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Rena Finder
Rena Finder was born in February of 1929 in Krakow, Poland. When
she was ten WWII broke out. She was sent to KZ Plascow, a ammuniton factory and work camp. Rena, her mother, her grandfather, and
other 1,200 Jews were kept from certain death by Oskar Schindler.
Permission granted by Rena Finder.
When I was a little girl growing up in Krakow, Poland, I had a wonderful childhood. I am an only
child, and I lived in a beautiful apartment building right around the corner from my school, right
across the street from the river, right near an ancient castle. I loved the city of Krakow and I loved
living there. I did all the things that children everywhere do. I went to school and summer camp
and to Sunday school. I went skiing, sledding, and skating in the winter and swimming in the
summer. Life was very good. Of course, I also remember being exposed to racial slurs and my
mother telling me stories about pogroms when Jewish people were being attacked. I always knew
that being Jewish in Poland was not really as good as being a Pole in Poland, but still as a little girl,
I didnt pay much attention to politics.
All of this changed on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Within days, the victorious Nazi army marched into Krakow. Overnight from being a little girl, I became an enemy of the
state. Our civil rights were immediately taken away from us. Jewish children were not allowed to go
to school. Jewish people were not allowed to own businesses. Our bank accounts were confiscated. Our pets were taken away. Our right to use public transportations was taken away. But most
of all, we were told we could not remain in Krakow because the Nazis goal was to segregate us, to
separate us, to isolate us, and to kill us. In order to remain in Krakow and be allowed to go to the
ghetto, you had to be over 12 and under 55. I was only 10 but was lucky because I was tall for my
age. My father was able to falsify my birth certificate. And so when I went to the German headquarters and got my permit, but hundreds and hundreds of people did not. While we were waiting
in line to get our permits, we were surrounded by German guards, heavily armed, with dogs that
were trained to attack. The guards were grabbing people out of the line, taking children out of
their parents arms. We were crying; we were begging for mercy. Families wanted to stay together,
and yet there was no mercy coming from any of the German soldiers. Krakow, my beloved city, had
about 250,000 people living there and about 38,000 were Jews. We had lived in Poland for centuries. Jewish people were very patriotic. They fought for the independence of Poland. And yet,
in the hour of our need, our neighbors turned away from us, against us, and were happy to see us
being tortured and murdered. There we were in the middle of the busy city where everybody
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could see and hear us, and yet, they said they didnt know, they didnt hear, they didnt see.
We were forced to resettle to the ghetto which was in the older part of town. There was a brick
wall around an area about two avenues wide, about four blocks long. We had to leave our apartment behindthe only place I had ever known, the only place I had ever lived. That was where I
was born. We each packed a small suitcase and left
everything else behind: my Shirley Temple dolls in
my bedroom, my collection of Charles Dickens
books, my mothers china, most of our clothes. My
father was able to get a small pushcart and we put
a few pots and pans and some bedding in it. We
marched into the ghetto where we had to share a
tiny room with two other families. It was extremely difficult. We didnt have enough food, we didnt
have enough electricity, and we didnt have enough
water. We all worked in workshops and thought
that as long as we workedwe were slaves, not getting paidthe Germans would need us. Surely, we
thought, somebody would find out what was happening to us; somebody would come and save us.

one by one, people disappered, never to be heard

from again. We were told
that these people were taken
to other...camps...

Were you able to freely leave the ghetto?

No. You could only leave the ghetto if you worked
somewhere outside. So you would have to get a pass, like a passport, and you went with a group.
There was a group of people that were assigned to work at an airport, and they left the ghetto
every morning and returned every night, but guards accompanied them. In the ghetto there was
never any peace because the soldiers were always patrolling the streets. They would come into the
workshops in the day or into homes at night looking for people they didnt like. They would gather
these people at the market place in the ghetto, load them on trucks, and take them away never to
be heard from again.
Were you, your family, or your friends at the same ghetto with you?
In the beginning, I lived with my mother and my father, my grand parents, aunts and uncles,
cousins, some of my friends, but then my father was arrested and taken away as were my grandparents and aunts. One by one people disappeared, never to be heard from again. We were told that
these people were taken to other labor camps or to farms to help the farmers grow food for the
German soldiers and we believed them because any thing else was unthinkable.
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So how long did you live in the ghetto and when were you taken to the concentration camp?
After about two years in the ghetto, the ghetto was being liquidated. Only my mother and my little
cousin who my father saved when her parents were taken away were still there. We were hiding
her and taking care of her. Then the time came for
the ghetto to be liquidated and we were taken to
the concentration camp named Plaszow. Anybody
younger than twelve or over 55 were labeled unfit
to work and were ordered to stay behind. And so
we had to leave my little cousin. I tried to smuggle
her, she was holding onto my waist under my coat
as we walked through the gate, but the German
soldiers were kicking us and beating us and pushing their rifles at us. She was hit and fell. So they
found her and it was a miracle that they didn't
shoot her or me, but they told me to take her back
to the orphan's home. There was an orphan's
home in the ghetto for the children from the
neighboring communities whose parents were
taken away and
murdered. Because
of that we assumed
that they would
take care of the children. We thought that the children left in the
ghetto in the children's home would be taken care of by the nuns.
So when I left my cousin, I thought that she would be better off in
a building because we knew that we were going to live in the barracks and that life would be very harsh, impossible. Unfortunately
after we left the ghetto and as I walked with other people from my
workshop, we heard yelling and screaming and shooting. Later we
Permission granted by Rena
heard that most of the children in the ghetto were killed that night
Finder.
on March 13, 1942.

...they found her and it was

a miracle that they didn t
shoot her or me, but they
told me to take her back to
the orphan s home.

The concentration camp, Plaszow, was big with barracks everywhere. It was a horrible. There was
total despair and we felt utter rejection from the world and everyone. We believed that nobody
cared. Nobody saw us. Nobody heard us. And nobody really gave a damn. Most of the Polish peoFindeR, Rena

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ple didnt care about what was happening to the Jews and were very happy to see them being
killed. Arman Ghett was the commander of the camp. He was a terrible murderous man. We had
expected some kindness from the Germans because we had always thought that Germany was a
very cultured country. We never expected that they, who were after all ordinary people, teachers,
doctors, lawyers, plumbers, and electricians, fathers, sons, brothers, husbands would be vicious
murderers.
So did some of your family or friends go with you?

My mother and i were very

lucky because oskar
Schindler came to Krakow to
make money by opening a
factory.

Some of my family and people I knew came with

me to the concentration camp. A few were able to
smuggle their little children into Plashow because
their parents knew of people who would leave the
camp and would give the children to some wonderful friends. Those were the people who helped
the Jews are called the righteous gentiles. They
risked their lives and the lives of their families to
save a Jewish child or Jewish family. They were in
danger not just from the authorities, but from their
neighbors. If neighbors suspected that these people were trying to help or hide a Jewish child or Jewish family,
they immediately reported them to the authorities in return for a
bag of potatoes or a loaf of bread.
Life in Plaszow was horrible. Because we didn't have enough
water, it was very difficult to wash. It was very important to keep
clean because if you didnt you would get lice and bedbugs which
brought disease. We couldnt keep ahead of it.
Could you describe the process of selection?
Every morning and night we had to report for roll call. We were
forced to stand for hours being counted again and again. The soldiers would count then pull out some people. Mostly it was the
Permission granted by Rena
commander of the camp. He would then shoot them for nothing.
Finder.
We were exposed to public hangings, executions, and beatings of people who had done nothing
wrong. Plaszow had no crematoria or gas chambers, but there was a big pit where they would kill
people and throw them in and cover them with earth (bury) while some were still alive.

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As a survivor of the Holocaust, I am an eyewitness to some of the most horrible murders committed against innocent people, but as a survivor on Schindlers list, I am also an eyewitness to what
can be done when people make a difference, when people get involved. My mother and I were
very lucky because Oskar Schindler came to Krakow to make money by opening a factory. He
joined the Nazi party but didn't have the heart of a Nazi. He just wanted to have a lot of money so
he could live in a beautiful apartment, buy clothes,
houses, and cars. And because he needed the
German government to accomplish this, he became
very friendly with some of the high ranking generals and officers in the Nazi party. By entertaining
them and bribing them with expensive gifts, he
was able to open a factory called Emalia which
once made pots and pans. He took over that factory and converted part of it to make ammunition.
This allowed him to be very much needed for the
war, for Germany fighting the war, and for his
homeland. He made sure that the people in
Germany had pots and pans and all kinds of things
to make life easier. He also made a lot of water
canteens for the German soldiers. Since he didn't
know much
about business,
he relied on the people who owned the business before the war
for advice and to run the factory. His workers became his friends.
Because he was in constant contact with high ranking generals
and the government, he knew what the Germans planned for the
Jewish people, the Final Solution. From the very beginning
Germany planned to eliminate all of the Jews in the world. This
we didnt know or maybe just didnt want to know. We wouldnt
have believed it. When people started to disappear, were taken
away, we had always thought they went to a different camp or to
Permission granted by Rena
do hard labor.
Finder.

...Germany planned to eliminate all of the Jews in the

world. This we didn t know
or maybe just didn t want to
know.

Some of the children who were smuggled out of the ghetto by their parents stayed in the camp
because their parents had no gentile friends. They were kept in hiding all the time because they
were not supposed to be there. The children were so small, not one of them over two years old. Yet
they knew that they had to be quiet no matter how hungry, how thirsty they were. They could not
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make noise. At one time, we were told that there was a big inspection of the camp planned and
that everybody would have to be at the roll call. The question was what to do with the children
and how to keep them quiet. Someone had the brilliant idea to put the children in one barrack
and give them drugs so they would be quiet. So the little children were put in a barrack with big
signs saying that it was quarantined. When all of the big shot Germans came to inspect the camp,
they didnt go near that barrack, afraid of becoming infected. When they left, people were so grateful that the children were still alive. Unfortunately,
probably about a month later, while we were all at
roll call, the loud speaker announced that the children were being rounded up and that if anybody
moved, the children would be shot. We were told
that the children were being taken to the nuns to
be taken care of. There were 20,000 people standing at the roll call. The grand parents and parents
and aunts and uncles wanted the children to go to
the convent. The children were happy because
they were being taken away and for the first time
were going outside. All of
these children were murdered.

For us, it was oskar

Schindler who was our savior.
he was sent from God to take
care of us. We knew.

So while Oskar Schindler was there what did you do for labor?
When I was working for Oskar I was able to leave the camp
with my mother to go to live and work at the factory. That was
like going to heaven. We were leaving the living hell of Plashov
and the commander who was the devil. We called Oskar
Schindler our angel. We were sent to his small camp and had
better living conditions than the other camp. We actually had
bunk beds, rather than the shelves of the barracks of the conPermission granted by Rena
centration camps. Hemade sure that we had a little more food. I was working on a machine and
Finder.
making shells for ammunition with most of the young people. For us, it was Oskar Schindler who
was our savior. He was sent from God to take care of us. We knew.
Other than Jews, were there any other homosexuals, communists, or any body else?
No, not in the camp where I was. At that time, people didnt know whether people were homosexual or not. I never knew, because I was still a child. I never knew that people were homosexual or
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that they would be treated like criminals until after the war. Then the Germans decided to liquidate all the camps in Poland because they were losing the war and were also determined to win the
war against the Jews. That was when Oskar Schindler made his famous deal with Armon Ghett to
move his factory and his people to Czechoslovakia where he was born.
It was then when all the women in the camp were
tattooed with the letters KL which stood for
Koncentration Lager, by Jewish doctors who really
didnt know much about tattooing people and didnt want to hurt us. Our tattoos disappeared after
the war, unlike those who were tattooed in
Auschwitz and would go to the grave with a number on their arm. The women on Schindler's List
were loaded on the train. We thought we were
going to Czechoslovakia to work for Schindler. In
the trains we were trapped like sardines. We couldn't move; people were fainting. There was no food
or water or air. After a very long journey, when the
train finally stopped and the door opened, we
could see miles and miles of barbwire. It was dark,
the spotlight was shining on our train and there
was a sign, Auschwitz-Birkineau. That's when we knew that what we had heard and wouldnt
believe was true. Auschwitz was a huge camp. There was Auschwitz One where they kept POWs,
religious prisoners, homosexuals, and more. Auschwitz Two had the gas chambers and the crematoriums and where all of the Jews were brought to be killed. Not all the victims were Jews, but all
Jews were victims. That night when we jumped out of the train, we were surrounded by heavily
armed soldiers with dogs that were trained to attack and kill us and tear us apart. When we ran,
we became aware of a horrible stench. It was late October near the beginning of November. We
were very thirsty. Snow started falling. We tried catching the snowflakes, but it was not snow but
ashes from the burning corpses.

i remember telling my
mother, i know we are
dead...because a place like
this shouldn t exist...

So when we were running, we were being herded like a bunch of cows. Germans were yelling
"Macht Schnell!" or "Hurry Up!" We came to a stop in front of a big barrack with a group of very
well fed and dressed Nazi officials. One had a whip in his hand. With a flick of the wrist, he sent
one woman to the left, and one to the right. We noticed that the one woman who went to the left
could barely walk. So we straightened up and pinched our cheeks. Luckily, my mother and I went
to the right with most of Oscar Schindler's women. When we got inside, we found out the man in
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charge was Doctor Mengele, called The Angel of Death. We were ordered to strip from head to toe
and put our clothes on the bench. Then we were shaved. He told us to go into the showers but
along with that, he said," Don't worry, you aren't going to the gas chambers." We were naked.
When they cut our hair, they didn't have very sharp scissors so along with our hair, they tore off
pieces of scalp. We were all bleeding, crying. Then we were sprayed with disinfectant on our open
wounds which burned. Next they sent us into a
room, which was so dark we didn't know what was
going to happen. All of a sudden, the light came
on and the cold water came down from what
seemed to be showerheads. It was water, not gas. I
looked at my mother and all the people that I had
come with and I didnt recognize them because
they shaved all their hair. We were so totally dehumanized and traumatized. I said to my mother,"
We've been killed. We're already deadbecause
look what's happening to us." Now that we were
dead, it didn't hurt so much to be killed. When
the shower stopped, we had no towels. We were pushed into a room with S.S women guards who
yelled, screamed, and beat us. They told us to grab anything on the floor, get everything we could,
and run. We all got wooden shoes and as soon as we put them on, we immediately got blisters
since they were always too small or too big. Then from the pile of clothing from the ground, I
found a yellow dress that belonged to a very fat lady. I was a skinny kid so I put the dress on and
tied it around me so I wouldn't trip. It was November and it was freezing cold. We were pushed
out of the barracks and started walking and looking around.
I remember again telling my mother," I know we are
deadbecause a place like this shouldn't exist" Auschwitz
was a horrible, horrible place. There were so many people
in all of the barracks. They looked like standing corpses.
They knew they were all waiting for the gas chambers, with
the crematoriums working day and night. You could smell
the stench. You could see the smoke of the burning corpses
from the chimneys. Ashes were falling down. Wherever we
looked there were nightmarish things. When we were finally
pushed into a barrack, there was no room.

When he left, i cried; we all

cried. it was like losing a
father again.

Permission granted by Rena Finder.

FindeR, Rena

The women on Schindler's List stayed at Auschwitz for

three and a half weeks. Very few people survived Auschwitz.
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We didnt have enough food and suffered from starvation. We found it extremely difficult to keep
clean. Every night and morning, we reported into lines being counted and counted. We stood
there for hours at a time. Wherever we went, it was muddy and cold. One day, one of the soldiers
took me and another girl and I thought they were going to kill us, but he said they weren't. We
were taken to a little barrack which was a clinic. It was a little house. There were nurses. And for
the first time in 4 years, I saw a bed covered with
white sheets. They explained that they were going
to take my blood to save a German soldier. It was
so insanely unbelievable that here in Auschwitz
where we were considered less than human, worse
than cockroaches, they were taking our blood to
save a German soldier. The good thing was that the
nurse was nice to us and gave us a slice of bread
and some liverwurst. I remember I saved some for my mother. I was so petrified I wouldnt be able
to find my barrack. Of course we weren't allowed to be by ourselves and the German soldier took
us back to the barrack. That truly was a miracle.

one of the first things we

ate was milk and honey.

After being there in Auschwitz for a couple of weeks, all of the Schindler women were rounded
up, taken to the showers, and actually given clothes, but we still wore our wooden shoes. I was glad
though not have to wear that tattered dress. We were boarded onto a train, still not knowing where
we were going. After a very long journey, the train stopped and the doors opened, and we saw
Oscar Schindler. He was so handsome and blonde. That's when we learned that Oscar Schindler
had sent one of his secretaries to the commander of Auschwitz with
bags of diamonds as a bribe to let us go. We were the only transport
of women to leave Auschwitz and live. Oscar Schindler said that he
would take care of us, that he had soup for us. We worked at his
factory and were well taken care of. My mother got a terrible infection in her gums.
Oscar Schindler had to bribe everyone so they would let us live.
And finally, one beautiful day, he told us that the war was ending.
He said that he had to flee because, as a Nazi, he would be killed by
the Russians if they found him. He would go to Austria and tell the
Americans how he saved some Jewish women. When he left, I
Permission granted by Rena
cried; we all cried. It was like losing a father again. We waited for
Finder.
about a week until one Russian soldier liberated us. The Russian soldier said," You are now being
liberated by the victorious Russian army." He told us he came from Poland and that when we come
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back, we wouldn't find any loved ones, that they were all killed. People who lived at Poland didn't
want us, but we wanted to go back. When we came back to Poland, which was in May 1945, we
found out that my grandfather, my mother, and I were the only survivors. Everyone else in our
family had been murdered. The only reason we survived was because of Oscar Schindler. He saved
us! Polish people weren't too happy to see us back. Life in Poland was impossible. So, we moved to
Austria. I was privately tutored. I was sixteen years
old then.

Remember, you are now an

eyewitness to my story and
i m counting on you to make
a difference.

So, how did you immigrate to the United States?

I was very fortunate once again. A friend named
Sonia Schreiber helped me. Her brother in law
had an uncle in the US and he brought her sister,
brother in law and her here. They then asked their
uncle for papers for me and my husband. My
mother remarried so I left her to go to the United
States. America had strict immigrating laws. The
United States didn't let us immigrate until the new
president came and changed these laws. Many people came here, even from South Africa. People also
went to the extent to smuggle people in. If they
were caught, well, bad things would happen. We had high expectations from the United States,
but it didn't go the way we expected.
When did you arrive in the U.S?
We arrived in the United States at November 1948.
Did you arrive by ship? Or airplane?
We arrived by ship, from a military transport. It was a horrible, horrible trip. It was also a bad time
of year to travel.

Permission granted by Rena

Finder.
FindeR, Rena

What was your first impression of America?

One of the first things we ate was milk and honey. We went to work
immediately after five days. A friend of ours got us an apartment.
Soon enough, we adapted, and bought furniture. I was amazed to
go to the supermarket, finding all the things you could buy, all the
food you could buy. It was difficult after the war to buy food in
Poland. I was also amazed to see how many people didn't know
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about the Holocaust. They always asked us how it was. They disliked hearing about it because of
all the hardships we went through. We lived a normal life, having children, educating them, and
then soon started to talk about the past again. We realized that we were the only eyewitnesses. We
had to talk about it because it was such a big tragedy. We expected that everyone would learn from
it, so that there would be no more genocide, no killing of innocent people. But that didn't happen.
There were more wars, the Korean War, the
Vietnam War. Still, people are being killed,
especially women and children. There is certainly
not enough help. The world is still imperfect. That
is why it is important for survivors to tell people
about the Holocaust. You are our only hope. You
have to understand that you cannot sit there and
do nothing. You cannot be a bystander because it's
as bad as being a perpetrator. You have to stand up
and make the biggest difference you can. You can
all make a big difference. If you see a friend being
bullied, you cannot stand by and do nothing. You have to tell your teachers, parents, and any adult.
Our future, the future of the world, is in your hands, the hands of the young people. You can write
a letter to your representatives, senators, to the president, and they will answer you. You have powers that you don't even realize you have. It comes with small steps. By hearing a survivor, you have
become an eyewitness. You know that we aren't going to be around much longer. I'm already 81
years old, so I don't have much time left. Remember, you are now an eyewitness to my story and
I'm counting on you to make a difference.

you have to stand up and

make the biggest difference
you can.

Rena is still teaching and hopes to continue. She is

married and has three daughters with six grandchildren.

heRe, naMe

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