Korniaktow/Budy Lancuckie - July 22, 2010

sign on deserted synagogue - Poland

letter written by my father to Julian Wojtyna

envelope posted on 8 July, 1979 from my father to J. Wojtyna

Maggie and Michael with J. Wojtyna family (Julian Wojtyna-3rd from right)
Korniaktow, Poland

barn where my father hid from Nazis - home of Mach Family

Maggie and Michael with Mach Family - Budy Lancuckie, Poland

Budy Lancuckie, Poland - village where my father was born

farmland near Korniaktow, Poland

Korniaktow, Poland - my father's childhood home

schoolhouse in Budy Lancuckie that my father attended

signs in km from Rzeszow traveling east

Our tour of Poland with the USHMM has ended. It was a life-altering experience to visit first-hand the areas where the horrors of the Holocaust took place. In addition, for me it was a personal experience. As a daughter of two Holocaust survivors, it was especially meaningful and at the same time eerie to step on land that had been the scene of so much tragedy and death.
With a tour guide/translator/driver, I set out to visit the small villages where my father was born and where he had spent his youth. It took several hours by car, driving through Rzeszow, to begin to see the farmland and scattered homes along a two-lane road. Passing signs with familiar sounding names (my father had spoken to me of working and living in different towns in Poland), I knew that I was getting close to my destination. After seeing the signs indicating that we had entered "Budy Lancuckie", I began to feel my father's presence. My guide/driver pointed out an old, deserted two story building that he knew had been a schoolhouse in years gone by. Maybe my father had been a student in this building. The sun was shining brightly as we entered the town of Korniaktow. This was the village where my father spent his youth. He often told stories of how he helped his mother in the garden and how he often went into the big city with his father to barter grains and farm animals for other goods.
After asking local villagers about two families that I knew had been neighbors of my father, they directed us to their homes. You can imagine the amazement of both families as they opened their doors to the daughter of someone who had once lived close by. The guide was able to translate Polish-English and it was quite miraculous to be able to stand in the homes of families knowing that my father had stood there some sixty years before.
The first home that we visited was that of the Mach family. The elder Tadeusz Mach was no longer alive, but his daughter and grandchildren greeted us. They showed us the barn where the elder Mr. Mach hid my father during the years of the Holocaust. I could barely hold back my tears.
The second home that we went to was that of the Wojtyna family. Miraculously, the elder gentleman, Julian Wojtyna, was still alive at 96 years old! His Polish commentary which I have recorded and plan to send to Yad Vashem, was his recounting of the days during WWII when he aided my father and other Jews who were trying to escape from the Nazis. His family made us feel extremely welcome. To my amazement, Mr. Wojtyna's daughter went to the kitchen drawer and opened it to reveal that she had saved letters from my father after the war. For some reason, she felt the need to hold on to them and save them. I held back my tears as I recognized my father's handwriting. This was truly a dream come true for me -- to be able to stand in the home of a Christian family who had the courage and humanity to save my father from his death.
I am deeply indebted to both of these families and will remember them in my heart forever.