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Alicja Schnepf

Interlocutor name:
Alicja
Interlocutor surname:
Schnepf
Researcher:
Józef Markiewicz
Operator:
Józef Markiewicz
Catalogue number:
MPOLIN-HM277
Recording date:
16th December 2015
Recording location:
Warszawa
Recording duration:
02:46:39
Format:
Video
Recording language:
Polski
Recording copyright:
Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN
Project:
Poles Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust

Topics

World War II, Occupation, Jewish identity, Hiding of Jews, Everyday life.

Related places

Warsaw.

Interlocutor biogram

Alicja Schnepf (maiden name Szczepaniak) was born on 30 August 1930 in Warsaw in the borough of Muranów (parents: father Antoni Szczepaniak, mother Natalia Szczepaniak maiden name Kuźniewska). The house was mostly inhabited by Jewish families – the Szczepaniaks and the Kowalskis were the only Christian families. Through the eyes of a child, the interviewee would observe how her neighbours celebrated Jewish holidays and traditions. In 1935, the interviewee’s family moved to the Praga borough. In 1937, Alicja Schnepf went to primary school no. 48 at Kowelska street.

Antoni Szczepaniak perished during the defence of Warsaw on 26 September 1939; he is initially buried in a mass grave at Krakowskie Przedmieście, only to be moved to the Bródno cemetery at a later date. Alicja Schnepf attended a clandestine middle school. Due to the dramatic living conditions and lack of food, the interviewee’s mother started to make risky journeys “to the other side of the Bug River,” where she traded objects of daily use for food.

In 1942, encouraged by acquaintances and in order to make the money to pay the rent, the interviewee’s mother started to let a bed in her flat. The tenants usually stayed for several to a dozen weeks. In 1943, Natalia Szczepaniak found a job in the kitchen of the Chamber of Crafts at Targowa Street.

In August 1943, Alicja Schnepf and her mother visit the Salonek family in the nearby Targówek borough. It turns out that a Jewish girl (Nina Sandel) and her aunt (Anna Albert) are hiding in the flat. A little later, in connection with the danger of the Saloneks’ flat being searched, the Jewish women are taken in by the Szczepaniaks. Despite days going by, Nina Sandel and Anna Albert cannot return to their previous hiding place and they stay in the flat of the Szczepaniaks, who hide their presence from the closest neighbours as well. It also turns out that Anna Albert has two daughters (Marysia and Krysia), who are hiding in the capital city under fake names.

In 1981, Natalia Szczepaniak is awarded the “Righteous Among the Nations” title, and ten years later so is her daughter – Alicja Schnepf. Alicja Schnepf is currently the chairman of the Association of Righteous Among the Nations.

Recording circumstances description

The interview was recorded in the interviewee’s flat in Warsaw.

Recording summary

  1. The interviewee's first childhood memories; description of the house and of Muranów – a borough of Warsaw, 0:00:51
  2. The interviewee’s neighbours celebrating Jewish holidays, relations of the interviewee’s family with their neighbours, description of the house, 0:03:00
  3. Description of primary school no. 48 at Kowelska Street in Praga (borough of Warsaw), involvement of the interviewee’s father in the activity of the parent’s committee: naming the school after marshal Rydz-Śmigły, 0:04:30
  4. Description of the interviewee’s parents, the interviewee’s first school experiences, 0:06:20
  5. Death of the interviewee’s father – Antoni Szczepaniak – the day before Warsaw’s surrender on 26 September 1939; the significance of her father’s death for the interviewee’s family, 0:10:00
  6. The first months of German occupation, 0:11:00
  7. Involvement of the interviewee’s father in the activities of Warsaw Defence Volunteer Battalions (Ochotnicze Bataliony Obrony Warszawy), defence of Warsaw in 1939, 0:12:00
  8. Place of death of the interviewee’s father, place of burial at Krakowskie Przedmieście, exhumation of the body in spring 1940, 0:16:00
  9. Realities of the life of the interviewee’s family in the first days after Warsaw surrendered; restrictions for the inhabitants, 0:20:22
  10. The interviewee’s education during the occupation: school of the Daughters of Charity, clandestine middle school – the First City Vocational School; textbooks during the occupation, 0:24:00
  11. Several-day trips of the interviewee’s mother “to the other side of the Bug River” in search of food, trading daily use objects for food 0:27:32
  12. Duties of 10-year-old Alicja during the occupation / after her father’s death: taking care of the house and of her younger sister Basia while her mother was away, 0:31:00
  13. Confiscation of food products by Germans – emotional “costs” of her mother’s trips to the other side of the Bug River, 0:35:00
  14. Letting a bed for several weeks, 0:37:20
  15. Description of the tenement house at Oszmiańska Street where the interviewee lived with her mother and little sister, 0:38:59
  16. Description of the first tenants, 0:41:00
  17. Visit in the house of Władysława Salonek and her daughter Bogda (residing there since 11 November 1928) in August 1943, where a Jewish girl was hiding with her aunt; description of the flat of the Salonek family, 0:42:00
  18. The danger that the flat of the Saloneks may be searched / brining the Jewish girl and her aunt to the place of the Szczepaniak family, a request to hide them for a few days, 0:45:00
  19. Description of the Jewish tenants – Nina Sandel and her aunt Anna Albert, 0:46:00
  20. The soup brought by her mother from the kitchen of the Chamber of Crafts. Kitchen of the Chamber of Crafts as the hiding place of Polish intelligentsia, 0:47:30
  21. Baking cakes from peelings and wholemeal flour brought by the interviewee’s mother, 0:50:30
  22. The Salonek family refusing to take the hiding women back in, 0:51:00
  23. The realities of the hiding: locking the door, hiding the presence of the Jewish women in the interviewee’s home from the inhabitants of the house; smuggling food, 0:51:30
  24. Marysia and Krysia – the daughters of Anna Albert hiding in Warsaw; changing their identity; visits of Marysia and Krysia in their home, 0:55:00
  25. Arrest and release of Krysia, 0:58:00
  26. Suspicions of neighbours: hiding Anna and Nina in a wardrobe and showing the flat; receiving an anonymous note, 01:00:00
  27. Moving the hiding Anna and Nina to the place of the interviewee’s grandparents at 30 Krochmalna Street, 01:03:30
  28. Transporting Anna and Nina from the interviewee’s flat at Oszmiańska to the flat at Krochmalna, 01:06:00
  29. Search in the house at Oszmiańska Street, 01:08:40
  30. The interviewee’s life in tension and fear of another search and of exposure of the hiding women, 01:17:45
  31. Holiday camps of the Central Welfare Council (Rada Główna Opiekuńcza) in Świder near Warsaw in July 1944; the mission of the Council and support of Warsaw’s civilians, 01:22:00
  32. Outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in the interviewee’s memories: the meeting point in the Plac Zamkowy square, the shooting in the Praga borough and the wounding of the interviewee, 01:26:00
  33. Taking in a Jewish married couple Wacław and Ewa, their cousin Stasia and a Polish officer Feliks Winiarczyk to the interviewee’s flat at Oszmiańska Street; approx. 01h31’
  34. Losing contact with Marysia and Krysia Albert, 01:33:00
  35. The occupation authorities mobilising men for public works (digging ditches); Wacław escaping and returning home, 01:33:45
  36. Building a hiding place in a bed, Wacław hiding in the hiding place, 01:38:00
  37. The Red Army reaching the city, the interviewee’s emotional reaction at the moment of liberation, 01:42:00
  38. Missile explosion in the garden of the house at Oszmiańska Street, Wacław being wounded by shrapnel, 01:45:00
  39. What happened later to the hidden men – Wacław and Feliks, the return of Krysia and Marysia Albert, 01:47:00
  40. The interviewee’s flat at the end of the war – the place of returns and support, 01:50:00
  41. The fate of Krysia and Marysia Albert in the post-war period: going to Szczecin; the departure of the interviewee’s mother to Szczecin at the invitation of Krysia and Marysia Albert, emigration to Berlin and losing contact with the interviewee’s family, 01:58:00
  42. The story of the interviewee’s husband – a Holocaust Survivor: pre-war education in Drohobych, apprenticeship in Łódź, stay in Kazakhstan, 02:02:00
  43. The story of renewing the contacts with Marysia Albert, hidden during the war, 02:12:00
  44. Post-war story of the interviewee’s husband: career, groundless accusations, 02:13:00
  45. The circumstances of the interviewee’s mother (Natalia Szczepaniak) receiving the “Righteous Among the Nations” title, 02:16:00
  46. The interviewee’s thoughts on the mutual help given during the occupation, 02:22:00
  47. The interviewee going to Israel at the invitation of Charoy Sarnel; meeting the management of Yad Vashem, 02:25:00
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