Objects

In her letters to family and friends after the war, Natalia Zajczyk wrote little about her life in the Warsaw ghetto. We learn more from a short account she gave just after the war. Before the outbreak of the Second World War Natalia was a teacher, in the account recorded by E. Markowa she said: "In 1939 until November I worked at the public school No. 104. In 1940 - already after the ghetto was closed Mira Szolcowa, the supervisor of the public school in Leszno, asked me to run the school garden. I taught first, second and third grade children in the school premises in Leszno 31 (teaching was secret). The children played outdoors - they did gymnastics, and then lessons with the children were held systematically in the school premises. Mrs. Szolcowa herself kept guard, kept watch. Parents had to pay a high fee. Textbooks were pre-war. School supplies were obtained from the ghetto shops. The school assemblies were conducted by a teacher, while small children were looked after by a girl with no qualifications.

The teacher received 2 zloty per day of work - for 5 hours (a very low fee, for 2 zloty ½ litre of milk). The school existed until the first action [i.e. 22 July 1942 - R.P.]. There were quite a few such complete schools in the ghetto - only the wealthier parents gave their children to such completes" (Archiwum ŻIH, Relacje. Zeznania ocalałych Żydów (The Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute. Relations. Testimonies of Surviving Jews)), ref. 301/5562).

Renata Piątkowska