Inna Renert (Inna Rechavi)

MAIL: mailto:talyly777@hotmail.com%20;maayanrozen@walla.com

Survivor: Code: RelatioNet IN RE 34 KR PO
Family Name:Rechavi
Previous Family Name:Renert

First Name: Inna

Father Name:Adolfe Roman (Romek)
Mother Name:Tzila
Date of birth: 7.9.1934 

Country ofbirth: Poland

City of Birth: Krakow

The Interview with Inna- her life story:

When I was a little girl I came across Polish anti Semitism. For example in cinemas they would say "I will not sit next to kikes!" Sometimes there were even physical incidents.

At home, we maintained the Jewish tradition but as seculars, we celebrated public holidays and Shabat.

Most of the time, we were just mother father and I. My parents belonged to a wealthy family, and immigrated from Vienna only 5 years before the war. My father was a communist, a very idealistic man. Sometimes my father went to places from his work, he tried to get land for building factories in France and then I stayed  with my mother at home.We  met friends and sometimes enjoyed visiting the family. I remember those years as relatively good years, most of the time we lived peacefully.

During the war:

My childhood memories from the beginning of the war are sometimes clouded, but little by little the tragic events come forward- I remember everything until today.

When World War 2 began, I was 4 years old. In the summer of 39, my grandfather came from the U.S.A to visit us, in Poland.

On February the first, Germany invaded Poland. We ran away from Krakow to Lvov, to the eastern side that was controlled by the Russians. Along the roads were cars and horses carts. From time to time there were German air raids. In every bombing, we stopped our car and took cover under a tree. Once, I forgot my teddy bear named Misho, (which I have never left), in the car. I began to cry, my mother ran to the car under falling bombs. She brought my Misho back. That episode foreshadows my mother's unbelievable strength through the war. She has never lost her head in dangerous situations. We arrived to Lvov and found my parents' friends who gave us refuge in their apartment. On February the 7, my fourth birthday, they made a mashed potatoe`` cake for me, because the conditions were difficult. I blew out my candles, and when I discovered what was inside, I began to cry in disappointment.

My mother found some work in factories and my father worked as a railway engineer. During their absence, I played with Yola, the daughter of our refuge family, the other family that was hiding with us- the Daknys. I remember Yola very well; she was one year older than I, and a very beautiful and kind girl. I loved and admired her very much. When the Germans came into that part of Poland, she was hiding in another house, and in spite of her scattering money, they extradited her to the Gestapo.

In June 1940, when the Russians occupied eastern Poland, everybody knew that the Russians sent the immigrants to Siberia. At 3 or 4 a.m. we heard knocks on the door. My father opened the door and showed his communist card. The officer tore it apart. I was there at that moment, and this frightened me very much. The officers took us to a huge train station, where there were rows of cattle cars. They put us on the cars. The quarter that was allotted to Jews, quickly filled with people. Suddenly, we heard the sound of our friend calling us, he brought us our luggage. My father was sick at that time; but he decided that we could escape. He told us to wear our nicest clothes, and then when the guards weren't looking, we jumped off the train. To get out of the huge station, we had to pass under a number of parking standing cars. I was very scared that the train would start moving. Finally, we managed to escape from the station, but we couldn’t come back to our friends' house, so we had to depart. My father went to a different hiding place than my mother and I.  In June 1941, the Nazis overran Lvov. Until then, we were in a shelter and my grandfather came to visit us. When the Germans came, they established a ghetto and the Jews were persecuted by them. My grandfather sought refuge outside the ghetto, but the Nazis seized him and killed him, despite my mother's attempts to release him. At this point, we reunited with my father, and we found an apartment in the ghetto. One day, my father found a bag of diamonds that my grandfather hid in a soup. The ghetto was vacant of people; we took the advantage of the situation, to escape. I was sent alone to a family of our friend Helenka. Her husband was Jewish and she was Polish. Before I went, my mother made a collar in my dress for a diamond from the bag that my grandfather had left. My mother told me to take the dress off, and if the diamonds disappeared, I needed to speak with Helenka. One day, the diamond disappeared, I told that to Helenka, she told the family I was staying with, that if by morning the diamond wasn't   in an envelope, she would commit suicide. I got my diamond back.

After that, I reunited with my parents. We moved to the ghetto of Bochnia. When the akzia began, we ran to a hiding place in the village. After a while, my parents decided to go to Warsaw and get false papers. I stayed in a convent. After receiving the papers my mother and I hid in a Polish family house that took us despite the danger. In the house there was another family that had no idea that we were Jews.

In April 1943, the Warsaw ghetto revolution started. Suddenly I saw the sky becoming red, and the other family's mother told me to look at those Zyds burning there. Right after that I ran to my room and started to cry.

One day, two men came to my mother and told her they knew that we were Jews and they demanded a lot of money to keep the secret. My mother started to raise funds, while I was taken as a hostage. Until my mother came back they tried to get information from me for exchange of food.

We moved into the house of Mina and Krishia. There, I learned to read and write and sometimes I wrote letters to my Father.

In 1943 we celebrated Christmas with friends (although we were Jews). This was our last holiday meal with my Dad. Later, that same night, when my mother and I returned to Mina and Krisha’s home, I saw a present for me under the Christmas tree. The present was many dresses for my doll.

One day I heard my mom shouting, and I knew immediately that my father was caught by the Natzis.

My mother tried to release him, but without successe. In February, he was murdered with all the Jews that were caught.

In 1944 the Poles rebelled against the Russians. This time I was with Nina and mom stayed with one of her friends on the other side of Warsaw.

After two weeks, my mother took a white fabric and crossed through Warsaw, waving it in surrender. When she got home, she was pale and I panicked with worry.

In October (1944), the Nazis conquered Warsaw and expelled all the Jews and Poles who were there.
We went through a selection, we both were sent to Auschwitz. We were taken on cattle wagons. We knew that we were going to be murdered, but suddenly the train stopped and began to go back (later we realized that at this time Auschwitz was full).

The Nazi soldiers told us to get off the train in the middle of nowhere, and then some Germans took us back to Krakow. There the “Red Cross” helped us recover and we found an apartment. At the end of the war, Russian soldiers came to tell us when the Germans were defeated. We were back to our placement and met Yola’s parents who told us that she was murdered by the natzis.

A few years later we, moved to France.

After the war:

After the war, I returned with my mother to the house we had lived before the war. We lived there a while, but I made a decision that I couldn’t keep living there. I told my mother that I would leave to France with her or without her. Then, we moved to France, where I grew up.

In France I met my first future husband Jean Dellus, and we got married. We brought to the world 2 adorable children. However I got divoreced after a few years. But now we have a better connection.

When my oldest son Francoise was 15 years old, we immigrated to Israel without my mother, where I remarried to Gedeon Rechavi.

Krakow

Krakow is the second big city in Poland. The location of the city is on the Vistula river. In the beginning, it was the capital of Poland.

The first evidence of Krakow is from the Stone age. The legend ascribes Krakow to a myth ruler named Krakus. The first registering of the city is from 966, when Krakow is described as a commercial center owned by a duke.

1918-1939- pre world war 2:

With the arrival of the second Poland Republic, the city became a very big and important cultural and academic center; in the city there were a lot of universities and schools. It also became a cultural and spiritual center for Jews.

During World War 2:

Krakow was occupied by the Nazis on 09/06/1939. Although the capital city of Poland is Warsaw, the Nazis decided that the general government would be in Krakow. The Judenrat was built on 10.09.1939, orders and special instructions were imposed on Jews which differentiated them from the rest of society. On 10.26.1939 instructions were given by the Nazis that every Jew at the age of 12 to 60 would be charged to work at hard labor. Gradually, anti-Semitic decrees began to appear so that Jews would suffer.

In March 1940 Hans Frank decided that the city must be cleansed of Jews, 80 000 in number. The Nazis announced that Jews had to leave. Those who left then to the suburbs or to the Russian side of Poland were allowed to take their property with them. But all the rest were taken by force while they were allowed to take only some of their property. However, Jews who were necessary for the war were left in Krakow. This led to the establishment of the ghetto in the outskirts of town.

From 30.05.1942 until March 1943, the elimination of the ghetto, many Jews were sent to death camps in the area. On 13-14.3.1943, 8,000 Jews were sent to labor camps. The Jews left behind were murdered in the streets of the ghetto.

After the war:

After World War II nearly 4,000 death camp survivors and ghettos settled in Krakow. In 1946, thousands of Jews who had escaped to the Soviet Union returned to Krakow.

After the war, there were about 10,000 Jews in Krakow and Jewish institutions were established in the city. After vast immigration to Israel in 1947-1951, only a few tens of Jews stayed in Krakow.

Before the war:

Inna was born on 7/9/1943 in Krakow, Poland.

She was very young at the beginning of the war, only four years old. She remembers little of what had happened to her before the war.