This is the testimony of Janet Applefield (born Gustava/"Giga"), a Jewish child survivor from Kraków, Poland, one of only 11 children to survive a specific camp. She was 4 when the war began and was eventually given away by her parents to save her life.
Story Highlights
- The family's world before the war A warm, multi-generational Jewish family. Janet was pampered as the first grandchild. Her "Aryan appearance" (blonde, green eyes) would become a survival tool.
- The invasion and flight (1939) German bombing began September 1. The family fled east toward Russia, dodging low flying aircraft (German strafen ("to punish")), crossing rivers on foot. Her father found them through a newspaper ad.
- Russia two tragedies Two uncles were lured to a "town hall for jobs," marched to a ravine, and shot. Her grandparents, who refused to return to Poland, were deported to Siberian slave labor.
- Return to Nazi-occupied Poland Her father was arrested as a suspected communist. Jews were forced to wear armbands. Gestapo raided homes for valuables. The family tried to escape by train.
- The escape attempt that failed August 1942 a moonlit night, a horse and wagon, and Polish "blue police" who beat the family with clubs until they bled. No place to hide.
- The agonizing decision Her parents separated to improve the odds of one surviving. They gave Janet to Maria, a cousin's nanny. Her last words from her parents: "Be good, be strong, be brave we will be reunited soon." ("Be strong and courageous")
- Bełżec death camp Approximately 12,000 people were assembled in an open field. Men selected for slave labor. Elderly and children shot into mass graves. The remaining 53 boxcars traveled 5 days to Bełżec. 600,000 murdered in 6 months. Janet's mother, grandmother, aunt, and 3-year-old cousin Anushka were among them.
- Hidden with cousin Lala / false Catholic identity Janet became "Krisha" (Christina Antoshevich) — identity taken from the birth certificate of a dead Catholic girl, obtained from a Catholic priest. Lala was cruel, beating Janet with a fireplace poker and telling her "Your mother is dead, she's never coming back."
- Abandoned in Kraków Left alone in a church at 7 years old when Lala was arrested by the Gestapo. A woman found her weeping on the street and sheltered her. She was eventually placed on a Catholic Church-owned farm.
- Survival through performance When the blue police arrived at the farm, Janet instinctively sang and danced to distract them. They laughed, drank vodka, and left.
- Plaszów concentration camp / reunion with father Her father survived a gunshot wound to the face with no medical treatment. After liberation, they reunited. They eventually emigrated to the U.S. via Paris.
- Legacy Janet earned a BA and master's degree, raised three children, lost her oldest son David six years ago. She testified before the Massachusetts legislature, which then mandated Holocaust education. She authored Becoming Janet, with her grandson designing the cover.
Christian Concepts That Were Ignored or Violated
These are the theological failures the testimony exposes — many perpetrated by people who identified as Christian.
1. Imago Dei — Every person bears God's image Genesis 1:26–27 is foundational. The Nazi ideology systematically stripped Jews of human dignity — armbands, ghetto walls, boxcars, mass graves. To dehumanize is to deny the image of God in another person. Many perpetrators were baptized Christians.
2. "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39) Jesus called this the second greatest commandment. The "blue police" — Polish, nominally Christian — beat a bleeding father and his terrified family with clubs for trying to survive. Collaboration with evil is not neutrality; it is a direct violation of this command.
3. "Do not murder" (Exodus 20:13 / Matthew 5:21–22) Jesus expanded this to include contempt and hatred. Six million Jews were murdered. The command was not merely broken — it was institutionalized.
4. Protection of the vulnerable (Psalm 82:3–4; Isaiah 1:17) "Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed." Janet was a 7-year-old child wandering alone, weeping on a Kraków street. Most walked past. The biblical call to protect the vulnerable was culturally abandoned.
5. Hospitality to strangers (Hebrews 13:2; Leviticus 19:34) "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers." The Jewish people were strangers in occupied lands — and were hunted rather than sheltered. Hebrews 13:2 echoes the angelic hospitality theme that runs through all of Scripture.
6. Silence in the face of injustice (Proverbs 31:8–9; Ezekiel 3:18) "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves." Many European churches were silent. Pope Pius XII's silence remains one of the most contested failures of institutional Christianity in the 20th century. Silence, biblically, is complicity.
7. Bearing false witness / propaganda (Exodus 20:16) Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda was the engine of genocide. Dehumanizing lies — that Jews were vermin, communists, sub-human — were spread through a society with deep Christian roots. Falsehood in service of hatred violates the 9th commandment at a civilizational scale.
8. Antisemitism rooted in theological distortion Replacement theology, misapplied "Christ-killer" rhetoric, and centuries of church-sanctioned anti-Jewish prejudice created the cultural soil in which genocide grew. This is a painful indictment. Malachi 3:6 — "I the LORD do not change; so you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed" — stands as God's own covenant fidelity against any theology that writes Israel off.
Where Christian Conscience DID Appear
The testimony is not without grace. Several people acted on what Christian conscience demands:
| Person | Act |
|---|---|
| Alicia Goa | Sheltered a weeping, abandoned 7-year-old stranger at great personal risk |
| The Catholic farm administrator | Hid Janet on church-owned land |
| The Catholic priest | Provided a birth certificate that became a survival document |
| The unknown woman under the cape | The woman who pulled Janet close in the street, the most Christlike act in the story |
| The German foreman | Slipped Janet's father extra bread in the concentration camp |
These are echoes of the Righteous Among the Nations people who, at risk of death, chose the costly path of obedience. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it "the view from below." Janet's testimony is ultimately a call back to that standard.
Janet's own conclusion: "The smallest acts of kindness have a ripple effect... I am the voice of all those people whose voices were so brutally taken from them."
That is, at its core, a profoundly biblical statement and a rebuke to every generation that forgets it.
