Janet Singer Applefield
"Becom­ing Janet: Find­ing Myself in the Holocaust"
Thursday, May 8 | 6:30pm
Temple Beth-El, 118 South Grand Ave, Poughkeepsie 12603
 

"Becom­ing Janet: Find­ing Myself in the Holocaust"
Janet Singer Applefield

National Jewish Book Awards Finalist 2024
Review By Amy Gar­cia– October 7, 2024

Becom­ing Janet is a wor­thy addi­tion to the canon of Holo­caust lit­er­a­ture that recounts the expe­ri­ences of hid­den chil­dren. Draw­ing from her own mem­o­ries record­ed short­ly after the war, her father’s writ­ten account of his expe­ri­ence dur­ing the Holo­caust, and painstak­ing research con­duct­ed by a his­to­ri­an in Poland as well as by mem­bers of her fam­i­ly, Janet Singer Apple­field — born as Gustawa Singer — pro­vides a com­pelling account of how she sur­vived the Holo­caust as a hid­den child. The book also offers read­ers insight into the lit­tle-known his­to­ry of the vio­lent anti­semitism that was direct­ed toward Jew­ish orphans after the war ended.
In August 1942, after almost three years of liv­ing an itin­er­ant life with her fam­i­ly in order to escape the Nazis, Gustawa and her par­ents met a cross­roads. An Aktion had been announced, requir­ing all Jews to report to a ghet­to out­side of Krakow for depor­ta­tion. Fear­ing that sev­en-year-old Gustawa would not sur­vive the Aktion, her par­ents made the ago­niz­ing deci­sion to sep­a­rate from her, leav­ing her care to a cousin’s nan­ny. This fate­ful deci­sion by her par­ents saved Gustawa’s life — but at a tremen­dous cost.
Over the next three years, Gustawa was shut­tled between fam­i­ly and strangers. She was forced to sup­press her true iden­ti­ty in order to pass as a young Pol­ish Catholic girl named Krysia, which took a real emo­tion­al toll. Like oth­er hid­den chil­dren of the Holo­caust, she became ​“con­di­tioned to believe that it was vital to [her] sur­vival to keep secrets, hide, lie, and steal.” Apple­field describes in heart­break­ing detail the unspeak­able cru­el­ty and hatred vis­it­ed upon her over this peri­od, includ­ing by rel­a­tives entrust­ed to keep her safe. But she also details the incred­i­ble com­pas­sion shown to her by total strangers, often at great per­son­al risk to themselves.
When the war end­ed, Krysia found her­self in the care of a male cousin who used Krysia’s Aryan looks to have her con­firmed in the Catholic Church. With her con­fir­ma­tion cer­tifi­cate in hand, which he used to pass him­self off as Catholic, he cal­lous­ly dis­card­ed Krysia at an orphan­age run by the Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter in Krakow. Recount­ing her time in the orphan­age, Apple­field reveals the rabid anti­semitism that endured long after the war end­ed. She describes in bru­tal detail the vio­lent pogroms that erupt­ed on the streets of Krakow and the mobs that would attack the cen­ter, attempt­ing to kill the Jew­ish chil­dren housed inside.
Mirac­u­lous­ly, Kyrsia’s father sur­vived the war and even­tu­al­ly found her in the orphan­age. Once reunit­ed, they decid­ed that there was noth­ing left for them in Poland, so they immi­grat­ed to the Unit­ed States, where they had fam­i­ly. Once again, Krysia had to adopt a new name and a new life. This time, she became Janet.
Becom­ing Janet is a pow­er­ful and cap­ti­vat­ing sto­ry about how one lit­tle girl brave­ly hid her iden­ti­ty, bat­tling and over­com­ing hate to sur­vive the Holocaust.