Chana Hoffman, from the town of Chrzanow, Poland was five years old when World War II broke out. When the Aktions began in the ghetto, Chana's father, Isidore, prepared a hiding place under the house. Entry to it was from inside a cupboard. The Hoffmans hid there during every Aktion, but one day Isidore didn't manage to reach the hiding place in time and he was arrested.
In March 1943, Chana and her mother Regina were caught in a roundup but managed to escape the ghetto. They reached the home of Mrs. Hatzoc, who had worked as a laundress in their home before the war, and knocked on her door.
"At first she [Mrs. Hatzoc] didn't want to let us in. Mother pleaded and cried, begging her to let us come in and rest from our running. She capitulated and let us in… Mother said: "Just let me leave the child with you and I'll go away."
Finally, after Regina's entreaties, Mrs. Hatzoc agreed to take Chana in.
"Then Mother parted from me… Mother wanted to take me in her arms and hug me before she left. She wanted to kiss me, but I adamantly refused. I saw her abandonment as a betrayal. Mother said to Mrs. Hatzoc, "Keep her safe for me and when it's all over I'll come back and get her."
Chana stayed with Mrs. Hatzoc until the end of the war. She was often lonely:
"I missed Mother terribly. In the last few years we had grown very close. Our relationship was much more than one of mother and daughter. Mother would share everything with me and ask my advice. I was her only friend and she was mine... I was wearing the dress that mother had sewn and embroidered for me, and later on I was so glad that I had it because it has remained with me until today, and is the only thing I have to remember her by."
After the war Chana learned that Regina had reached the Sosnowitz ghetto but she was deported from there to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she was murdered. Chana learned that her father had tried to escape and jumped from the German truck as it passed through his hometown of Trzebinia, but local Poles turned him in.
In 1947 Chana tried to immigrate to Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) aboard the ship "Lo Tafchidunu" but the ship was intercepted by the British and redirected to Cyprus. In 1948 Chana arrived in Israel.
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Donated by Chana (Hoffman) Aloni, Bnei Brak, Israel
