Rivka Krol (F / Poland, 1929), Holocaust survivor

Rivka Krol (F / Poland, 1929), Holocaust survivor

Testimony

I was born in 1929 in Lublin. My name was Ronnie (Roni), but in Sciesopoli in Selvino it was decided that my name was Rebecca (Rivka). At the beginning of the war, my father realized the grave danger that was approaching and asked a Polish landowner, with whom he had business relations, to take me and my brother. My brother was hospitalized, but as a Jew he was sent to the ghetto. At that point my caretaker realized his life was in danger and asked me to leave and to wander around the villages. And so I did. Everywhere I said I was an orphan. People felt sorry for me and allowed me to stop for a few days to several months. When the war ended I was in a place called Horbiiso (Hrubieszow). An elderly couple came to visit their nephew. So I stayed in the house of a midwife, because there was no room for me from my nephew. On the way I met two Russian soldiers who spoke Yiddish and helped me leave that place and go to a Jewish family. Then I was greeted by a Jewish woman who had opened an orphanage and moved to Lower Silesia (Western Poland). I met a guy who suggested I go with him to Israel. We traveled from Poland to the Czech Republic to Austria, where we crossed the Alps on foot. We took the train to Italy and tried to cross the border to Tarvisio, but the Jews were not allowed to move to Italy. Then I hid in the bushes and in the evening I slipped into a carriage. The train left, but I didn’t know where it would go. At one point I heard about it in a language that seemed Spanish outside the train car and I realized I was in Italy. In Udine a soldier took me to Padua.

Then some soldiers of the Jewish Brigade took me to Milan and other soldiers rushed me to Selvino to the house of Sciesopoli, which had once been a colony of young fascists, and which after the war the Italians had destined to house Jewish orphans. I was welcomed by Moses Zeiri [the director of the colony of Sciesopoli] who ran the place together with Noga [Cohen] and Matilde [Cassin]. A group of children was transferred to Magenta. One night we were transported to the port of Vado Ligure to be embarked on the Enzo Sereni ship. So we arrived in Haifa and then in Atlit, in the English detention camp. Finally, we went to the Ayanot agricultural school.