The Next Chapter Project: Ed Lichtman
“I Don’t Know What Normal Is”
By Sophia Koperweis
Berkeley High School
When most people think of their childhoods, they remember lighthearted and untroubled days filled with school, games, family, and friends. When talking to Holocaust survivor Ed Lichtman, I quickly understood that his childhood was quite the opposite.
Ed Lichtman was born on July 20, 1935, in Dobromil, Poland, a small village 100 miles southwest of Lvov, a large city. Ed's father, Joseph, worked at a family-owned lumber mill. His mother, Mathilda, was an attorney, an extremely uncommon profession for a woman at the time.
In 1939, Hitler and Stalin split Poland in two and annexed their respective portions, leaving Dobromil under Russian rule. On June 22, 1941, Dobromil was captured by the Germans while Hitler’s armies began to conquer Russia. At some point between 1939 and 1942, Ed's parents decided to move to Lvov. To this day, he does not know why his parents made that decision, but his theory is that under Russian occupation, the anti-capitalist sentiment would have made the lumber mill difficult to operate.
Life in Lvov
At around 6 years of age, you learn to read, write, and color in the lines. Your main concerns usually consist of remembering your ABCs and not getting found in a game of hide-and-seek. When Ed was 6, he essentially began life on his own.
Like all other Jews in Lvov, the Lichtmans lived in a ghetto. When Ed's father heard rumors that the ghetto was being liquidated, the family decided to go into hiding.
Ed and his mother were supposed to leave Lvov—to stay with a Catholic woman and pose as her relatives—while Ed's father would stay with another Catholic family and go into complete hiding. This plan was abruptly altered when Ed’s mother was arrested by German officers.
It was early 1942. Ed was almost 7 years old. He and his mother were visiting his aunt to say goodbye before going into hiding. His aunt lived in a nice flat with easy access to all of the other apartments. A Nazi officer, wanting the flat for himself, arrested Ed’s aunt to claim it. Ed and his mother were in the wrong place at the wrong time. His mother asked the Nazi to release Ed, and he agreed. Before parting, his mother gave Ed instructions: run home, tell your father what happened and where the false documents are hidden. It was the
last time he saw her.
Ed made it back to the apartment somehow and did as he was told. He was unaware of the war and of the danger his mother was in. To him, life as he experienced it was normal.
A New Identity
The next thing Ed remembered was being in a village somewhere in Poland. From 1942 to 1945, he lived with an older woman and posed as her nephew. She was a former teacher who homeschooled Ed because it was too risky for him to attend school. Despite a few close calls—such as the time he stood in front of his neighbors’ Christmas tree and announced that he never celebrated Christmas at home—his true identity remained a secret throughout. His life was saved.
After the war ended, Ed’s Cousin Dela came to get him from the small village. Ed was reunited with his father. They moved into an apartment in Krakow, Poland, with Dela and her daughter Ruth. Ed asked about his mother. His father told him that she had not survived the war.
For many, memories of their childhood are filled with mixed recollections and emotions. Ed wrote in his memoirs, “I was robbed. The Holocaust robbed me of my youth, robbed me of having parents, and robbed me of having friends. More specifically, the robbers were the Germans. Even now … I cannot forgive them.”
At the age of 7, most children are not running messages from one parent to the other, unaware that such messages might be the last between the two. At 7, most children can adjust to changing circumstances, but not circumstances that include living in the unique hell of a racist war. Ed’s life, his hope, and his strength are a testament to the human spirit. He is a free man, but will most likely never be free of the Holocaust and his very unlikely survival.
Bibliography
Ed Lichtman, interview by Sophia Koperweis, January 29, 2011.
www.ushmm.org
Ed Lichtman, Holocaust and Beyond- My Memoirs. (2008)
Next Chapter Project Binder (pp.1 – 237)
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