Chose
na Silbergleit has few
memories of Warsaw
before the war, but she
will never forget the
oranges and the larvae.
Her mother, Rena
Rajchman, believed firm-
ly in the power of
Vitamin C. She insisted
her two children — Ina
and her older brother,
Richard — eat an orange
every day and get as
much sun as possible.
The jar of larvae was
one of Richard's science
projects. It is virtually
all Mrs. Silbergleit
remembers of Richard
who perished, along
with Ina's father,
Stanislaw Rajchman, in
the Holocaust.
Mrs. Silbergleit, who
__i today lives in
Huntington Woods, was
born in Warsaw. She
spent the war years in
the ghetto, where her
father headed a factory
where German uniforms
were repaired. And she
managed to survive
thanks to a strange SS
guard, who demanded
every penny her family
owned, but risked his life
to save them.
na Rajchman was
born in 1937 to a
wealthy, assimilated
Jewish family.
Her mother, Rena, was
the "pampered, darling
daughter" of a business-
man named H.L.
Mussman, who owned a
factory at 10 Srebrna
Street in Warsaw. The
family spoke German
and Polish, not Yiddish,
and moved easily within
the city's gentile commu-
nity.
Stanislaw Rajchman
loved opera and large
dogs and charmed - his
young sweetheart from
the moment they met.
"She thought he was a
I
At left:
Peddlers by Hein Jost.
Courtesy of Yad Vashem Archives
prince among men," Mrs.
Silbergleit says.
When Stanislaw and
Rena wed, her father set
up his new son-in-law in
business operating a lace
factory. The family lived
in a large home with a
courtyard in the back
and separate quarters
for the children, who also
had their own German
nanny. "It wasn't uncom-
mon then, but it certain-
ly was a privileged exis-
tence," Mrs. Silbergleit
says.
Though reports of the
Nazis increasing their
power came every day,
the Rajchmans refused to
believe they would be
affected.
"My mother was like
an ostrich with its head
in the sand," Mrs.
Silbergleit says. "She
always thought she was
`one of the people.' She
didn't believe anti-
Semitism existed."
In 1939,
Rena's
brother,
Abraham,
went to
New York
to set up
an exhibit
at the
World's
Fair. Rena
and Stan-
islaw were
set to join
him, but
then Rena's
father be-
came ill.
Rena and
Stanislaw
stayed to
care for
him (H.L.
Muss-
man's wife
had died
years ear-
lier of can-
cer). H.L.
died days before Hitler
occupied Poland.
By 1942, Abraham's
wife and two children
had been murdered.
Rena's sister, whom Mrs.
Silbergleit describes as
"a socialist, a real rebel,"
was making her escape
from the Nazis through
Russia when she died of
pneumonia. Ina, Richard
and their parents found
themselves in the
Warsaw Ghetto.
Their large, elegant
home and nearby factory
were incorporated into
the ghetto, where the
buildings became a cen-
ter for repairing German
uniforms. Stanislaw ran
the factory; his wife
cooked meals — usually
a watery soup, maybe
some bread and potatoes
— for the Jewish work-
ers.
Nazi officials had des-
ignated the facilities a
business and nothing
Fay years ago this week, the
destruction of the Warsaw
Ghetto began. Instead of going
, the laws inside revok-
ed, fighting the Nazis longer
than did the entire nation of
France. Today, load residents c !
recall life inside the ghetto,
and after the baffle.
39