Tag #157204 - Interview #78001 (Salomea Gemrot)

Those friends of mine couldn't do anything for me, because they didn't have a place for me, they had been helping me for such a long time, they had used up all possibilities. But their son, Wilus, helped me and said he would marry me to cover the tracks. And that's what happened. This husband of mine was a very decent man - very. He was ready to do anything... anything. He took me from there at night to his kitchenette in Tarnow and wondered what to do with me. In the morning he took me to a small settlement near Krynica, I don't remember the name, to find a place for me there. I didn't stay, because my husband didn't like the conditions which they were offering me and he said, 'You'll go back with me.' And those friends of mine from my home village, the Wisniowski family, changed my documents to say I was married and my last name was Gemrot, they managed to get an official stamp saying that I was a wife and they even went to the local priest for this. And then no one could say anything, because I had a name that was not a wartime name. Because before that I had some pretty bad wartime names. [The interviewee used the names Maria Tomaka and Maria Kloc when in hiding.] Well, but my in-laws didn't like it, they didn't say anything, but they were suspicious. They didn't denounce me only because they were afraid there would be joint responsibility for this... And I couldn't be touched because of that name. They couldn't. No one had the courage to denounce me.