“The Mazury” was a settlement of Polish farms where we sometimes scavenged food during our time in hiding. There was a family there, whom I will call the Wojciks, who had been customers of my mother for the fine men’s shirts that she made. When my father and I later had to abandon our home, he left a bundle of our family valuables with Mrs. Wojcik for safekeeping. 

Even though Tateh trusted her, I didn’t like the woman or, especially, her teen-aged daughter Simonia, who was unpleasant to me on several occasions. The two Wojcik women provided us with occasional help, but always grudgingly and out of obligation, not with true compassion or human kindness. At least that is the way it felt to me at the time.