are going to put yourself in four columns. One will be men alone with boys 14 years of age, then women alone, and then women with smaller children.\" I went to a group of boys. I was 15 then. We had no passports, but still, [they had said] if I was over 14, then I go to 14 ... I stood there. I stood for a little bit. Then, I saw my mother was in a group over there and my father was in another group. I see a German soldier crossing the field very slowly. He stood right in front of me. He could have stood anywhere, but he was just like this. He was [right in front of me]. I looked at him. He didn't have the left eye. It was just skin growing over [unintelligible]. He said, in perfect Polish--big surprise from a German soldier--he said, \"Listen to me, boys. The reason why I don't have an eye is because I didn't want to be conscripted into the German Army. I was born on the border of Poland and Germany. And because that was already included in the Reich, I was of the right age to be conscripted into the Germany Army. I was tortured. But that's why I'm here with you.\" He said, \"Listen to me, boys.\" He said, \"If you have your mother in the group of women alone, then join her and immediately go to the group of women with children, smaller children. And if you don't have your mother here, then, pick any lady that you like to look at, and from here on out, she will have to play the role of your mother.\" He turned around and slowly walked away. This way, he saved my life and my mother's as well because before we went to the group of women with children, my mom said, \"We can't go there. Let's say goodbye to your father,\" and of course, we did. It was very sad to say this, but this is the last time I ever saw him. After we reached, my mother and I, the group of women and children, then the first group of men alone was led under heavy guard into the concentration camp. Then, the boys go in the place--they didn't hear the message--and then, the women alone, and the only ones who were left in the field were women with children. I was a bit tall for my small boyish figure. They said, \"Sit down,\" so I wouldn't stick out in the crowd. We spent the night there. The next day, we were taken to another train and going through the outskirts of another concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen. We were taken to a little town called Hameln, or Hamelin in English. Each of you might have heard the story of the Pied Piper. [Unintelligible]. So, my mother and I were with 80 women and children, [and we] were put in a factory building. Actually, we lived in a factory building without machines. There were bunk beds on both sides, and there was railroad tracks right in the middle. So, this was a Nazi forced labor camp. We survived until when the war ended. My mother was making blankets, and I was changing bobbins that had no longer any yarn left on them. There wasn't much to eat, but after work, I was able to go to the fields and pick up frozen potatoes. My mother was able make some soup, and then later on, we got some fat lard from my uncle, who was in Poland, who had a farm, so he sent it to us. The potato soup looked a little bit better with a little fat floating in it. There was a moment which I thought I might die. I got very sick. I don't know if it was some kind of a cold, or pneumonia, or something. I was delirious. I remember this little room in the factory building. Apparently, they had some sort of a hospital, quote unquote, facility and there a man there who acted as a doctor. One day, he came with an injection vile and said, \"I'm going to give this to you. I stole it from the German cabinet of medicine.\" He said, \"I am from Yugoslavia.\" He was a medic, was taken by the Nazis from Yugoslavia to work in this town. So, he saved my life. Without that, I would have been gone forever. Well, there are many other incidences that I would have lost my life. The American Air Force shooting at a locomotive, by a matter of seconds, it would have hit me. I was in the water. Then, there was a firebomb in the factory next door, about 50 yards away and if it had been ... If our building had been bombed, then I would have [unintelligible]. It was just 50 feet away. Then, one day we went to a shelter. When the alarm was called off, the door was open, we walked out, and there was an unexploded bomb. It was about as long as from here to the ... a huge bomb. So, we would have evaporated along with the entire bomb. It's amazing. I have 15 more minutes, right?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=55.0,2760.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baxter: You have ten more minutes, but maybe you would like some questions, too.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2760.0,2764.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Yes, all right, so I just want to mention the liberation. The liberation took place, there was no work in the factory, and so all the women decided to leave the city. We spent the night in the ravine in front of the forest. The next morning, I heard some rumbling heavy vehicles on the road, so I climbed--I woke up the first--in front of the group. I walked up the hill and I saw tanks. I was first afraid that I would see the German swastikas, but they were American tanks, so I knew we were liberated, but not quite, because the tank was moving armaments back and forth. The turret was moving. So, I slid down on my pants down the hill, and one of the ladies said, \"Go get me a stick. Go get me a stick from the forest, as straight as you can.\" So, I did that, and she said, \"I know what to do.\" I brought the stick and she was hunting in her baggage for some white rag, some piece of cloth. She said, \"This is going to be our surrender flag,\" and when she put it on the end, I saw that these were her panties. So, this was our surrender flags. Anyway, we approached the tanks, and then ... First, they stopped and all that. I think I'm going to finish here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2764.0,2854.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baxter: Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2854.0,2854.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: And I'll answer some questions.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2854.0,2854.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baxter: Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2854.0,2860.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: You said there was something important you were ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2860.0,2863.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Thank you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2863.0,2869.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: You said there was something you were going to tell us. You said during your talk, you said there was something that you were going to tell us.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2869.0,2875.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Yes, well, this is a story by itself. I don't want to take the time. I'll be glad to tell you privately.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2875.0,2883.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2883.0,2883.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: This had to do with the fact that, for some reason, I had tremendous courage when we were first taken into one of the huge buildings on the outskirts of Warsaw. I felt ... Well, this may be complicated.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2883.0,2899.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baxter: Oh, tell us.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2899.0,2901.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: Yes. Tell us, yes. It is too late.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2901.0,2908.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: This is my own fault. Well, anyway, so when we got there in the morning, they pushed everyone from the town into this big building. Then, in the afternoon, the order came for all of the single men, all the men, adult males to leave the building. So, my father had to leave with everybody else, with all the other men. There were families, maybe 2,000, 3,000 people, but no adult males. All of the families were split [up]. I was just sitting there on the floor, and I thought to myself, 'I have to do something to get my father, but it has to be done quickly because every second counts.' So, I got up, confronted my mother, and said, \"Mama, I want to go and get my father.\" There were two women standing next to her, who were starting to yell at her and said, \"The order was for no one to leave the building, except the adult males. So, you're not gonna let them go, are you?\" She didn't say anything. After this harangue, she just looked at me and said, \"If you think you can do it, go ahead and do it.\" So, I pushed myself through the crowd, opened the door. What I saw was a train full of men about a quarter mile away, and then five soldiers on guard, with their carbines on the ready, to prevent anybody from walking. Well, I didn't walk, but I ran to the first one. My first idea was to run for the train until I find my father. But then I thought, 'Well, it's so easy for them to shoot. It's better this way.' So, I went to the first one and said in my German again, I said, \"My mother is here. My father is on this train. Can you put my family together? Can you do something?\" He said, \"No, because I'm not supposed to move. But maybe the next man I can.\" So, I did this several times until I got to the last one. And this soldier said, \"No, I can't do anything but look down the train where the locomotive is. There's an officer with two adjuncts walking in our direction. Go and ask him to do it.\" So, I ran up to them and the Germans stopped. And this was a high ranking officer. He had all kinds of decorations. I told him the same story, \"Would you please help me put my family together? I want to go to get my father and we go to join my mother.\" He said, \"Well, where is your father?\" I said, \"I don't know.\" He said, \"Well, let's walk down the street until we find him.\" Of course, the men on the train got agitated, said, \"What are you doing here, kid,\" until we got to the last one and my father saw me from one of the cars. He said, \"Maciej,\" which was my name, \"What are you doing here? Go to mother because they'll shoot you.\" I said--I assumed--that the German is going to let us out, let him out, and put us together. I was right because what happened was that I was conversing in Polish, telling my father to come down. He was afraid that they're going to shoot me first and then him, so better not do that. But someone pushed him out of the car. He fell down, and as he was rising and cleaning his trousers, we arrived, the Germans and myself. The German, the officer ... I couldn't believe this. I couldn't. We were slaves. They could have shot me anytime. But this German said, with all kindness that I could imagine, stretched out his hand, told my father, said, looking at me, \"Is this your father? My name is such and so.\" So, father shook his hand with him, and then the German turned around and told me, \"Where is your mother? I want to meet her, too.\" [I was] flabbergasted. So, we went up the street again and all of the German soldiers that I talked to before were saluting the [officer and saying,] \"Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler!\" We got to the building. My father was with me and the three soldiers. When I opened the door, the ladies got scared. We have three soldiers, a boy, and a man. But the German asked me, \"Where is your mother?\" So, I pointed the direction, and the crowd was moving aside. We got to my mother and the German said, \"Is this your mother?\" I said, \"Yes.\" Again, he stretched out his hand, shook the hand of my mother, looked at me, and he said, \"Is there anything else I could do for you?\" I just didn't know. I just did know what to do with it. The only thing I could think of is to thank him with the most vocabulary I could master from my German lessons. So, that's what happened. But the next day, I found out that he could have taken us out of the camp and put us free because he was in charge of the operation. When we were leaving, and I told you about this before, the next I saw him in the crowd. And I asked him, \"Can you get us out?\" He said, \"I'm sorry. Today, I cannot do absolutely nothing.\" He had no decorations, no hat. Apparently, he lost his rank overnight. I believe that he was in the Wehrmacht and Gestapo was coming in. This day, he could do absolutely nothing. So, that was the story. I don't like it. Any other questions?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=2908.0,3235.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: How long were you ... after you got taken from your home?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3235.0,3240.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Yes, well, we started working in August of 1944 and April 5th of 1945 is when the American tanks came. When I ran down to the tank, the hatch opened up, and the soldier showed his face. I told him in English what I'll call, \"Thank you for liberating us. We're from Poland.\" And this GI said, in Polish, \"I am Polish, too. I am from Chicago. I live in Chicago.\" And then he yelled out, \"Hey, John, they are probably hungry.\" So, we saw the K-rations and the Hershey's chocolate bars. That was heaven.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3240.0,3286.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: When did you come to the United States?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3286.0,3288.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: [In] 1951. Yes, I was able to finish high school after the war. We lived in a displaced persons camp when the Americans took over the area. Then, high schools were opened, so I finished high school. Then, almost immediately, I was given a scholarship for university studies in Spain, so I went over there. In the meantime, my mother immigrated to the United States. When she got settled, we were able to prepare all the affidavits at home. So, I came to Chicago in 1951.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3288.0,3318.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: See, all Poles live in Chicago.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3318.0,3320.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Pardon?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3320.0,3321.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: All Poles live in Chicago.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3321.0,3322.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Well, that ... You know, interestingly enough ... That's a very good ... The city of Warsaw, after the uprising, was totally razed to the ground. So, about 700,000 people who survived, 200,000 were killed during two months and three days of fighting in the uprising. And 200,000 were killed, 700,000 remained, and they were taken, just like we were, by train to Germany, some to concentration camps like my father did. We found out after the war that he was killed in January of 1945. His death, which I think Mariana mentioned earlier, was from a phenol injection in the heart, [unintelligible] one of those.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3322.0,3379.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: How far did your chihuahua make it?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3379.0,3382.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Pardon?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3382.0,3382.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: How far did your chihuahua make it?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3382.0,3384.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: How far what?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3384.0,3385.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Audience Member: Your chihuahua, your dog.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3385.0,3388.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Well, [she] make it through the war. She made it through the war. You know, she was sleeping on the bunk bed with me up above and my mother down below. We were ... I consider myself so lucky because, you know, we were not beaten or nothing. I mean, there wasn't much of anything really. I don't know how we ate, but we survived, so that's important. The dog ... We were going to a movie. There's one theater near where we lived, stayed. I put the dog [in my jacket], bought the tickets, as soon as the movie started, then the dog came out.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3388.0,3434.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baxter: Mat, how did your uncle in Chicago know that you were with your mother in Hamelin to send you that fat?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3434.0,3443.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: No, my uncle was in Poland.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3443.0,3445.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baxter: Oh, in Poland.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3445.0,3445.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: My mother, in order to make sure that my father was killed, wrote to him. He was on his farm during the uprising. After the uprising he moved. Well, when it was possible, came back to the city and my mother wrote to him. He actually investigated on the radio and in the newspapers, and he found two witnesses who had been in the camp, concentration camp close to my father, so he knew details.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3445.0,3475.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baxter: So, he was also the one who knew about your father?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3475.0,3478.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: Yes. As far as Chicago is concerned, it was the largest Polish city in the world, with 600,000, 700,000 people. That's where I met my wife, in the largest Polish city in the world. But she doesn't want to talk about these things. I don't remember my trip in the cattle car, but she won't say a word. She had been there, too. She lived actually through the entire duration of the Warsaw uprising, over two months. Then, at the end, when the Germans were victorious, they were put on the cattle train and sent to Austria. There, they were working on removing snow from incoming trains in front of some town. So, they were also in a forced labor camp. But her father was in the concentration camp for some time and her brother was also. We've seen quite enough. I'm so grateful that I can share this with my Jewish friends, who I always consider friends and so has my father. He had tremendous relations with the Jewish population. That was 300,000 Jews. Well, Jews actually, out of six million who were killed, three million were from Poland. This was the largest Jewish population in Europe. The next group, of course, as far as considering the genocide situation, were the Slavs. There were about four million Slavs that were killed, about one million Poles, like my father, and there were Russian POWs who were put in concentration camps and killed. They did not respect the Geneva Convention. They did whatever they wanted with anybody. And of course, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, [unintelligible]. Before I came to America, I wrote this: I see America as an ideal, a beacon of light for the whole world. But after 9-11, I added: where different races and creeds live together in peace. I guess we haven't quite reached that point yet. That's why I'm saying it's the idea. It's the idea. I wrote my memoirs, which I'm trying to publish. Oh, I didn't say about Mort Waitzman.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3478.0,3635.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Baxter: Oh, okay. This is interesting. It is another ... There are so many interesting ...","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3635.0,3640.0"},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/transcript/79386/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Sikorski: My first [book] cover was \"With All My Heart.\" Now, I changed that to \"Innocence and Reality,\" so the book will come out published by a different name. But I went to ... I'm always interested in learning. I remember one time I went to PALS organization [which is] Perimeter Adult Learning Services. One of the talks which was announced was \"Liberating a Concentration Camp\" by Dr. Mort Waitzman, introduced by Aviva Weitzman, who's a docent here. When he started talking about coming to the River Basel and I was listening ... I just chose that particular talk because I thought it was of such interest to me. When he said that he was in the battalion that went in the first wave of GIs, which were coming in the German country, when he says, \"We were approaching the River Basel,\" I was standing. I jumped up automatically, [raising] my hand, \"Really? Was it the beginning of April?\" He said, \"Yes.\" So, I immediately blurted it out, \"Thank you for liberating me.\" He was in the first wave. I was liberated by the 2nd Armored Division tanks. That's what this [lapel pin] is and this [lapel pin] is the one that Mort Weitzman gave, so I am an honorary member of the 9th US Army.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=3640.0,3752.18177"}]},{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/annotation_set/1890","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Annotations [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476/annotation_set/1890/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cp\u003eThe Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Europe during World War II. German authorities established it in November 1940. The Jews of Warsaw and the surrounding areas were shoved into a small space in a poorer part of the city, which was then surrounded by a wall. The ghetto population at its peak was about 400,000 Jews. The conditions in the ghetto were harsh. There was not enough food, coal in the winter, shelter, or basic necessities. Starvation and illness from the over-crowded, deplorable conditions inside the Warsaw ghetto killed many.\u003c/p\u003e","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://thebreman.aviaryplatform.com/collections/994/collection_resources/148185/file/272476#t=55.0,2760.0"}]}]}]}