Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust

As a four-year-old in Nowy Targ, Poland, Gustawa Singer lived an idyllic life. Her parents doted on her, and she was always surrounded by loving relatives. Her father worked in the hardware store owned by her grandfather, and the family prospered. Then, in 1939, everything changed: Hitler's army invaded Poland, and Gustawa's carefree childhood days of petting her dog, going to the candy store with Uncle Artur, and savoring her grandmother's fresh-baked challah were gone forever. Ultimately, the Nazis killed 2,000 of the 2,200 Jews in her small hometown. Gustawa's mother was transported to the death camp at Belzec, her father was assigned to forced labor, and Gustawa became separated from everyone she had ever known. Amidst the Nazis' vile hatred and appalling savagery, a compassionate stranger spotted Gustawa after her "caretaker" cousin abandoned her in Krakow. This kindhearted woman took her in and fed, clothed, and loved her at terrible risk to her own family. For Gustawa's protection, her name had to be changed several times. She survived the seemingly endless ordeal of the Holocaust and was eventually reunited with her father, who had never stopped searching for her. They emigrated to the United States where Janet grew up. Believing that the world must never forget the horrors unleashed by Hitler's regime, the woman who was now Janet Singer Applefield began a series of talks to middle- and high-school students, telling them the moving story of all she had endured, teaching them the power of courage and resilience in the face of bigotry and hate, and encouraging them to stand up to every kind of discrimination and injustice.