teaching the holocaust 2004 summer workshop - Southern Institute ...

Wojtyla was upset about our departure, and when he asked me why, I told him. Again
and again he said to me, ‘Not all Poles are anti-Semitic. You know I am not!’ I spoke
to him frankly and said that very few Poles were like him. He was very upset. But
Lolek was even more upset than his father. He did not say a word, but his face went
very red. I said farewell to him as kindly as I could, but he was so moved that he could
not find a single word in reply. So I just shook the father’s hand and left.”
Ginka met Karol Wojtyla fifty years later at St. Peter’s Square. When asked if he still
remembered her, the Pope replied, “Of course I do. You are Regina. We lived in the same
house. How is your sister, Helen?” When told that Ginka’s mother had died in Auschwitz
and the father had been murdered in the Soviet Union, the Pope “just looked at me, and
there was deep compassion in his eyes ... He took both my hands and for almost two minutes
he blessed me and prayed before me, just holding my hands in his hands. There were
thousands of people in the Square, but for just a few seconds there were just the two of us.”
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, 1,932 priests, 850 monks, and 289 nuns were killed.
Archbishop Sapieha said during the deportation of the Krakow Jews, “We are living through
the tragedy of those unfortunate people, and none of us is in a position to help them anymore
... and there is no difference between Jews and Poles.”
At the beginning of the Second World War, Wojtyla and his father lived in Krakow. The city
was quickly overrun by the Germans. Wojtyla was fortunate to find work in a German factory
and in a quarry, thereby obtaining a work card and avoiding deportation for forced labor. He
also worked with the underground theater, and wrote three dramas (all with Biblical themes).
He did not join the armed resistance. Wojtyla’s father died during the war, causing his son
terrific grief and loneliness. It was soon after the death of his father that Wojtyla decided to
become a priest. He joined the underground seminary. His patron was Archbishop Sapieha of
Krakow.
On February 29, 1944, while walking home from his job at the plant, Wojtyla was struck by
a German truck and left to die on the sidewalk. He suffered a brain concussion and was
unconscious for nine hours. A passerby on a tram, Jozefa Florek, noticed the figure lying on
the pavement and went to him. At that moment a German officer stopped, sized up the
situation, ordered Florek to retrieve water, washed Wojtyla’s face, and ordered a passing
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