Written by Georgia WILLIAMS - MA in War Studies
Edited by Isabelle GUERRERO - BA in International Relations
Born in Poland in 1937, Hannah Lewis was only 6 years old when herself and her mother were transported to Adampol forced labour camp. Hannah’s long-standing advocacy for Holocaust awareness and education, through the presentation of her experiences, earned her an MBE in 2017. As part of Holocaust Memorial Day, which this year centres around the theme of the Fragility of Freedom, King’s College London hosted Hannah Lewis MBE which allowed students to hear her story.
It begins with her grandfather, who moved to Włodawa, Poland from Ukraine where he met her grandmother. They had three children, including her father, Adam. Hannah’s father helped with the family business, which required him to travel around Poland and to Germany, and he became more aware and afraid of the rise of Hitler and Nazism. Unbeknownst to Hannah and her family, Sobibor extermination camp was constructed, with the purpose of exterminating and persecuting minorities that did not align with Nazi ideology. Jewish families from more populated towns moved to Włodawa in hopes of escaping capture by the Nazis, bringing stories of disappearances. When German soldiers entered her town, Hannah’s father approached a village elder to ask for assistance and protection. The elder, who owned a farm in Adampol, promised that he would look out for Hannah and her mother, Haya, if they were to be taken away. In 1943, after returning from a night of hiding in the loft of a nearby barn, Hannah and Haya were forcibly marched to Adampol; a forced labour camp within Sobibor. They were separated from Adam, who had escaped whilst being transported. The village elder, keeping his promise to Hannah’s father, insisted that Hannah and Haya, along with Hannah’s cousin, Shlomo, would work on his farm and return to their barracks at night.
In the winter of 1944, Hannah became extremely sick with a temperature and suspected typhoid. Her mother appealed for permission to stay in the kitchen of the farmhouse for one night, rather than the freezing barracks in the camp. Permission was granted, and Haya created a bed to shield Hannah from the cold and huddled for warmth. At some point during the night, Haya was awoken by a tapping on the window. She cautiously opened it, revealing that Adam had walked to Adampol to rescue them. He had been told that there was a German raid occurring the next morning, which would likely result in the death of Hannah and Haya if they did not leave. Adam insisted he would carry his sick child, but Haya knew that if they left, Hannah would succumb to her sickness. Haya refused to leave, stating that she would stay with Hannah to protect her. Adam left, without his wife and daughter. The next morning, Hannah and her mother were awoken again by loud bangs on the kitchen door. Haya rose, kissed and hugged her daughter, told her to stay where she was, and left. Some shouting and noise followed, prompting Hannah to look for her mother. Haya was ushered in front of a well, with some other prisoners. The Nazis then proceeded to shoot them. Hannah watched in shock, not making a noise, stating that ‘I can’t tell you how long I stood there, but it was a long while’. 7-year-old Hannah returned to bed in the kitchen and was awoken sometime later by the elder’s niece giving her milk to drink.
Throughout her testimony, Hannah repeatedly emphasises the importance of the relationship with her mother. Her mother was her protector, carer and comforter, which is epitomised by the sacrifice of her own life for her daughter’s. The narrative of motherhood during the Holocaust is centred on the notion of sacrifice. Jewish women, who had children, were systematically and strategically targeted by the Nazi regime due to their ability to produce Jewish children, which directly opposed the pure German Aryan race. From the perspective of the Jewish parent, having their family with them (in concentration camps or ghettos) was seen as a blessing and a burden, pushing the boundaries of their parental responsibilities and having much more to lose. The position of the mother, however, has been missing from academic debates and narratives of the Holocaust. The common belief among academics, specifically historians, was that female and male experiences of the Holocaust were the same. However, as Hannah’s testimony emphasises, Jewish women’s socially constructed roles as mothers and carers often drastically reduced their chances of survival. Today, second-wave feminism, along with awareness and academic interest into female perspectives of genocide, women’s experiences are beginning to come to light.
During the liberation, Hannah reunited with her father, then moved around Poland until she was taken to London. She settled, married and had children, but never forgot her mother: ‘I never stopped missing her. Never. I never will’.
Further Reading:
Baumel, Judith Tydor. “‘Rachel Laments Her Children’—Representation of Women in Israeli Holocaust Memorials.” Israel Studies 1, no. 1 (1996): 100–126. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245475.
Clementi, Federica K. Holocaust Mothers and Daughters. Family, History and Trauma. Brandeis University Press, 2013.
Duffy, Helena. “Motherhood during and after the Holocaust: Testimonial and Fictional Perspectives.” The Journal of Holocaust Research 34, no. 2 (April 2, 2020): 91–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/25785648.2020.1741856.
Feinstein, Margarete Myers. “Absent Fathers, Present Mothers: Images of Parenthood in Holocaust Survivor Narratives.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues, no. 13 (2007): 155–82. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/nas.2007.-.13.155.
Gapsch, Andrea. “A Feminist Historiography of Jewish Motherhood during the Holocaust .” The Macksey Journal 1, no. 23 (2020): 1–17.
Gerber, Nancy. “My Mother’s Face: Remembering Mothers in the Holocaust Testimony of Francine Christophe and Cordelia Edvardson.” Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering 10, no. 2 (2008): 158–68.
Hertzog, Esther. “Subjugated Motherhood and the Holocaust.” Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust 30, no. 1 (January 2, 2016): 16–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/23256249.2016.1126983.
Kaplan, Marion. “Did Gender Matter during the Holocaust?” Jewish Social Studies 24, no. 2 (2019): 37–56. https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.24.2.05.
Ofer, Dalia. “Parenthood in the Shadow of the Holocaust.” In Jewish Families in Europe, 1939-Present: History, Representation, and Memory, edited by Joanna Beata Michlic, 3–25. Brandeis University Press, 2017.
Ringelheim, Joan. “Women and the Holocaust: A Reconsideration of Research.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 10, no. 4 (July 1985): 741–61. https://doi.org/10.1086/494181.
