"I Felt The Baby Move" Wanda Lurie
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"The next shots hit my younger children and me. I fell on my right side. The shot I suffered was not fatal. The bullet hit the left side of my neck, went through the lower part of the skull, and out through my right cheek. I got a maternal hemorrhage. I spat out a few teeth together with the bullet. The left side of my head and body felt numb. But I remained conscious and was able to see almost everything that was happening around me.
I felt the baby move."
On August 5, 1944, 4 days after the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising. German lead death squads moved into the Wola district of Warsaw ordered to kill anything that moves. Wanda Lurie, a Polish, Catholic woman, and her three children were hiding in the basement of their building when they were discovered. They were rounded up with thousands of other other civilians and forced marched to a designated location to be executed. The event became known as the Wola Massacre . Wanda survived the massacre and gave testimony at the Warsaw District Court on December 10, 1945.
Her story is a first hand account of an execution, of unimaginable suffering, loss, and survival.. Her story brought me to the Wola massacre. I traced her path from the area where she and her family lived which now has a small park called "Wanda Lurie square" with a mural of her and her son, to the former Ursus factory where she and her children were shot along with 7,000 other residents, to the church were she and others were held until being sent to a transit station.
The following is from her testimony given at the Warsaw District Court on December 10, 1945
"I lived with my family in Warsaw at Wawelberga Street 19, flat 30, from 1937."
"Until 5 August 1944, I stayed in the basement with my three children, aged 11, 6 and 3-and-a-half, myself being in the last month of pregnancy. On that day at 12 noon or 1 p.m. German gendarmes and “Ukrainians” entered our courtyard, ordering civilians to get out of the house immediately. When the residents in the basements on the courtyard side got out, the gendarmes threw incendiary grenades into the basements. People panicked and rushed out."
Wanda Lurie Square: Former area of her residence.
Women and children being led by German troops along Wola’s Wolska Street, to an execution site in early August 1944.
"I was brought into the factory grounds in the last group. In the factory yard I saw piles of corpses as high as one meter. There were corpses lying in several places, all over the left and right side of the first courtyard. I recognized neighbors and acquaintances among the dead."
"holding in my right hand the hands of my younger children and in my left hand the hand of my eldest son. The children walked crying and praying. My oldest son, seeing the dead, was yelling that they would kill us, too. At one point a “Ukrainian” standing behind us shot my eldest son in the back of his head. The next shots hit my younger children and me. I fell on my right side. The shot I suffered was not fatal. The bullet hit the left side of my neck, went through the lower part of the skull, and out through my right cheek. I got a maternal hemorrhage. I spat out a few teeth together with the bullet. The left side of my head and body felt numb. But I remained conscious and was able to see almost everything that was happening around me."
"I felt the baby move."
Ursus Factory 1944
Ursus Factory Memorial 7,000 killed
"The rest, including myself, were herded into Saint Adalbert Church on Wolska Street. On the way, I saw corpses and body parts scattered in the road and on the sidewalks. Groups of Poles under guard were removing the corpses. The German officers standing in front of the church greeted us with shoving, beating, and kicking. The church was already full of Varsovians from various districts. I spent a couple of days lying next to the main altar. I received no help."
Wanda Lurie survived the war. She and other Wola survivors were transported to transit stations and eventually to the red cross. She gave birth to her son. Her testimony is a powerful example of human resilience and survival.
Following her journey, visiting the locations, was another touching in of desired goals on my journey.
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