Krystyna Carmi

Krystyna Carmi was born in Obertyn, Poland. Her father was a photographer by profession. Initially, she attended a Ukrainian school in Obertyn. Further education was interrupted by the war, when the town was under the management of the Ukrainian and German Nazis and Krystyna, as a nine-year-old girl, was exiled with her family and all other Jews from Obertyn to the ghetto in Kolomyja. The living conditions in which Obertyn Jews had to live are described in the poem Molasa-Ghetto Sweets; she...See more

Krystyna Carmi was born in Obertyn, Poland. Her father was a photographer by profession. Initially, she attended a Ukrainian school in Obertyn. Further education was interrupted by the war, when the town was under the management of the Ukrainian and German Nazis and Krystyna, as a nine-year-old girl, was exiled with her family and all other Jews from Obertyn to the ghetto in Kolomyja. The living conditions in which Obertyn Jews had to live are described in the poem Molasa-Ghetto Sweets; she shows in a detailed way the psychological and physical suffering caused by hunger. The open mouth and eyes of these human corpses have been hunting me all my life . . . Then she escaped from the ghetto with her parents. Her sisters were murdered and her parents executed. After the loss of her entire family she was adopted in 1944 by the Gaczynski family, who took care of her further education. In March 1945, when the Ukrainian Bandera increased persecution of Poles, including Kolomyja, the Gaczynski family agreed to return to their homes in Brzesko. Krystyna moved to Jordanow home for orphans, called Our House, where she attended high school. Since 1958 Krystyna has lived in Israel. She is married with two children and five grandchildren. See less