From September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, my Jewish mother had no official identification. In 1940, her best friend gave my mother her papers and Adela Bigajer became Steffi, a Catholic Polish girl. She volunteered to work in Germany. First assigned to a beaver farm, she later transferred to a factory.  

When Germany surrendered, she decided to return to her Polish village to find her family. Crossing borders without papers was difficult, many train stations had been bombed and the stories of drunken Russian soldiers raping women was terrifying. She discovered that her parents had survived. Their reunion was bittersweet as most of their extended family had been exterminated and they realized that it wasn’t safe for Jews in Poland. She ended up in a Displaced Persons camp in Landsberg, Germany where she met my father. Both had relatives in America and they desperately wanted to emigrate.

On September 5, 1946, the US Consulate General in Munich issued her a Certificate of Identity in Lieu of Passport. While much of the personal information is incorrect – date of birth, location of birth (Germany), occupation (gardener) and even her name (Adele Bigajer), this document gave her the ability to immigrate to America. On January 3, 1947 she sailed to New York. Six years later she became a naturalized American citizen and treasured her U.S. passport. She never returned to Poland or Germany but did use her passport to travel to France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland. 

– Annette Orenstein

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant