Krystyna Carmi (F / Poland, 1932)

Krystyna Carmi (F / Poland, 1932), Holocaust survivor

NOTES : Krystyna was born in Obertyn, Poland in 1932 Her father was a photographer by profession. Initially, she attended a Ukrainian school in Obertyn. Further education was interrupted by the war, when the town was under the management of the Ukrainian and German Nazis and Krystyna, as a 9 year old girl, was exiled with her family and all other Jews from Obertyn to the ghetto in Kolomyja. The life conditions in which Obertyn Jews had to live are described in the poem Molasa - Ghetto Sweets; she shows in a detailed way, the psychological and physical suffering caused by hunger. "The open mouth and eyes of these human corpses have been hunting me all my life..." Then she escaped from the ghetto with her parents. Her sisters were murdered and her parents executed. After the loss of her entire family she was adopted in 1944 by the family Gaczy skich who took care of her further education. In March 1945, when the Ukrainian Bandera increased persecution of Poles, including Kolomyja, Gaczynski family agreed to return to their homes in Brzesko. Krystyna moved to Jordanow home for orphans, called "Our House", where she attended High School, which ends in 1951. Since 1958 Krystyna lives in Israel. Her contact with the Polish book memoirs that soothe the longing for the homeland - indeed, as she says has two Homeland - Poland and Israel. She is married with 2 children and 5 grandchildren. Her poems were published in local journals in Poland: "Echo Jordanowa"; (Bible Society of Friends of the Earth Jordanów), March - April 1996 years No. 20; Religion poem, School newspaper, "What's the matter," Pulawy No. 2/98 (6) Charming rows like a dream, Ash Wednesday in the Holy Land and the memories of school days in high school school in Jordanow. (P. 27 - 32 of that magazine) "Source&" Weekly Catholic Families, Kraków, Bielsko - Biala, Rzeszow, Sosnowiec, No. 30 (239) July 28, 1996, contains a poem Meeting in the Garden.

MEMOIRS : A young girl’s survival story against all odds in the face of pure evil ... Krystyna's childhood was full of happy moments, it was filled with friends, both Polish and Ukrainian and a lovely family. But her happy childhood did not last long; World War II changed it forever ... Krystyna’s family, together with the Jewish community of her small village, was forced to live in the Kołomyja ghetto, where people died of hunger and physical exhaustion ... And yet the worst was about to come… Her parents and two older sisters were brutally murdered, and young Krystyna was left all by herself. Now, with no one to look after her, she had to survive on her own. She faced unimaginable hunger, thirst and fear. Yet, against all odds, she managed to survive. Providence has chosen for her to live ... The book contains a unique collection of more than 100 photos, taken by Krystyna’s father, a professional photographer, who sent them to his family in Israel before the war. Krystyna’s powerful memoir will leave you breathless and heartbroken, but full of inspiration and hope.