Katarzyna Meloch was born in Łódź on May 7, 1932. After her father was drafted and her mother was arrested, Katarzyna Meloch was placed in a Jewish children's home on Częstochowska Street in the Białystok ghetto, where she stayed for about half a year. From there, thanks to the efforts of her uncle Jacek Goldman, she was transported to his home on Elektoralna Street 12 in the Warsaw ghetto. In August 1942, she was led out of the ghetto by a nurse (an operation organized by her uncle) and met her maternal grandmother, Michalina, who had also escaped from the ghetto earlier. She stayed in the Father Boduen Emergency Care for Children, where she received a false identity, Irena Dąbrowska. Then, until the end of the war, she stayed in the Sisters Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary Children's Home in Turkowice. After the war, she moved with her uncle Jacek Goldman's wife in Saska Kępa. She attended the 12th Maria Curie-Skłodowska State Junior High School and High School. She ran away from her uncle's wife to her paternal grandmother, who had returned from Siberia with her daughter. She studied Polish philology; initially she worked as an academic, later she decided to work in journalism. She has a daughter, a grandson, and a granddaughter. Katarzyna Meloch passed away on July 26, 2021. INTERVIEWEE'S NAME: Katarzyna Meloch INTERVIEW BY: Jagna Kofta RECORDING: Józef Markiewicz DATE OF RECORDING: December 20, 2018 COPYRIGHT TO THE RECORDING: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews MOST IMPORTANT THREADS: 00:00:04 – Childhood, studying at a Jewish school, the atmosphere of the family home. The religious and national identity of the interviewee's family. English: 00:06:03 – Escape from Warsaw to Białystok, plan to save the interviewee, arrest of the mother. 00:10:51 – Placement in a Jewish orphanage in the Białystok ghetto. 00:12:25 – The fate of Białystok Jews relocated to Częstochowa. 00:13:11 – Description and history of the family home in Warsaw. Childhood and family situation, sense of national identity of the interviewee’s parents. 00:17:22 – Father’s scientific work, mother’s education and professional work. 00:21:48 – Parents’ political views, mother’s dedication to father’s scientific career. Memories of childhood with uncle. 00:28:07 – Arrival from the orphanage in Białystok to her uncle’s house in the Warsaw ghetto. 00:32:50 – Stay in the orphanage in Białystok, hunger in the Białystok ghetto, the will to survive. English: 00:37:24 – Loss of a toy during the bombing in 1939. 00:40:28 – Stay in an orphanage in Turkowice. 00:44:59 – The figure of Jadwiga Deneka. Escape from the ghetto, meeting with Jadwiga Deneka and the interlocutor’s grandmother Michalina. 00:50:44 – Arrested by the Jewish police in the ghetto, rescued by the grandmother. 00:54:04 – Life with grandmother after leaving the ghetto. Hiding the interlocutor in the ghetto after being arrested by the police and her uncle’s decision to take her out of the ghetto. 00:56:28 – Rescue of Jewish children by Jews and Poles. 00:58:27 – Meeting with grandmother at the Emergency Care Facility, grandmother’s further fate. 01:03:45 – Reflection on the passing of loved ones. English: 01:06:04 – Jadwiga Deneka's concern for the interviewee's safety, her arrest and death. 01:09:47 – The circumstances of Jacek Goldman's death. 01:14:28 – Longing for dolls. 01:17:26 – Obtaining a false identity. 01:20:09 – The activities of the nuns in Turkowice and their cooperation with Inspector Jarmulski and Jan Dobraczyński. 01:25:02 – Efforts to award the nuns and Jan Dobraczyński with the Righteous Among the Nations medals. Dobraczyński's account of saving Jewish children in cooperation with a German doctor. 01:35:06 – Transfer to Turkowice, living conditions in the orphanage, Sister Irena. Relationships with peers in Turkowice, joint singing, Jewish children in the orphanage. English: 01:49:48 – Family photos at an exhibition organized by Gołda Tencer, a letter from a man who remembers Jacek Goldman. 01:52:24 – The fate of Michał Głowiński and a friend from Konin. 01:57:29 – Unawareness of the end of the war. 02:02:09 – Living with my uncle's wife after the war, studying at school, catching up. Work and the birth of a child. 02:07:05 – Escape from my uncle's wife to my paternal grandmother, adult life after my grandmother's death. 02:11:43 – The impact of war experiences. 02:19:08 – Views on Jewish tradition and the sense of Jewish identity, reflections on the interviewee's generation. 02:32:58 – My mother's escape to her father before her daughter was born, the search for otherness. 02:38:12 – The connection with Jewish tradition and the Jewish community. Discover the POLIN Museum's oral history collection: https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/historia-mow... 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