Random Stories Of People Who Hid From Nazis During World War II (12 items)

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  (#1) Marie Jalowicz Simon Became A 'Submerged' Woman

  As the situation deteriorated in Nazi Germany for Jews, Marie Jalowicz decided to hide in plain sight. In 1941, she told a postman that her "neighbor" Marie was taken by the Nazis, then simply started walking around without a star on her jacket, living under a false identity.

  In the coming years, she took menial jobs and lived in several Berlin flats, at times with roommates who were fervent Nazis. While living this double life, Jalowicz sabotaged production at the arms factory where she worked. She went on to become a professor at Humboldt University after the war, where she worked until her passing in 1998.
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  (#2) 300 People Hid From The Nazis In Warsaw Zoo

  In 1940, the Tirosh family posed as Polish travelers to get past German guards. They did so to reach a zoo run by Jan Zabinski and his wife, Antonia, who were members of the Polish resistance, and hid Jews in their establishment's underground pathways. The zoo was also used to store arms for the resistance.

  After the animals had been killed by the Nazis or shipped to German zoos, the grounds were turned it into a pig farm, so the Zabinskis could continue their operations. When Nazis came for an inspection, Antonia would play piano melodies to communicate plans of action to those in hiding. The Tirosh family survived, and the youngest son, Moshe Tirosh, eventually found his way to Israel.
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  (#3) Anne Frank's Family Hid In An Attic For Two Years

  In July 1942, when the Nazis began to send Jews in Amsterdam to concentration camps, Anne Frank's family went into hiding in a secret attic apartment. The family lived with four Dutch Jews, also in hiding, for two years. Their benefactors, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Jan Gies, and Miep Gies, maintained the hiding place and smuggled the Franks food and clothing.

  In August 1944, the Gestapo discovered the Franks, and sent them to Auschwitz. Anne and her sister, Margot, were transferred to Bergen-Belson for labor. Everyone but Anne's father, Otto, died in 1945, before the camps were liberated.
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  (#4) The Stermer Family Hid In A Cave For More Than A Year

  When Germany invaded Ukraine in 1941, Esther Stermer's family, along with five other families, escaped Nazis by fleeing in the middle of the night to an underground cave. For 18 months, the 38 members of this group of families lived in total darkness during the day and scavenged for food at night.

  Eventually, German SS soldiers found the cave, and Esther came face-to-face with Nazis. With their guns pointed in her face, Esther said to the Germans, "What are you afraid of here? The Fuhrer is gonna lose the war because we live here?" The soldiers left and never returned. Soon after, Russians liberated the area and the families were able to leave. Their triumph was the longest uninterrupted underground survival situation in recorded history.
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  (#5) Selma Schwarzwald Didn't Even Know She Was Hiding From Nazis

  When the Germans entered the city of Lvov in southern Poland in 1941, Selma Schwarzwald's family was forced into a ghetto with other Jews. With the threat of deportation to a concentration camp looming, Selma's father, Daniel, acquired false papers for his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, Daniel was killed by the Nazis five days before his family made their escape on a train.

  Selma's name was changed to Zofia Tymejko, and she and her mother lived the life of good Christians in the town of Busko Zdroj. Selma forgot she was Jewish until her mother told her in 1948. After learning to hate Jews during the war, Selma suffered tremendous shock. She moved to New York City as an adult, became a radiation oncologist, and settled on the name Sophie Turner-Zaretsky. 
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  (#6) Mirjam Geismar's Parents Hid From The Nazis Behind A Church Organ

  In 1942, Nazis made Holland an increasingly dangerous place for Jews. Mirjam Geismar's family decided to go into hiding. Mirjam was sent to live with a single mother, Tante Nel, who kept many children hidden beneath the kitchen floor in a compartment accessible by trap door. Mirjam's parents hid in a church, behind the organ. They were almost caught when the Nazis raided the church. 

  The family was reunited at the end of the war. Mirjam's parents have hated organ music ever since.
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  (#7) The Kowalski Family Hid Two Neighborhood Children In A Cellar

  The Kowalski family of Ciepielow, Poland, hid two local Jewish girls in a cellar built specifically for this purpose just before the start of WWII. The girls were friends of the Kowalski family and needed a place to escape the Nazis. Unfortunately, neighbors reported the Kowalski family to the SS, who raided the house and found the girls. The Nazis then took the girls and the Kowalski family to a nearby barn and burned them alive.

  Only the Kowalski's son lived, because he was away from the house during the raid. He survived the war and had a daughter and grandson.
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  (#8) The Malkin Family Spent 20 Months In A Hayloft

  Just before their Polish town's ghetto was emptied of Jews to be taken to camps in 1942, the Malkin family, along with the Kindler family, went into hiding in a hayloft above a pigsty owned by Francisca Halamonajowa. Four-year-old Fay Malkin almost gave them away by crying frequently. The adults poisoned the child to save the lives of everyone else in the loft, though Fay miraculously survived. From that point forward, the child's crying was quieted with pillows. 

  The families lived in the loft for 20 months, until July 1944, when the town was liberated by the Soviets. The Malkins moved to the United States afterwards.
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  (#9) Jeannine Burk Stayed In An Outhouse During Nazi Parades

  After Hitler invaded Belgium in 1940, Jeannine Burk's father found different hiding places for each member of the family. The last time Jeannine saw her father was when he dropped her off at a house for hiding. Though she had free reign of the house, Jeanine had to hide in the outhouse when Nazis went on parade.

  After Belgium was liberated in 1944, Jeannine was reunited with most of her family. Her father had died at Auschwitz.
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  (#10) A Childhood Helped Hanni Levy Escape Concentration Camps

  In 1943, 19-year-old Hanni Levy mangled her finger in a machine at a factory where she was doing forced labor for the Nazis. When she returned home after a trip to the hospital, all the Jews in her neighborhood were being rounded up to be taken to concentration camps. Hanni fled and found non-Jewish friends to take her in and help her blend in as a non-Jew in Berlin. She cut her hair short, died it blond, and struck up a friendship with local movie theater employees, who helped keep her secret to the end of the war.

  After the Nazis surrendered, Hanni moved to Paris, where she met her future husband.
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  (#11) The Chiger Family Lived In Sewers For More Than A Year

  By 1943, the Nazis had deported the population of Lvov's ghetto to concentration camps. The Chiger family escaped this fate by hiding in a sewer. For 14 months, Jerzy and Peppa Chiger and their children, 7-year-old Krystyna and 3-year-old Pawelek, lived in filthy water, eating rats. Each day they picked lice out of their hair, and during heavy rainstorms, Jerzy and Peppa held their children above the waterline so they wouldn't drown.

  The family was shown kindness by black-marketeer Leopold Socha, who found them near his hiding place for goods. He brought the family food every day and found a Jewish prayer book for them that was left behind in the ghetto. That day, Socha brought them vodka to celebrate.
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  (#12) Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser Survived Because She Was Blonde

  In 1940, Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser's family was forced to move to a ghetto north of Warsaw, Poland. Sima's blond hair and fair complexion allowed her to slip out of the ghetto, past Nazi guards, to purchase and smuggle in supplies. She returned one day to find the ghetto liquidated and went on the run, never seeing her family again.

  Sima was taken in by a Polish family, but fled when Germans came snooping. She took refuge with another family in Warsaw until the end of the war, when she moved to Israel and then Brooklyn.

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