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ABSTRACT: Describes how some Jews survived on "Aryan papers" in Poland during World War II and how the experience of passing as non-Jewish influenced survivors. Discusses the role of attachment theory, "true self" and "false self," and posttraumatic stress disorder. Unless otherwise referenced, personal testimonies in this article are drawn from the book Holocaust and Identity: Polish Jews Who Survived on "Aryan Papers": Analyzing Biographic Experience, by Polish sociologist Malgorzata Melchior,1 and from an original tape-recorded interview with Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser2 and Apolonia ("Pola") Gorzkowska-Nikodemska.3
On October 15, 1941 the German authorities in occupied Poland posted a decree announcing that departure of any Jewish person from the ghetto was punishable by death, and that anyone offering any kind of aid to Jews would also be put to death, themselves as well as their entire family.4 In spite of this statute many Jews left the ghetto secretly, risking possible death outside in preference to almost certain death inside. At a time when leaving the country had become virtually impossible, some Jewish people who found themselves able to pass as non-Jewish started life on the so-called Aryan side, either in hiding or living openly with false "Aryan papers."
Jews hiding on the Aryan side became hunted creatures. Those who were unable or unwilling to remain in hiding needed to "look Polish," to blend with the non-Jewish Poles around them. Jews seeking to pass as non-Jews had to pretend to be "Aryan," ethnically Polish and Catholic. They were called disparagingly "Aryan Jews," "paper Aryans," crypto- Jews. The decision to live "aboveground/' in the open, hiding in plain sight, as opposed to hiding underground, meant leaving the family, uncertainty for the future, living in continuous tension, and risk of being recognized, blackmailed or denounced to the Germans. Some Jews carried cyanide pills to be taken in case of discovery, both to escape torture and death at the hands of their interrogators and to avoid the possibility of revealing information that might endanger others. Vladka Meed stated: "The common characteristic of a Jew living on the Aryan side was fear. Fear of Germans, fear of Poles, fear of blackmailers, fear of losing a hiding place, fear of not having money."5 Wanda Grosman-Jedlicka stated: "... we lived among people [Poles], walking...