"Who Do I Belong To?": The Story of Janina Ecker
Вставка
- Опубліковано 15 бер 2023
- Janina (Halina) Ecker was born in Krakow in 1932 to Dawid and Sara Layman. She had two older brothers, Ryszard and Olek. With the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, Dawid and Ryszard escaped to Lviv, where they were apprehended by the Soviets and sent to Siberia. Janina remained in Krakow with her mother and her brother Olek. They were subjected to the harsh anti-Jewish policies of the Nazi regime. After being expelled from the city, they, together with other Jews from the district, taken to the near-by village of Gdow and from there to the town of Wieliczka. During the action in the town, her mother managed to send an urgent telegram to Polish acquaintances in Krakow, Józefa and Tadeusz Latawiec, who arrived at the place and took Janina under their care. Worrying they would be denounced, the couple moved Janina to a convent in the village of Staniątki, where she remained until the end of the war. After the war, Janina lived with the Latawiecs. Eventually, her parents and her brother Ryszard also returned to the city. In 1949 they immigrated to Israel. Janina married and worked for many years in a senior position at El Al. She has three daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She lives in Givatayim.
My mother was a Polish American Catholic. Her family came here before and by 1862. She taught me that Jesus was Jewish. She had great love for the Jews. As no one else from our town would head up the fund raising for the Jewish Hospital she did. She always bought groceries to a poor Jewish lady. She visited the Jewish nursing home even though she knew no one there.
You mother was a lovely woman and a great example for you to emulate.
You and your family should be blessed for eternity. Always remember your family is exemplary
Yes! I remind people also that Jesus was Jewish , his parents, and the 12 , and Saint Paul who was Saul . We. Are grafted in and should remember our roots are in Judaism . ❤
There are good people in the world. This is the story of some of them. Toda raba.
Many thanks and total respect to Yad Vashem for all their work and particularly for the many personal stories. Born in 1950, my U.S. history education was limited at least and slanted at the worst. These stories fill in so many gaps, answer so many questions and leave me with a profound love for each person represented. I wish that humans of all countries and religions could watch these and be committed to never letting the horrors of WWII be repeated.
The Polish people who helped her, and others, were incredibly brave as, in occupied Poland, anyone who helped a Jew was given a mandatory death sentence. Not only them but also the whole family, even the babies. Yet thousands were saved and thousands executed.
So good! I wish it was longer though. I'd especially like to hear what her father and brother endured in Siberia, and her life in Israel.
They didn’t survive?
Thanks for the videos you post I love learning about history and because my grandfather and all 10 of his brothers were in the war and they all survived it at the end returned home ❤
This is the most poignant story I have heard. Janina/Halina was so honest, so conflicted and so fair to the people who did not want to save her but grew to love her and consider her their child. There are good people in our world who far outnumber those who are bad. I listen to these stories to remind me of what can happen in our world if evil is allowed to grow unchecked. This story is different, and I shan't forget this lovely woman.
Precious story of survival. Thank you so much♡You are so precious♡
Very bitter sweet story. Life can be sad and joyous at the same time. I am happy her family survived except for the poor bother. It’s sad what happened to him and all the other poor children and people that perished during those times. Thank you for sharing your story. Blessings
What a heart breaking, but great life in the end. As a child, to not only understand what was happening, but to have to figure it out! I'm happy she reunited with the mother who saved her. What a great testimony.
She was lucky to have such a strong mother, that actually survived and took her daughter back forcibly. Many Poles didn't want to return the kids to surviving parents. Can you imagine being one of the few surviving parents returning to get your kid and Christians refused to return the kid?!?!
@@Lagolop UTTER TOSH!!!!!
@@LagolopThis was very rare but not surprising. After nurturing a small child in wartime with a constant danger of death to , not only you but the whole family, there must have been love and a reluctance to part when the time came. Nothing to do with religion.
@@heniakonas9439 In her own words they treated her like crap for a long time.
@@Lagolop Saved her life though, in wartime, with all the food shortages and mortal danger to themselves and their family. Brave, brave couple.
Another beautiful yet sad story. God Bless her Polish parents for taking her in & caring for her. Love knows no boundaries.
What a heart touching story. Most of these stories in this series are marvelous and yet take the viewers into bygone times of 1940s to 1945.
Thank you for sharing your life of survival during very difficult times. I am not Jewish and live in Australia and so hearing your story and heart ache helps me understand the horror of war ,was especially for small children. Thank you
Beautiful story. a miracle also her mother, father and one brother survived though sad one perished at Auschwitz.
Wow, this is an amazing story. Thank you for sharing Janina.
Beautiful lady and story of love and gratitude to her Polish parents it was so touching when she said she felt happy when she became a Christian with the other Jewish girls and felt safe. So wonderful
It was not touching. It was disgusting that those bastards made her feel so bad about being who she was. That God her parents took her to Israel!
@@Lagolop did you see the same video I did? The mother superior told her she was not "a jew", she was "a daughter of the chosen people" the girls asked to be Christian, no one obliged them. And it's Palestine, btw, which the jews and the christians have turned into a hell hole.
@@Lagolopevidently you didn't see the whole interview!!!. she said it herself that she felt wonderful she went and ask herself to the Mother Superior that she wanted to become a Christian. No one forced her it was her decision and of the other 6 Jewish girls....watch the whole video before comment‼️
@@cristinaalvarezarena5202 #1 I watched the entire vid.
#2 She is Jewish, born a Jew ALWAYS a Jew.
#3 She ended up back with her Jewish parents, went to Israel and continued life as a Jew
It was unfortunate for her to be so badly abused as to seek anonymity in Christianity. It never works and never lasted. So Christianity has been kicked to the curb and she is thankfully living as a Jew again.
This sort of thing happened in the filthy spanish inquisition. Most of the conversos were in fact crypto Jews. Pretended to be Jews among the spanish but behind closed doors kept their Jewish identity and practices.
@@hjm5885 She was seeking anonymity by being baptized. But in the end she is a Jew again living in Israel :) If not for the Jewish people, there would not be a shred of Judaeo-Christian evidence in the holy land.
Born a Jew always a Jew. It's not just a matter of religion; there is Jewish ethnicity :) Just as being Scottish is an ethnicity.Cant change that no matter how hard Christians try to do this to our people.
Even the Mormons have stopped baptizing dead Jews. How bizarre was that!?
So wonderful to see the colourised footage! Seeing these children, all, or most, of whom were murdered not long afterwards, in colour rather than black and white, makes them seem even more real somehow.
If it affects someone such as myself, who grew up in a time and place when TV was only in black and white, so powerfully, I think it will make a big difference for young people, and people yet to be born, who have only ever known colour.
My heart goes out to you. You survived for a reason, to tell your story, which you speak of beautifully in the midst of pure evil. As human beings, we must vow to stop anyone from commiting these crimes where ever they occur.
Whew, how poignant. Thanks for all your videos
These films of the survivors should be shown to high school students everywhere. There are too many Holocaust deniers in the world and too few survivors to tell the stories of what happened. It is easy to forget...and in forgetting we run the risk of the same happening again. In fact, in America, the seeds of this horror seem to be taking root again today. It must stop! Prayers to Heaven for this woman and the heroic couple who saved her life.
You're blessed with being loved by both mothers. (and fathers,the polish father running to the train to bless you and say goodbye).
This was one of the saddest and sweetest stories I've read. My heart went out to both mothers and their love for her... one by blood, and one by coincidence and choice. Its just too bad both mothers (sets of parents) couldn't compromise and think about Janins's feelings in all of this, for one whole year they fought over her like an object that couldn't be shared.. that is called Selfish Love. It didn't matter which religion (I understand in these 'First Person' websites and articles its all about saving the Jewish bloodline and religion) But, not at point of how they focused and fought over her. Neither holy man of God would have backed their arguments. There could have been compromise. Divorced couples do it all the time, they are ordered to by law.. its called "Shared Custody." Its really about saving a young girl physically, but in same instance, putting her through Hell emotionally and possibly mentally. Just to get each of their way. It wasn't a lovely story, it was sad and wrong.
How dare you judge them , you have no understanding , you make me sick . Disgusting
Helen H.
You must be living in fantasy land if you think 'shared custody 'works.
That is the equivalent of cutting a child in two.
These 2 women were both heartbroken.
We have no right (from the comfort of 80+years on) to judge any survivors story.
We simply cannot imagine what we would have done!
@@Tali5899 Understood. and in a sense, I agree, it doesn't always work out very well, especially for the children. But my thought was on and about the child. They needed to focus on what was best for the child. If they couldn't decide together to come to agreeable terms, being they had both wanted to keep Janina, then they should have found a non-biased person to help them sort-out their touchy, heartrending situation. (hopefully by a professional), but being the 'times', it was happening in, they couldn't do it that way. My thought was about 'sharing', allowing the child to see, be with, and keeping connection and love open, to both parents. "Sharing" is better than fighting over the child like two dogs over a piece of meat, having this child feel as its all her fault. I myself went through a divorce with this sharing experience. Its not a great way of doing and dealing with matters, concerning matters of their child in the middle of it all, but "compromise", even though hard to deal with, is still best for everyone concerned, including the child. They had no compromise in place. They both felt slighted.. hurt.. used.. left out, etc. So, by the time they were fighting and pulling on Janina mentally and emotionally so.. ending on physically when her mother kidnapping her. They nearly destroyed her. Hencs... the title. Who Di I Belong To?
@@helenh493 Your intentions are noble. They are noble because those intentions are rare. I was a divorce lawyer specifically to focus the issues on the children. Out of 100 ++ divorces, only 1 set that noble goal as primary. Lots of money, so no worry about needs. The desire was that the children not feel a loss or witness antagonism. The father moved close to the family house. The children flowed freely between the families. The husband was an upstanding, committed parent. The wife had living in the house another man. Still, the husband stood true to his values. The parents were Jewish. The man in the house was German. The wife married that man; the children accepted all. This divorce was unique. There was a second; I legally manipulated the system and kept her and her children in the house until her youngest graduated high school. Then, it was about money. The husband was opposed. What you espouse is emotionally fantasy land, rare as black sheep in a flock.
@@rubytuesday4564 Bless you.. and your profession. "You" have a Noble profession, and a hard earned one at that. As for any divorced couple being noble, I don't see it as noble, I see it as a couple realizing some problem can't be fixed and would only get worse. Its not splitting a child into (as one writer wrote), its allowing Everyone to start getting back to (some form) of normal, and being able to breathe again, and for everyone to start healing. It really is better for the children to not hear and see the fighting day after day. It is Never just in the bedroom, quietly arguing away from the childrens ears, this arguing. So, its better in the long run after the big blast (or not) in the courtroom. Tidal waves do level out with time. As for the children feeling Loss, the loss has already been felt, throughout the many battles. The children are usually first to see and understand what is happening and where its going. Children are the first to verbalize.." mom/dad, Get a Divorce"! Loss?? There isn't a loss.. There is (first and most important) Peace. Now after the waves have settled, the children can have "time" separately, peacefully with each parent, and visa versa. Its my and our story, so I know what I'm talking about. Its not about being noble or selfishly thinking "I'm a Free person", its about breaking away from something which was not a healthy way to live and endure anymore. In my case, I did that for a ling while.. endured.. as he did too. That is not a healthy way to live for all concerned. So we quit it. And got healed and lived peacefully separate. My children were always on the alert when dad came home from work, hiding in bedrooms, etc. Afterwards, they also could breathe again, bring friends over to the house, sleep in peace. I talk too much, lol, so I'll stop. But my last words are as for these two couples (probably the mothers more than the dads), they "could" have worked something out, for the girls sake, it was possible to share, they just didn't want to do it. Thats all.
It's not the child's fault..the Jewish mother only gave her up to save her. How could this not be revered
Thank you sharing such an awesome history with us.❤
So much suffering, poor girl/woman. I doubt it’s anything she ever resolved in her heart. So many lives affected but , thank goodness, these people helped to save 1 girl. Blessings and thank you for your very brave testimony. 🙏🙏👵🇦🇺
I belong to me. I was born into a family that didn't like me. Then my marriage was not good 😮 I learned to love who I became.
Thank you for sharing your story 😢❤
War certainly brings out the best and worst in people. Will there be a day when everybody just says there is so much more we can be.
Very brave lady she must have been so confused and lonely at times.
I Soo Agree on both your points. No, unfortunately humans in general, and throughout history it seems, have never learned the right lessons in life. We keep making the same mistakes over & over, and it never changes.. it seems we are the pawns, or the prize.. between good and evil. between God and Satan, if one believes at all anymore. If one doesn't believe, then they and we are in trouble, because then, there is no moral compass, no rhymes or reason of whats bad or good, or of whats right or wrong, we'll go through life blindly. There won't be any way to help keep us humans on the straight and narrow, with what ever God intended us for. But, thats my opinion. I'm just disgusted with humankind, anymore. Just turn on the news and you can see why.
A haunting story, for sure, and one I’ll never forget.
😢 this made me sad. A different kind of sad, we seldom talk about emotional traumas. It’s just so heartbreaking 😢
so touching ...........................
God bless this couple 🙏 who had chose to keep this beautiful women ,, such heroism 🙏
Such a moving and enthralling story.
Por favor, agradecería agregaran subtítulos en español. Gracias.
Non ci sono sottotitoli in lingua italiana. Peccato
It's good to know Jozefa was still alive when her & her husband, Tadeusz were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1985.
Thank You
God bless you "Nina"... and Józefa and Tadeusz Latawiec (a prayer for them, to their act of humanity).
We never forget the righteous among the righteous...
What a sad and same time very beautiful story ! Thank you, and may God bless you, and all Israel !
Courage and resilience of this survivor of The Holocaust is indeed worthy of celebration.
What an amazing story. Thank you for posting this. Who do I belong to? We all belong to G-d because G-d created all there is. It's just our human brains always seem to get in the way.
Heartbreaking this story, as all the other ones are ..... What no one else sees I do see and feel: it's the biological mother of Janina that saved her to have the strenght to 'give her away' (plase save my child). That's a really heroic act; leave your daughter with strangers. Uncertain of circumstances and destiny. A child always belongs to it's biological mother. Mothers are the ones that give birth your father can be anyone....as harsh as it sounds. Never the less: the adoptive parents took huge risks to adopt Janina. They risked their lives by taking her in. There is no such thing as 'ownership' of a child. I can't imagine the heartache that both parents feld. A choice that no one I wish has to make (sorry for my English! I'm a Dutch woman and very direct ... )
Thank you😘
Human soul ..unbelievable..all the stars of universe in ONE SOUL
The parents should have shared custody of her
Janina Ecker's stories made me wonder where a lot of those German soldiers first started learning to mistreat Jewish people like that. While at the same time so many people now old enough to remember what life was like back then now have high blood pressure maybe because of that kind of mistreatment while having to remain looking only ever patient in response. After an elderly Geman man last year a lot older than me a senior citizen too now in a senior citizens meet up shared with me his story about how so many German men living anywhere in Europe doing paid work before the first world war and during the years following the first world war leading up to the second world war too were often the first people to be conscripted into the military to fight in places like for example in South Africa during the Boer war probable only because the majority of young German men were poor and uneducated while travelling elswhere to find work anytime there was harder times. Like during the Great Depression too after most Frenchmen left Germany while young Hitler and his young at the time fellow crook friends who remained in Germany were then gaining power. During which time it was not uncommon for young men of
German descent ending up on both sides of a military conflict then being expected to be shooting at one another to kill. I believe it was like the majority of those who still identified as being Jewish while only some of the time when often having to move from place to place too they were being able to produce any documents in order to prove it. Which is why maybe too a Dutch person whom I met here in Canada who grew up in Holland a few years back too could have showed me a picture of grave markers for several of his relatives which had the star of David on their tombstones back in Holland while his family is now saying they are not Jewish too. So many people from so many different family backgrounds all being told to stay silent too often. Like whenever someone who allegedly given their occupation as a religious leader while they own any property instead of only having a lease as right to worlk and/or to live on that property or whenever someone richer with political campaign money enough to run for public office who has charisma starts again blaming a whole nation or now today half of the globe called the west now for all that is worng with the world. Like for example German rising politicians in the years leading up to the second world war who didn't care at all about how some women their own age and younger too were at the time being trafficked into prostitution so long as it wasn't their own wife who was was leading the double life instead. Like for example any young woman jumping out of what looks a little like a cake or a 'cake' during his bachelors party or sometimes during his on campus engagement party too.
❤
❤❤❤❤ Heartbreaking but Beautiful
WOW ❤
Such a great story
Beautiful but also sad story
💜🙏💜
Noble ,smart ,and very brave soul..my lady
I want to know too.
Todah Rabah.
Remarkable -- what a woman, what a life.
Man's INHUMANITY to his fellow man and woman and child... Sad...
Man rules man to his own injury...
איזה ילדות😢השם ישמור
Love them both ❤❤
What a story of sacrifice and love. Solomon’s Wise Judgment
16 Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him. 17 And one woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. 18 Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; [a]no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. 19 And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. 20 So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 21 And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne.”
22 Then the other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.”
And the first woman said, “No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.”
Thus they spoke before the king.
23 And the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son, who lives, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’ ” 24 Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. 25 And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.”
26 Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!”
But the other said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.”
27 So the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother.”
28 And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.
Am 7 lei
Ce pot să mi iau de mâncare?
Numai sa nu i pice curentul deodată la cântărit când mi i mie foame....
I read a lot of the comments and wonder why after all this happened why the people of Israel would not feel they could live amongst the Palestinian people without treating them without animosity.
I read the book "I shall not hate" and think about what it would be like if I were ripped from my homeland and my home was raised to the ground.
The people of Israel thought long and hard before they put her Polish parents name on that wall.
Things are beginning to evolve in Israel I have heard, amongst the young and yet there is every right for the awful things that happened to their grandparents and great grandparents to be remembered and reviled.
This woman should have been free to be and follow any religion she was born and or became. If she found the courage to get through all that then thank ANY and all gods that helped but making such an issue of it totally is disrespectful of her as a woman, adding another layer of guilt to her traumatic stress to deal with.
I hope DNA testing proves we are all Black, Jewish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican,European, Indian,Eskimos from Antarctica and the Mediterranean.
If not we can make arranged marriages until we are.
Then the Billion people who loved watching "Fiddlers on the roof" can all have a happy ending to the film in reality.
Topol was the best actor for that part and there isn't a person who watched it that didn't want to be Jewish in some degree.
As Topol said "To life, to life, Le chiem", May he rest in peace.
We all loved him!
Don't Condemn until you've been there yourself, (have you?) neither Halina, who was in the middle of everything, including the battle between her, over her.. nor the Polish family hiding her, caring for her in a touchy 'life and death' time for both parties. Of course, her birthmother wanted her back, its her child. But the other (fill-in mom) & dad ended up not just (doggedly) hiding & feeding her, as some people did, if at all.. became to love her also. Its not just about blood-line (some birthparents treat their kids worse than bad). Its also not all about what herritage or religion you are. that is sooo "outdated" these days. You can't Force your ways or ideals.. or whatever', down other peoples throats. Its not right, especially if you are free to do and live like You want to. So, Don't Judge... Least You (will) be judged. I'm guessing that you are "old World" ways and ideals, and etc. and thats ok. My father was Old World, European, my mother just slightly more in the 20th century, being (2nd generation American), one foot in both worlds. haha. I'm just saying, don't be so critical.
I can't understand why the Israel people, the (so-called) "Chosen" people, would think so highly of themselves, as to when their Jewish counterparts from various European countries were fleeing to "the Chosen land", the esteemed land of love & freedom. (if they were lucky enough to get there at all) and not had got caught & killed in the process. some were treated very poorly... laughed at, jeered & ridiculed, or ignored & treated as outsiders, and scoffed at with words like... "Sheep being led to the fire" .."to the Slaughter, 2 by 2"! Yes, a lot of survivors were treated fair and accepted into their (so called) fold. But, others were treated Terrible, and made to feel "less-than", unworthy (to be there), to be a part of them. Even made to feel Ashamed! WHAT was that all about... Their self-righteous attitude. That is Not a Chosen People attitude, even though they were in the chosen land. Reading some of these testimonies which told of how they were poorly treated after going through so much pain & trauma and loss to get there. Its sad, very sad.
Belgium May 10th 1940, the war started the 9th for myself no Mother no father? I always thought maybe it was my fault, My parent where from Poland I was told Bruxelles Jews where not cared, and My father open a shoes store in Bruxelles, his success bother Oder, caring in hospital where not permits for Jews, My Mother died at my birth ,and I was hidden in suers under the shoes store of my father shoes store.the adults where taken in a holocaust centre in Bruxelles , my older sisters in convent , my baby sister Rachel
In a family,.I have a picture ,of my sister Malka and Rosa and myself with my father Israel Goldfarb .it must have been a while in the suers, for I remembered receiving sun lamps and having sickness in my lung’s..
I saw the same thing wanny 14 n one learns
A heart-rending story. How does she relate to the terrorizing of Gaza?
Tell the Hamas to stop sending rockets over Israel
Yes. The ohilippines took in all the jewish ppl that wanted to come. We are considered rightious among the nations.
סיפור נוראי...ששבשו לה את הדת אם כל מיני מושגים לא תקינים
I may be wrong but this woman looks like Bette Davis?
Something that also needs to be pointed out is that JEWS also saved other JEWS.
and some were abusers also? I know its noted by several survivors, that the Polish people some were savers (hiders), but some were Pogroms (sorry if I can't remember the correct word) but they were one of the many people who also beat the prisoners in these camps, keeping them (so-called) in-line, or for their disdain & pleasure. But, my question is, I thought I read in a few survivor stories that ''the Jews took care of Jews''. (words similar to what I wrote here), and not in a helpful way, but acting as a leader of sorts or pogroms themselves, in some instances. I know ''Poles were over the Poles", to a degree. Acting as pogroms over their camps group. So I was wondering. Were some Jewish people (also) over their own people? As I mentioned, I read in some Survivoes stories, they were also.
@@helenh493 My take is that for the most part the Poles were in general quite happy to murder their Jewish neighbours and steal their property.
There were some good Poles too that helped their Jewish neighbours but far fewer; a handful by comparison. And out of those, many took money for doing this.
As for the kapos (the prisoners in charge of other prisoners), they were all types of people and many more were non Jews than Jews.
The other crimes that the poles did was to keep Jewish kids and not return them to surviving parents after the war. And to make matters worse, they baptized these Jewish kids! Sickening.
We have to remember that at that time Jews couldn't help other Jews unless they were helped by non Jews.
God bless the so many Polish people that risked their lives (and their children lives) to save Jews!! So many paid the ultimate price for this...
Joseph and Viktoria Ulma were executed with their 6 children ,Victoria was also 7 months pregnant for hiding 8 Jews on their farm.
Let's not forget them!!!
@@aureliapop561 True enough .... and let's not forget the overwheloming number of polish nazi collaborators and that happely ransacked the homes of their Jewish neighbours .....just saying.