Warning! The text retains the original spelling of surnames and place names by an Israeli researcher; in many cases it may not be correct. Fragments that could contain current personal data have been removed from the interview.

Name of Interviewee: Leon (Lolek) Kopelman, b. 1924 in Warsaw;

Subject of the interview: Leon Kopelman;

Father's name: Izhak-Arie [Yitshak-Arie], b. 1896;  

Mother’s name: Bronislawa (Bronia, nee Ehrlich), b. 1900.

My father, Izhak-Arie, was born in 1896. He and my mother had a store of clothes for men, women and fashion accessories, located next to our apartment. At a certain stage my father decided that we should immigrate to the land of Israel (Palestine). My eldest sister Genia, got married in 1938 and immigrated to Palestine with our cousin, who already lived there.

My mother: Bronia, nee Ehrlich was born in 1900. Her Jewish name was Brindel. The gentile neighbors used to call her Bronislava. My mother was from Lublin area and came from a wealthy family. She was an extraordinary woman and a venerated mother.

My father came from a religious family and he graduated from the Gur Yeshiva. I was told that he was a very wise man and a genius in the Tora (Old Testament).

Grandfathers: from my fathers' side: his name was Abraham. My father had several brothers and sisters. His last brother passed away in Israel in 2004. His sister lives presently in Canada, Toronto and I would like to stress that the mentioned brother and a sister were half brothers of my father, who died in Israel.

My grandfather observed the commandment of eating only 'Kosher' food and I remember that when he visited us in Warsawa, he used to eat only a boiled egg and drink a cup of tea and nothing else.

Upon the upbreak of the 2nd World War, several brothers of my father passed by our home in Warszawa on their way to the Russian area.

One of our sisters came from Ghetto Lodz and lived with us in Warszawa for some time. Unfortunately, she later perished.

Father's eldest brother had a printing shop of sacred books, in the town of Piot-shouldrkow [Piotrków] in Poland. I still have some books and a prayers-book printed by him.

From the age of 6 I learned in the Polish elementary school and finished two classes of High school. I was also member of the 'Maccabi' sports organization. The school was a public-governmental school and we studied in the Polish language.

In our neighborhood there were mostly Catholic Polish inhabitants and relatively few Jewish neighbors. The area was called Srodmiescie and we lived on No. 7 Krucza Street. From our original house, there was nothing left after the end of the war.

The fact that I learned the Polish language helped me to survive during the war. I knew it very well and had no strange accent like many Jews had, so people didn't notice my real identity.

My father immigrated alone to Palestine, onboard of a 'Maapilim' (illegal immigrants) ship, before the outbreak of the war in 1939. My mother and I were meant to join him soon and we even sent some luggage on a ship to Palestina… but then the war broke out and we were caught there.

In 1939 the war started. Warsawa [Warsaw, Warszawa] was bombarded and conquered by the Germans, who immediately began to kidnap Jews for forced labor, among other works to evacuate the ruins of the destroyed houses, etc.

In the second half of 1940 they started to establish the Ghetto. The Jewish inhabitants received orders to leave their houses and businesses in a certain period of time, and settle in the area of the Ghetto, which was surrounded by a fence.

There was a possibility of interchange between the Jews who were compelled to enter in the area designated for the Ghetto and the Polish, who had to leave the same area for the sake of establishing the Ghetto.

So, my mother and I gave away to a Polish citizen our big apartment together with the store and received a small flat of one room and a half with a small shop in the Ghetto area.

At the beginning the Jewish population in the Ghetto reached the amount of 500,000, which caused a great crowdiness, sanitary difficulties, illnesses, epidemics, etc. The Germans put signs outside the Ghetto, in which they warned people not to get close to it, due to danger of infection.

Later on the situation worsened and people suffered hunger, due to the lack of food supply into the Ghetto. Starving children used to snap food from other people on the streets and when they became exhausted, they lied on the sidewalks until they perished.

At that time I started working at a building of students' dormitories, which included more than 1000 rooms and had been occupied by the German Police (Shutzpolizei).

Some guy and I worked unloading coal from wagons: we unloaded 30 Tons of coal a day. We were a group of 30 permanent workers.

I would like to stress that our living conditions were relatively better than those of the others, since we were in contact with the Polish workers, who received a salary from the Germans. We used to bring them different articles from our belongings and in exchange we received from them food products, which we brought into the Ghetto. In addition they allowed us to take home some food from their dining room.

This ideal situation came to an end with the deportation 'Actions' of Jews from the Ghetto. One day, when I returned from work, in 1942, I didn't find my mother, who was sent to Treblinka concentration camp [The Jews were sent to the death camp Treblinka II].

At the time my mother was 42 years old.

Until the big 'Action' in 1943 we were members of Z.O.B.(the Jewish defense organization of Antek Zukerman [Yitshak „Antek” Zuckerman]) and we remained in the Ghetto. At a certain time the Germans decided to concentrate us (the 30 Jewish workers) in one building taking us every day to work.

During the big Action in 1943 (on Pessah [Pesach] holiday) we stayed in the bunkers.

The Germans surrounded the Ghetto with strengthened forces, formed in a battle structure. They brought cannons and started bombing the Ghetto towards its final liquidation. We stayed in the bunker until the Germans started using flame-throwers.

To avoid being burned alive, we went outside the bunkers and surrendered. The Germans brought us to the transports' gathering square. The place was very crowded, a terrible chaos prevailed and shootings were heard everywhere above the peoples' heads.

Then several Germans came and selected a group of youngsters, (including me) taking us to the workshop to fix train-locomotives (O.L.W. - Ostbahn Lokomotiven Werke) [Ostbahn-Ausbesserungswerke ?].

We did all kinds of dirty works during three months. The place was not far from the Ghetto, so we could see the flames rising from the burning Ghetto. One morning we noticed that our barrack was surrounded by Hit squads. We were sure that it was the end. But then, a new miracle occurred. Several officers of the Gestapo arrived, ordered us to stand in a line (we were approximately 80 men) and asked everyone what his profession was. Since we were young, most of us didn't have a profession, but in any case, I said that I was a mechanic. Out of the 80 men, they took 30 - including me.

The others were apparently transported to Treblinka. We, the remaining thirty, were taken to 'Genshufke' [Gęsiówka] camp and from the camp to work at the garage in the center of Warsawa. On time we learned the profession.

In the garage also Polish citizens were working for a salary and they told us that there had been other Jewish mechanic workers before us. One day an S.S. 'liquidation squad' came to the manager presenting him a warrant to take away the Jews. The garage manager told them that he can't give the Jewish workers away, since he will be left without men-power, but they took them anyway, saying that there was no problem, they had other Jews for him. So they brought us to the garage.

One day our work was interrupted and they transferred us to cells in 'Fabiak' [Pawiak] prison, located in the area of the destroyed Ghetto.

In September 44, the Red Army soldiers reached Praga (on the side of Warsawa, which was across the river). The attack was stopped because of the disagreements between the Russians and the Polish government in exile in London, about the future status of Poland after the war.

When the Russians stopped their advance due to those disagreements, the Germans started to withdraw. Therefore, the Polish underground organizations (AL & AK) thought that the time had come to start an uprising against the Germans. At the beginning they succeeded and even captured several German prisoners. They attacked 'Fabiak' prison, which was already almost empty, since the polish prisoners had been already taken earlier to Germany.

The AK Polish underground attacked the prison and liberated us. Afterwards we broke into the German weapons' warehouses, we took camouflage uniforms and arms and then we joined the AK in order to fight together with them.

The battles took place in Warsawa old city area. The Germans reinforced their military and armed them with deadly weapons. We were able to stand against them for a period of only 8 days. Then we escaped through the sewing pipes, reaching the center of the city. The center had not been attacked yet and people were beginning to set-up rehabilitation institutions for the city. I went to visit the house where I lived before the war, hoping to meet some old friends.

Eventually, the uprising was crushed. The Germans took over again all the areas of the city, one by one, and they put in prison all the Polish soldiers, which had rebelled against them. The city of Warsawa was evacuated from all its inhabitants, which were scattered over the whole Polish country. Afterwards it was systematically destroyed by the Germans, except for some buildings, which were spared because they were designated to serve as headquarters of the Gestapo.

I personally was taken to a place called Pruszkow, wherefrom all the underground soldiers were transferred to prisoners' camps in Germany.

I realized that I had no chance whatsoever to survive there, so I approached my acquaintances in the AK telling them about my fears that as a Jew I had no chance to survive.

One of them told me that the manager of the huge hall, where all the prisoners were concentrated. was an AK man. He promised to ask him to help me before all the prisoners were put on the wagons and sent to Germany. He found a hiding place for me and I hid during several hours, until the hall was empty. He also brought a package with several I.D. Cards (Kenn-karte) and I chose one of a Pole named Andrzej Bialobrzeski.

The same AK guy told me that he knew a woman-physician, Dr. Kielbasinska (a non-born German) who could help me. She went to the German Chief Doctor and said that there was an underground soldier, who was sick with TBC, and so she managed to smuggle me out of the camp to a place called 'Milnobek' [Milanówek]. After she brought me there, at night, she said that I was free to go wherever I wanted. 'Milnobek' was located at a distance of 30 km. from Warsawa. Until January 45, I stayed at the Chirurgical Hospital in Warsawa [Milanówek, Kopelman was employed as a mechanic at the Hospital], where the uprising fighters were treated. Then we were liberated by the Red Army.

After the liberation I returned to Praga quarter in Warsawa. I decided to immigrate to Palestine to reunite with my father and sister who were there. On my way I stayed in the following 'Displaced persons' camps: Prague, Pilzen, Salzburg, Milano, La-Spezia. Smuggling the borders I crossed from Poland to Czechoslovakia, Austria and Italy, until I reached La Spezia Port.

We arrived there in 1945, on 40 tracks of the Jewish Brigade. We were 1014 men.

A small cargo-ship was waiting for us, but to our astonishment, when we arrived we saw an armored car with a gun aiming at the ship and we were told that we are not allowed to sail.

It appeared that rumors were spread that Italian fascists were meant to immigrate to South America on that ship. When it became clear that the "Italian fascists" where no others than Jewish Holocaust survivors, a big noise arised in Italy and over the world.

Yehuda Arazi was the organization Chief and the ship Commander.

We celebrated the 'Pesach' feast in La-Spezia and afterwards we started a hunger-strike, which lasted three days. In the end we were granted legal immigration visas by the British and, in 1946, we sailed to Israel (Palestine) on board of the 'Dov Hoz' ship.

On May 20th, 1946 we arrived in Palestine. Here I met my father and my sister.

On the beginning of April 48 I enlisted to the I.D.F. receiving my Personal No.: 9749. I took part in the fights of the Israeli Independence War as a member of 'Golani' battalion and in Regiment No. 7.

Later on I also took part in the 'Sinai Operation' in 1956 and in the 'Six Days War' in 1967.

In 1953 I married my wife, Chava nee Rozin. I have a wonderful wife and three children: two sons and one daughter. All of them are successful professionals. We have nine grandchildren, five girls and four boys.

I have achieved my revenge against the Germans and all the other bitter enemies of Israel. They didn't succeed to liquidate me and in spite of all their hatred and cruelty, I raised a wonderful family, and for that I feel thankful every day.