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Jeffrey Wolin
Irma Morgensztern, born 1933, Warsaw, Poland
[Written In Memory: Portraits of the Holocaust]
1992-1994
Gelatin silver print
Provided by the artist - Jeffrey Wolin
LL/96439
Irma Morgensztern, born 1933, Warsaw, Poland
"When I escaped the Warsaw ghetto, the night I was escaping, I was going through the wires and there was a lot of glass on top of the wall. The Germans were shooting to me, but I escaped. I was running fast and I ran to one tall building and in that building Mr. Pietruszka took me to his house. He was waiting for me there. It was set up by my
parents…
When they took me out from Warsaw I had different papers. Pietruszka gave me papers that I am Barbara Nosarzewska. He got the papers from the church after a girl that was dead, but close to my age. So when I jump out from the Warsaw wall he had the papers with him. So immediately I became Barbara Nosarzewska... So while I was sitting with the cows in the pasture I was thinking to myself, 'That's me or not me?' Because here I have to remember if I survive I am Irma Morgansztern but I'm not allowed to say it now. I was a kid and this was sitting in my head…
It was terribly tragic the night before I left the Warsaw ghetto when my parents knew I'm going to be gone the next night. So we were sitting and talking and they were trying to put in my head who I am, that I'm from Warsaw and my name is Barbara Nosarzewska; I never should forget. My mother taught me all the Polish catechism that you go to the first communion. Every night before I left the ghetto she was examining me from all the prayers, if I know all the prayers, so in case the German caught me and asked me, 'Well what do you do on Monday night? Do you go to church and what do you do?' I will know what to say. And on the other hand they were trying to put into the other side of my brain that after the war I am Jewish and my name is Irma Morgensztern.
The night before I left they were telling me to remember those things. They were sitting and mom was cutting my finger nails; my father was cutting my toe nails. We were crying all night. They were telling me only that I can tell my name after the war, not before, to nobody."
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