The Testimony of Tzipora (Feigel) Ceplinski, of the Koninsky Family

I was born in the City of Lodz.
I was not part of any youth movement and had devoted all my time to studies. I graduated the School for Nurses. In October 1939, a few days following the outbreak of the War, the Germans had invaded Lodz. There were many Poles of German origins in Lodz, and they helped the Germans, so there was no resistance to counter the Germans' entry into the City, and they were even welcomed with bouquets of flowers. A week later, the Germans began their persecution of the Jews. Every Jew had to wear a yellow ribbon on his left arm and on the left side of the chest – a yellow Star of David, the "Yellow Patch". This state of affairs continued until May 1940, at which time we were exiled from the City to a Ghetto, which encompassed 5 streets. We were shut-down in the Ghetto, approx 80,000 Jews, and we're bounded by an electric barbwire fence. There was no possibility of entering or leaving the Ghetto.
We lived 3 families on an area of approx 20 sq/m; two families in two rooms and the third family in the kitchen. At the time I was only with my sister. We would get bread once a week and meat once a month. The meat was horse-meat from the horses that died in or en route to the front. There were many ill people and about 80 people died each day. There was a Jewish Committee in the Ghetto, which was headed by Haim Rumkowsky. They would receive the food and distribute it. They had organized a Jewish police. There were two hospitals in the Ghetto and I worked in one of them. 
In order to reach the hospital, I had to cross two streets, which were connected by a bridge. The Germans built the bridge with the primary purpose of watching over the passerby's and abusing them. A וורמאכט was posted at the end of the bridge, who would beat anyone he did not like. I left at 7 AM and returned at 7 PM, and I did my utmost to avoid the beatings. I would mostly succeed in this, and I was hit only once.
One morning I arrived to the hospital and found no patients. I was told that the previous night the Germans came and took all the sick people (at the time we did not know where they were taken to). The head nurse sent me to treat the patients in their homes. In most cases, whoever was sick did not stay alive for long, due to the shortage of food and almost total absence of any medicines. Luckily, I was not inclined to illnesses, and I was also healthy in my childhood, and thus I did not become ill in the Ghetto. Then again, I suffered from the terrible cold, which at times would reach minus 35 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile many people were sent outside of town from the Ghetto. When we closed the door at night, we never new if we would be lucky enough to open it in the morning. People had built "hotels" – hiding places for times of emergency, and they would hide in them when the Germans came to search. The Germans had at some stage discovered this trick and they would set fire to the houses in order to drive out those hiding. We realized that our fate had been sealed and was impossible to alter. As we were closed down and locked in the Ghetto, and it was prohibited to possess or listen to a radio, we were completely shut out from the outside world. We did not know anything about what's going on beyond the barbwire fences, and we felt totally detached from the world. Consequently, an underground resistance had formed in the Ghetto, whose primary purpose was to collect information about what's going on beyond the fences, in the different fronts.
As this was strictly forbidden by the Germans and had entailed tremendous risk, the information was only rendered to a few reliable individuals. My cousin, who was a pharmacist, was an active member of the resistance and therefore had the "privilege" of receiving news from another member of the resistance who had a radio receiver. This person was once 'ratted on' and, as punishment, the Germans hung him in the middle of the Ghetto and, needless to say, the radio was confiscated.
One night the Head of the Ghetto sent an order to bring out all the babies and young children for dispatch. This task required a doctor, a policeman and a nurse – all of which were Jews. I was chosen to be the nurse, and so we went from one house to another, and had loaded the babies in the house onto trucks. We came to a certain house and when we told the couple what we had come for they began crying and told us that they have waited 13 years for a child, who was born after so many years of expectation. I had refused to take the baby, and both the doctor and policeman also refused. Though ultimately an officer came and put the infant in my arms by force, and as I didn’t want to throw him, I carried him with me outside. Before I left the house I signaled to the parents to go outside and take the baby, and so I placed the toddler at the entrance to the house. At that moment I began panicking, running and shouting in the streets in the middle of the night. I shouted out that the Head of the Ghetto will do it himself, and that I don’t care if they kill me for not complying with orders, as life was in any case meaningless. I fled and reached my home, and my cousin calmed me down until I fell-off to sleep. Before shutting my eyes I told her that if they come to take me, I would rather they kill me.
After this ordeal, I began working with my cousin in the pharmacy. One day I arrived to the pharmacy and found nobody there. I later discovered that all the doctors and pharmacists had been taken to the train. I felt that there was no point to my life anymore without my cousin, and thus I ran to the train station and asked a German soldier to let me inside, where I found my cousin. The wagon was sealed, without any water, food or air. There was a rumor that we were being taken to Auschwitz, but we could not believe it.
We arrived to Auschwitz in August 1944. On arrival, we were immediately ordered to undress. We were given "dresses" (rags) and every single hair on our heads was shaven. The German's cruelty was so extreme and calculated, to the degree where they made sure to give short dresses to tall women and long dresses to short women. As my cousin and I had different measurements, we switched over the "dresses" we got.
Our arrival to the camp began with a selection. I was together with four female pharmacists, and the four were directed to the right hand side, while I was directed to the left. At first we did not realize what this was about, though later I heard that the right side led directly to the gas chambers, and the left side led to labor.
We lived in a stable, and the food included only a portion of soup and a slice of bread per day. The predicament was so terrible, that I decided I want to die and did not eat for eight days. It didn’t work, and after eight days I broke the fast. I would run every night to the showers, which were fifty meters from my hut. It was the beginning of winter, and this was obviously very perilous, though I did not care. It actually empowered me and maybe even saved me in the long run. I once saw on the other side a man I had known in the Ghetto, who told me to wait a minute and came back with soap and a towel. This was an extremely joyous event, considering the overall conditions. Though one night, when I put my soap and towel down for a minute, I could not find them when I returned. On occasion I would, among others, sweep the yard, which was considered a very good job, as one was able to breathe fresh air.
One morning at around 3 AM, we were lined up in order to select women for work. I stood beside my friend and I was selected. I told the woman in charge that I will not go on my own, and she agreed that my friend would join me. The work was in a farm, and consisted of collecting potatoes, which was an extremely hard job, as we were forced to do it quickly. In the farm we also lived in a stable, though here it was together with the horses. This is where I contracted dysentery. The farmer's wife did not give us enough food, and when she had heard that I was sick, she picked me up, hit me on the neck with a chain of keys, and later poured a bucket of water on me. I told her that she can do what ever she wants to me, and then she let me be.
I laid sick for two or three days until I got better and returned to work. There where two young Hungarian girls working with us, who under the cover of dark would sneak out and pinch tomatoes. We managed to survive in this way until the work was complete and we were taken to another farmer, who treated us better. The work in this farm consisted of riding wagons with chemical fertilizer, which we had to scatter on the fields. This farmer also employed men from France, prisoners of war, who received packages from France, and they secretly gave us various clothes, such as gloves, sweaters and the likes. After completing the work in this farm, we were taken back to Auschwitz.
In March 1945, two months before the end of the War, the Germans began marching us away from Auschwitz towards Germany, in order to escape the Russians who were gradually approaching. We were handed wooden shoes, with which we walked through the snow. I was fortunate to have a pair of shoes that where my exact shoe-size; others were not as fortunate, and whoever got stuck in the snow was shot and died. We would spend the nights in stables, and continued marching in the mornings. There was a lineup each morning, in order to ensure that no woman was missing. I once asked a soldier that was guarding us to go out of the stable; his reply was a punch in my face, in the area of the eyes, and as a result I suffer from eye problems to this very day. We spent a few days in one stable. One morning a delegation of the Red Cross had arrived, and a doctor entered and asked whether there were doctors and nurses among us. There were two doctors, and I was chosen from the nurses. We were then relocated to a different stable. Each time we arrived to a stable the farmer would shout at us: "you bunch of lice", "your scum". In the stable where I had stayed, the farmer initially refused to give us food, and gave us only water. Though, given time, we were provided cream and I would go every day to my friend, who contracted typhoid, and gave her some food. By doing so, I saved her.
One day our guardsman approached us and told us that we must begin marching at 4 in the afternoon. The other officers would kill the Jews who were found in their stables, though this German was good hearted and even agreed to delay the march to 3 AM. The following day, before the walk began, we had heard a gunshot. We peeked through the whole in the stable wall and saw a private car, from which two tall officers came out and said "hello" in Russian.
Only an hour later the stable doors had opened and the officers were shocked to see us. One of us knew Russian and told the officers who we where. After hearing our story, the Russians relocated us to the house of the Germans and we had turned from slaves to employers.

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Tzipora (Feigel) Ceplinski - Koninsky with daughter - Rachel & grandaughter Alona

I asked the Russian officer to take me to my friend. He did so and brought her back to the farm I was in. He later executed the couple to whom the farm belonged, before our very eyes. We then raided the food storages in the house and took everything we found. I knew how to eat, though I eat very little. Others eat fast and great amounts of food, and had become ill and died as a result. There was a tall Jewish officer among the Russian officers, who had promised to help us in anything he can. He ordered for sauerkraut to be brought to us especially, which has plenty of vitamins in it, as well as doctors. We lay for a whole month, until we had recuperated and were back on our feet. My friend was ill with anemia (and still is), and despite the efforts of the Russian physicians, she did not recover. Later, the Russians had established a hospital in that place. I had worked in the hospital until May 1945, when I became strong again.
I returned to Lodz; the journey was easy as the Russians had taken me, and so I was able to take plenty of provisions for the journey. When I arrived to Lodz, I was amazed to find that, despite the fact that the War was over, anti-Semitism was still alive.
I lived in the Ghetto with Jews that were not exiled, and this is where I met my first husband. We were wed there in 1946 and bore our first son, Yakov. We decided to immigrate to Israel and, indeed, in 1950 we made aliyah.