# Miriam Chaszczewacki

Miriam Chaszczewacka (November 1924 – c. (1942-10-24)24 October 1942 or 1943) was a Jewish memoirist, diarist, and Holocaust victim who wrote a memoir about her experiences in the first days of WWII. She also wrote a diary from 21 April 1941 to 7 October 1942, about life in the ghetto in Radomsko.

## Life

Miriam Chaszczewacka was born in November 1924, probably in Radomsko, Łódź Voivodeship, Second Polish Republic. Her parents' names were Dawid Chaszczewacki and his wife, Sarah Lavit (née Zelver). Chaszczewacka's younger brother, Nahum, was born in April 1929, on a Passover day.
Chaszczewacka's father Dawid fled from Volhynia to Radomsko, Łódź Voivodeship, in the early 1920's, because he did not want to live under Soviet Bolshevik rule. In Radomsko, Dawid met and married Sarah Lavit Zelver, a Hassidic Jewish kindergarten teacher, and they had two children together. Dawid Chaszczewacki established a Hebrew school for Jewish children in Radomsko, and his 14-year-old daughter Miriam Chaszczewacka was one of his students there. She was one of his best students there.
In December 1939 (or January 1940), like all the other Jews, the Chaszczewacki family were forced by the Germans to leave their house and reside in poor conditions in a Jewish ghetto in Radomsko, after Nazi Germany completed their invasion and occupation of Poland in September 1939, and began persecuting Jews in Poland.
It was possibly during this time that Chaszczewacka wrote a memoir about her experience in the first days of WWII and about the attack on Poland, and the bombing of Radomsko.
Even though it was often forbidden by the Germans for Jews to study and get a education, even while in the ghetto, Chaszczewacka and her friends continued to study and learn by using pre-war Polish textbooks, atttending her father's Hebrew school, and by tutoring and educating each other. She also helped her mother run the kindergarten in the ghetto.
Miriam Chaszczewacka wrote a diary from 21 April 1941 to 7 October 1942, in the Radomsko Ghetto. There were 27 entries in the diary, containing entries about life in the ghetto, news on the war and politics, and about the murder of Jews. In one diary entry dated January 1942, Chaszczewacka wrote that her friend was killed by the Germans in the ghetto. Along with her memoir, Chaszczewacka's diary was posthumously published in the book, Children of Dust and Heaven in 1978. Chaszczewacka wrote her memoir and diary mostly in Polish, with some words and phrases in German and Yiddish. In a diary entry dated 18 September 1942, Chaszczewacka wrote about the Germans deporting Jews to Auschwitz and Treblinka, and killing them there within just 3 days. She also wrote about the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. In a diary entry dated 22 September 1942, Chaszczewacka wrote:
In the final diary entry dated 7 October 1942, she wrote that her father planned to take the family into hiding in a building that sheltered over 70 Jews, mostly the elderly and the sick, after hearing from his friend that German officers planned to liquidate the ghetto, in 2-3 days from now. Upon moving to the hiding place, Chaszczewacka's father advised the family to pack as little clothing and food, as possible. She also wrote that while she could take only a few belongings with her, she would make sure to take her diary and pen with her, but she did not think that she would be able to continue writing her diary in the hiding place, for the people in hiding have to stay as quiet as plausible.
A note was later written and placed inside of Chaszczewacka' diary, by a unknown person. The handwriting was very different from Chaszczewacka' handwriting, and read:
Miriam Chaszczewacka and her mother, Sarah's transport by lorry to Częstochowa, seems unlikely. Perhaps the note was written by a Polish policeman, who either witnessed or was involved in the possible but unconfirmed killings of Miriam Chaszczewacka and her mother Sarah in the Radomsko Ghetto, and he attempted to cover the fact, with a happier ending.
Chaszczewacka's father and brother was shot and murdered by the Germans in the ghetto, for refusing to be deported to Treblinka, and she and her mother presumably went into hiding in a lavatory, for seven days or so, before ultimately turning themselves in to the Germans. Miriam Chaszczewacka and her mother were either deported to Częstochowa (or Treblinka), and later killed there, or they were killed in the Radomsko ghetto, like her father and brother.

## Discovery and publication of the memoir and diary

After WWII ended in 1945, Polish-born Jewish Holocaust survivor and schoolteacher, Stefania Heilbrunn returned to Radomsko, her hometown. While she visited the cemetery, a unknown woman gave Heilbrunn a mysterious package, before fleeing. Heilbrunn chased after the woman, and after stopping her in a alley, and asking her about the package, the woman said: "My son asked me to give this to you, I know nothing about it". The woman then left. Heilbrunn opened the package at her house, and discovered a notebook in it, which contained a memoir and a diary about life in the first days of WWII, in the Radomsko Ghetto, news on the war, and the killings of Jews.
Heilbrunn also discovered the note which spoke of Chaszczewacka and her mother's fates, their surrender to the Germans on the evening of 24 October 1942, and their transport by lorry to Częstochowa.
Heilbrunn recognized that her former student, Miriam Chaszczewacka, had written the memoir and diary, after recognizing the same handwriting in the notebook. When Stefania Heilbrunn immigrated to Israel, she later published Chaszczewacka' memoir and diary as the book, Children of Dust and Heaven in 1973. The memoir and diary was later also published in English and German.