Things becoming all the time worse. The caretaker was fantastic.

Sometimes Germans came in looking accommodation for the officers.

So what did the caretaker do? He changed the lock of the flat & said the owners were away & nobody can use this flat.

He was very clever, the caretaker. He changed the locks.

I can’t remember having a shower or a change of clothes.

The caretaker had a daughter my age. They had a problem: why is her mother now cooking a lot of food?

So the little girl had to be told about us, but she went to school & children often tell secrets they shouldn't.

So they actually threatened her to death, the people who saved our life, if she revealed anything to anybody.

The caretaker helped us because he was paid, but also because he was a communist. He disagreed with the Germans.

At first my uncle had a little money. Eventually it ran out.

But my uncle promised after the war that he'd be compensated. By that stage it was as bad for them as for us.

If they're caught, if they reveal they're hiding Jews, they are in same position.

They know they're going to be killed as well, if we get found.

Once we were nearly caught forever.

A drunken official came with about 20 soldiers, Hlinka Guard or Nazi, I do not know.

They said: we know there are Jews here, we are going to find them one way or another.

The caretaker took us down to the cellar. He'd carved a hole there.

We went 8 people into this hole, like sardines.

The size of this sofa, 8 people, lying together, when there was a rumour that the building is going to be searched.

I don't remember ever eating, or going to the toilet.

It was like you blocked it, are in a state of denial. You don't want to believe it happened.

Next to our hole, in the basement, soldiers used to come regularly to exercise.

A tiny wall between us & this big room where the soldiers were exercising.

If you cough, we had it. So we had this continental quilt with big feathers.

We all had it on our mouth, if you cough into the quilt you don't hear the echo.

Sometimes we were there for long time.

At night they left, so we could go out into the next part of the cellar.

I went to see it a few years ago. You can’t believe it, how small it was.

All I remember is, move, move, but where shall I move? There was only a wall & a pipe. It was so terrible.

When things quietened down we went back up to the flat. But then a new rumour that they're looking for Jews here.

The caretaker terribly quickly ran upstairs & told us: this is the end of it, we have to surrender now to the Gestapo because I can't take you down to the cellar.

I can’t take you anywhere, say goodbye, pray, do whatever you like, say goodbye to each other, that is that.

Believe me, he was in terrible danger too.

But this is what he did: the officer took away all the bunches of keys from every single flat that the caretaker had.

But what the caretaker did in 5 seconds: he slipped the old key into the chain & our new key was put away.

We could hear the officer coming from door to door.

We could hear them talking in the flat next to ours, but very merry, all laughing & joking.

I suppose they gave more drink – drink, drink, drinking all the time.

When they came out it was the turn of our flat & we could hear him.

He tried to enter the key in the keyhole.

It wouldn't go in, he couldn't get in.

So the caretaker said to him, listen, the only way we can break this door, we go downstairs & get some heavy instrument to break it.

For whatever reason, it’s not opening.

So he convinced the officer who was drunk, gave him more drink, went downstairs & he said, well, we have seen all the flats, didn't we? So now we can say goodbye.

It’s the only flat he didn't enter.

’Cos he was so drunk he didn't know what's happening & they said there's no more places to look.

This was our saving grace.

We couldn't hide anywhere in the flat. There was only one cupboard there.

Hiding there wouldn't have made any difference, we'd have been caught. This was the end of our life, would have been.

Then we were rescued by the Russians.

And trouble started with the Russians [laughs]

One story I forgot to tell you: Christmastime, the caretaker told me: I’m giving you a present.

He brought his little daughter to play with me.

It was something wonderful because I never saw a child my age.

But I didn't know how to talk to her anymore. I had nothing to talk to her about.

But I said one thing: if I survive this war I want to be a sportswoman. That was my whole dream: running, running, running.

I said to her, I’m going to race you & you never could catch me.

The war came over, I couldn’t walk any more. Because of lack of circulation our legs were so swollen. We didn't move.

When you don't move for a long time you can't just start.

So when the war was over, the girl said: Come on, let’s have a race. I couldn't even lift up my leg.

But I was determined to become a sportswoman. I become one, & reached quite a high level.

Running, swimming, handball, cycling. I trained for the Olympics. All my life was sports, sports, sports. Every possibility.

When I got out of the war something in me wanted to move. The running represent freedom to me, to move.

And if someone looked at me for longer than a few seconds I immediately thought: they're suspecting me of being Jewish.

Rumours started circulating that there's going to be a deportation.

So people were in panic, trying to find ways of saving themselves.

Escaping the ghetto into the forests, in the sewers, into the open.

Some had friends outside who’d perhaps save one or two members of the family.

And there were people who were doing it for money, saving Jews.

My father & uncle, Joseph Klein, were introduced to a man from Częstochowa, a beautiful town about an hour & a half away from Piotrków.

This man was willing to hide two Jewish girls during the deportations but he was doing it for money.

That was a business arrangement.

This man actually came from Częstochowa into the ghetto.

He was smuggled in.

I remember them sitting around the table & discussing things.

He was paid in advance & we were to travel to Częstochowa one at a time with him a week apart on false papers.

He'd pick me up first then come back for my cousin.

But my aunt pleaded with him that since they only had one child & I was one of 3, would they take my cousin first.

He said no, insisted on taking me first.

So he came back for me & a week later for my cousin.

Now, travelling itself was very scary because you're sitting in a train with a lot of people.

It was really terrifying.

There was actually a reward for handing in Jews, so there were people there on the lookout for Jews.

It was a scary journey but we both arrived there one at a time & found ourselves in a big house on the outskirts of Częstochowa with a middle-aged couple.

The man who made all the arrangements was their son-in-law, who lived around the corner with his wife & child.

These people weren’t particularly nice to us but they didn't ill-treat us.

They just left us alone.

We were very scared.

We were supposed to be relatives who'd come to stay from Warsaw – Warsaw because we would be not so easily identified from a large town as a small town.

My cousin Idzia was younger than I: she was 11 & I was 12.

She was so homesick she couldn't bear it.

She wanted to go home & she was told she can’t because the deportations were still happening.

But she said that her parents had very good friends in Piotrków who held all her family's valuables who would take her in.

So the man said OK, off they went.

I still languished there for what felt like a lifetime.

It didn't come into question that she could take me too & I wasn't asking to be taken.

On one occasion there was an engagement in the family & they took me with.

A German soldier was getting engaged to a Polish girl.

I was there with all these people & I was terrified.

I just hoped they wouldn't ask me any difficult questions.