Conversations with Regina

Posted at 7:21 PM, Monday, October 30, 2006

I am about halfway through the Holocaust memoir "Conversations with Regina." Regina Zielinski is the last living person in Australia who survived the concentration camp uprising at Sobibor in 1943. About 500 Jews and Russian soldiers were imprisoned in the Polish camp at the time of the escape on 14 October. Eleven SS officers were assassinated, and there followed a mad break through the fence. By the time the day ended, 300 of the prisoners had been killed, but 200 lived to tell the tale.

Reading the book is a surreal experience, because Regina is a member of my congregation. I visited with her today, along with her son Andrew, who actually wrote the book. (http://www.conversationswithregina.com/author.htm) Regina is now a tiny, spry 81-year-old woman who walks at least half an hour each day and lectures tirelessly to school groups about her experiences. She welcomed me into her immaculate home, fed me sweets and tea, and then insisted on sending me home with more sweets when I expressed appreciation for her baking.

Regina's story is different from many Holocaust tales I've read because she received significant, life-saving assistance from Polish friends. After she escaped from Sobibor, Regina was able to obtain a birth certificate from a Catholic woman her age, was given train fare to go to Lublin, and got working papers to go to Germany. On several occasions, Polish Catholic families from her hometown offered to hide her, but she refused to allow them to take such a risk. She survived the war living as a Catholic woman in Germany and eventually came to Australia to settle. I'll know more when I read farther in the book!

Today, Regina's life revolves around her son Andrew, who was diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis in 1996. He has written an additional book "Conversations with Andrew" which chronicles the dramatic transition in his life from abled to disabled. Today, he has lost the use of all of his limbs except his left arm and hand, and he is beginning to experience weakness there as well. His mother lives directly across the street from him and looks after him during the times of the day when there is no caregiver available for him. She shakes her head sadly and says, "I saw terrible things in the war, but this is much worse."