As a child of 8, Ludwik Brylant escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto and survived the Shoah in hiding. Now 81 years old and living in Lublin, Ludwik receives services from Poland’s Central Jewish Welfare Commission through funding from the Claims Conference.
Ludwik’s childhood was marked by World War II. On his first day of first grade in September 1939, Poland was invaded by the German Army. “Sirens sounded, there was an alert and it was announced, ‘Attack on Poland, children go back to your homes.’ And the schools closed,” he recalls.
In 1940, young Ludwik, his older sister and their father were sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. His parents had divorced several years earlier and his mother left, never to be seen again. Ludwik’s father told him to try to escape and run to the home of a non-Jewish family friend. Twice, Ludwik jumped from an overpass onto the roof of a slowly moving tram below, only to get off at the first stop and be arrested by police and sent back to the Ghetto.
But Ludwik was successful the third time, in late 1941. “I jumped in and stooped down,” he says. “There was a man standing next to me and he pushed me farther down. There must have been a German sitting inside. The Pole pushed me harder and covered me. I could sense he was just trying to protect me. On the third tram stop outside of the ghetto he said to me, ‘Get off, run!’”
For three days he hid at the home of his father’s friend, who then took Ludwik to a priest in a nearby town. The priest hid the boy in a children’s home, and in December 1941, he was taken to the Sisters of Service convent in Turkowice, where he and about 30 other Jewish children were hidden by nuns for the duration of the war. Four nuns from that convent were honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for their work in saving Jewish children. His sister was saved by the same priest, but taken to a different orphanage.
After his studies, Ludwik worked as an electronic technician until he retired. He now lives with his wife in Lublin; two of their sons and their families also live in the city, and the third son lives with his family in Warsaw.
Ludwik says he is in good shape for a man his age, but his wife is ill and his Polish pension is very low. He has bad hearing, and suffers from heart disease, rheumatism and digestive problems. Through Claims Conference support of the Central Jewish Welfare Commission, Ludwik has received dentures and his hearing aid, which he could not do without, he says. He also has been able to visit the Srodborow elder retreat for Shoah survivors, which also receives allocations from the Claims Conference.
He also receives a pension from the Central & Eastern European Fund. Ludwik says he is grateful to the Claims Conference for its assistance. “I am happy and glad because assistance helps a lot.”