European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

A lot of children taken out from the ghetto went to the monastery.

Monasteries were very helpful.

All monasteries in the Warsaw areas, I know about ten or fifteen cases, as me myself took part in it.

I was settling documents, or delivering the birth certificate or taking one to the monastery.

Because it was not that that I was taking a kid directly to a monastery, no.

I was taking it to, let us say, to Karczew and there,

in Karczew I was passing this kid to somebody else and the next person took it to the monastery.

That is why we have so many priests…

When you look at them, you can see they are Jews.

It cost a lot.

If you went to a priest, you had to put money on the tray so that he could give you a birth certificate.

Because it was a risk for him, too.

If it had been noticed, that he was a person who made out this birth certificate and that somebody died

and the next birth certificate was made out, because he had to cancel the certificate of death.

He had to change everything in books to make sure there was no discovery.

All needed the time, organization and contacts... and insolence and impudence.

All advantages and disadvantages that a human being can have.

To get a birth certificate from a priest, you had to give a bribe.

Later on, to make `Kennkarte`, usually the price for it was about one thousand Zloties or more.

Then photos, then to find a photographer. It had to be organized perfectly.