Brandla Zalowicz

Bronia/Bracha  Nisenbaum Zalowicz  was born in Ostrowiec, Poland daughter of   Szprinza Krieger-Nisenbaum and Moshe Nisenbaum. Her siblings were: Regina and  Nesia and brother Raphael.

During the liquidation of the Ostrowiec Ghetto on Oct 11, 1942, her parents decided not to join the forced gathering of the Jews at the market square, and instead went into hiding in the town. Shortly thereafter, they were all caught; her father was shot dead on the spot.

In July 1944, Bronia was deported to Auschwitz with part of her family. She was liberated in April 1945.

Miraculously, her mother and siblings all survived Auschwitz and were also liberated in 1945.

After the war, her mother decided it would be best for her daughters to learn and be among teenage friends.  They lived in Bielsko at the Dom Dziecka school and orphanage.  She lived there from 1945-1950.

In 1950,  her mother and sisters left for Israel and later moved to Toronto, Canada .

Partial Memoir of a 13 year old at time of Nazi invasion to Ostrowiec

I was lying in bed, and could hear every word my parents talked. My bed was closest to the kitchen; they spoke quietly.  I heard and I got scared.  I tightened my blanket closer to my body… tightened my eyelids as I did many time later in life in time of stress.

It was 1940.  The Germans started with their decrees against the Jews.  My parents discussed what will happen if they separate us from them.  We were four children.  What could they do to give us a chance to buy bread.  They came up with an idea to give us jewelry.  Since my  father was a watchmaker and a jeweler, there was enough jewelry to give to each child.  They decided that chains could be easily sewn in things, earrings were made as buttons and sewn on.  I could not understand how rings could be made buttons, and I couldn’t understand that Germans were bad.  I remember that they came on bicycles, put them along the well of our backyard, came to the well and washed their faces, laughed and splashed water.  They were very friendly.  I didn’t like those that they marched with those boots that had nails.  And I did not like when they put posters with new laws that made my mother cry at night….