Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Great Love

It happened exactly 66 years ago today. Yes, the date was July 21, 1944. The place was Hitler’s concentration camp for jews in Auschwitz.

Jerzy Bielecki was walking along with his Jewish sweetheart, Cyla Cybulska, towards the exit gate. Jerzy was wearing a stolen German Nazi SS uniform. They nervously approached the German guards at the gate. The guards looked suspiciously at Jerzy’s forged pass and eyed the two for a long time. Finally the guard said the sweetest words: Ja Danke (Yes, Thank You) and let Jerzy and Cyla out of the death camp and into freedom.


Prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp used to say that the only way out was through crematorium chimneys. Jerzy and Cyla were one of the very few to escape from here.

The 23 year old Jerzy was a German speaking Catholic from Poland. In 1940, the Germans falsely suspected him as a resistance fighter and arrested and brought him to Auschwitz. From 1942, large number of jews were arrested and brought to this concentration camp. One of them was Cyla. Most of the jews were sent to gas chambers. Some were kept (to be sent to gas chambers later) to do hard work. Cyla was one of them.

While doing hard work at the concentration camp, Jerzy met Cyla. Their friendship grew into love. As their love blossomed, Jerzy started to work on a daring escape plan.

From another prisoner who was working in the “uniform department”, he got a German Nazi SS Uniform and a forged pass. He told Cyla “Tomorrow an SS-man will come to take you for interrogation and that SS-man will be me”.

The next day, July 21, 1944, Jerzy wore his stolen German Nazi SS uniform and arrived at the yard where Cyla was working. He demanded the German supervisor to release this woman for interrogation. Jerzy led her out of the barrack and onto a long path leading to a side gate where the guards finally let them go through.

They walked out with fear that any minute a bullet would hit their head. They stayed in hiding during the day and walked through fields for 9 nights before they reached Jerzy’s uncle’s house. At one time, Cyla was too tired to walk. She told Jerzy to abandon her and go to his uncle’s house by himself. And, he said:

“Cyla, we fled together. We will walk on together. I am not going to abandon you”. He sometimes carried her. Jerzy’s mother who was living with his uncle was overjoyed to see his son.

They were going to marry. But fate intervened. In 1945, Soviet Army entered Poland and in the confusion Jerzy and Cyla were separated. Cyla thought Jerzy was killed and eventually immigrated to New York. Jerzy settled in Poland.

They both wanted to see other in case both of them were alive. Their wish came true one day. In 1982, Cyla was telling her Auschwitz escape story to a polish woman. She said she heard the same story from a man in the Polish television.

She tracked down his phone number and one day in May 1983, she called him on the phone. When the phone was answered she said: Jerzy, this is me, your little Cyla.

After a few weeks they met at the Krakow Airport. He brought 39 Red Roses, one for each year they spent apart. Cyla died in New York in 2002.

Jerzy, now 89, said in an interview: It was great love.

33 comments:

  1. Nicely written SG...a very touching story and I got to agree it is great love

    PS. Thank you for the comments...

    ReplyDelete
  2. How inspiritional,a truly beautiful story of a love that survived despite all the odds.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your commens Aparna. And, welcome to my blog. Yes, it is a very touching story.

    Aparna, please visit here as often as possible. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for your comments Radha. It is a great story.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for your comments Petty Witter. Yes, it is a beautiful story of love.

    ReplyDelete
  6. So very touching. Thanks for sharing this, SG!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for your comments Titaxy. I am glad you liked this post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. that is such an amazing story... so touching and beautiful... thanks for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for your comments Rajlakshmi. Yes, it is an amazing story.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very touching story.. True love.. there is another book on the concentration camp i read the named The Night..

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for your comments Swatantra. Night is an excellent book. It is written by Elie Wiesel who wrote his personal experience about the time he and his family spent in Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Beautiful story SG I was spell bound :) Amazingly well written!!
    Reminds me a bit of Anne Franks diary that I read years back , and it still lingers on, as I could never come to terms with the fact that the innocent young girl died in a concentration camp!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for your comments Sana. Your comment moved me. I have personally visited some of these concentration camps. Words cannot describe the atrocities that were comitted. People were put to gas en mass. New born children were hit with a baseball bat to see (research) how long they can survive. Disgusting.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks for dropping by....A very inspiring story. Yes, true love survives against all odds...I remember watching Escape From Sorbibor, and till this day I haven't forgotten the horrific details about concentration camps.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow! Getting goose bumps reading the story... Thank you for sharing.

    ~ NRIGirl

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks for your comments Neena. Concentration camp stories are so painful.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks for your commens NRIGirl. Very sad and painful experience in concentration camps.

    ReplyDelete
  18. It was true love...Love is always like this or should be like this..makes even others feel so good and inspires even.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks for your comments Renu. These type of storeis inspire us.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Truelove surmounts all the obstcles and Triumphs..Good post .

    ReplyDelete
  21. That made me cry. They are blessed to be able to meet after all those years. Thanks for the nice write up SG

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thanks for your comments Chitra. I am glad you liked this post.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Thanks for your comments Stranger. And, welcome to my blog. Yes, they both are blessed people.

    Stranger, please don't be a stranger to this blog. Please visit here as often as possible. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  24. SG, yove been to such camps...Im horrified to know what all happened in them!When man quits the feeling of being humane , he become worse than an animal...animals can never be blind towards pain...but unfortunately man can!
    No one can stay happy after being brutal.....history had innumerable example that continue till date.

    ReplyDelete
  25. well suddenly i somehow related this to seven years in tibet movie... ana theriyala y! :( .... touche!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Thanks for your comments Sana. I have seen one in Belzec. But never been to Auschwitz. Nazi regime was worse than an animal.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Thanks for your comments HaRy. The only comparison I can see is that in this movie, when the prisoners escape from a British POW camp, they wore stolen British military uniform. Just like this guy (Jerzy) wore a German Nazi SS uniform.

    ReplyDelete
  28. What a well-written, touching post! It was inspirational and tells us to believe in the power of true love, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Wow.. Lucky both is all I can say :-0 Remarkable!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Thank you for dropping by and leaving such an interesting comment on my blog.
    To think in times of danger too people fell in love, planned the escape, and reached their destination safely. Only thing was they were not to be united.
    Anyway at least they met again.
    I am your follower, and you are welcome to visit my blogs anytime.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Oh wow this story is even more touching than the titanic movie. A movie should be made on this. True Love.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Amazing story SG -- thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete