Tsvi Gon-Paz
RELATIONET PROJECT
Tsvi Gon-Paz
Interviewers: Mika Givol and Lihi Dayan
Contact Interviewers:
Mika: mikag0208@gmail.com
Lihi: lihidayan03@gmail.com
Survivor's Information:
Last Name: Gon-Paz
First Name: Zvi
Date Of Birth: 17.06.1936
Place Of Birth: Warsaw, Poland
Current Address: Migdalei Hayam Hatichon, Ancho Sireni 58, Kfar Saba
Background
Warsaw Before The War
By the 10th century there was a small settlement on the River Wisla.
During the late 14th Century, Warsaw was a fishing village, until a newer settlement was formed in the area after the fall of Jazdów. Warsaw became the capital of Mazovia in 1413, then in 1526 Mazovia became a part of the kingdom of Poland.
In 1569 Poland united with Lithuania and the Sejm (parliament) voted to meet in Warsaw.
King Sigismund III Vasa ruled over Warsaw during the 16th century.
In 1596 Warsaw was made the capital of Poland making it far more important.
In the late 18th century, Poland was divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria.
The National Theater was founded in 1765.
1807- Napoleon’s troops enter Warsaw and a semi-independent Duchy of Warsaw is created.
In 1815 Warsaw became the capital of the Polish Kingdom.
During the 19th Century, universities, bridges, transit and sewer systems were formed. The population of Warsaw also rose rapidly.
In 1915 during the First World War the Germans captured Warsaw.
1918, The end of World War I, leads to the collapse of the partitioning powers. Warsaw is once again the capital of an independent Poland.
In 1920 the Battle of Warsaw was fought between the Poles and the Communist Russians east of the city. Also in 1920 the Polish Army Museum was founded. Afterwards Warsaw continued to flourish.
1921 The foundation of the first modern Polish constitution and beginning of what is commonly called the 2nd Polish Republic.
During The War
In September 1939 the Germans invaded Poland. They began bombing Warsaw and captured it. At that time, about 1/3 of the population of Warsaw were Jews (about 380,000 people).
From October 1940 the Germans herded Jews from Warsaw and the surrounding area into a ghetto.
In 1942 the Germans began deporting Jews from the ghetto to concentration camps.
In April 1943 the remaining Jews in the warsow ghetto rose in rebellion. They fought bravely but the Germans were much better armed and they stopped the rebellion, killing many jews.
The Nazis blasted every existing structure and killed around half a million people. The Jewish Ghetto lasted about a month, before the whole city was torn to bits, including the Royal Castle.
1944 August 1 Poland’s Home Army launches the Warsaw Uprising with the intention of liberating Warsaw from Nazi occupation.
The Poles finally surrendered two months later, with the city in ruins.
1945 January 17 Soviet and Polish units enter Warsaw.
Total destruction stands at 84% of the city, over 700,000 polish civilians were killed in WW2.
After the war
At the end of the Second World War Warsaw was left devastated. Most of its buildings were destroyed. However, it was slowly rebuilt. By 1945, political and religious leaders are imprisoned.
on this year, the reconstruction of Warsaw started. Many historical museums, castles, streets and churches were restored, and the Old Town became part of UNESCO's World Heritage list.
With much of the capital, Warsaw, in ruins, Lodz is used as Poland’s temporary capital until 1948.
In 1955 the Warsaw Pact is created and Warsaw’s Palace of Culture is completed.
Workers protesting about plunging living standards call a strike in 1970, with the army promptly called in to intervene. during the protest, many workers died gulmoka (leader of poland at the time) was forced out of power.
The late 1970s witness a dramatic drop in living standards and spiralling prices.
1980 A general strike is called in August by the fledgling Solidarnosc (a movement that supports Solidarity) trade union, led by shipyard electrician Lech Walesa.
1982 Solidarnosc is outlawed by the government.
1983 Martial law is lifted in July and most political leaders released from prison. Lech Walesa receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
1985-1988 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms initiate a period of liberalization, though economic crisis and popular frustration continue to deepen.
1989 Solidarnosc is legalized. Partly free elections are held. Solidarnosc sweeps the elections and the Communists collapses.
1990 Lech Walesa becomes the first popularly-elected president of post-Communist Poland.
2004 Poland enters the European Union on May 1, 2004.
2005 April 2nd Following a long battle with illness Pope John Paul II passes away. His funeral in the Vatican is attended by a million Poles.
2007 Platforma are voted into power. Kaczynski twins hold on power.
2009 World leaders convene in Poland to mark the 70th anniversary of WWII.
2010 April 10th. A plane carrying President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 other Polish crashed on his way to Russia to commemorate the murder of Polish officers in WWII. Everyone on board is killed, many who form the Polish elite. The country is sent into a state of shock.
2016: Warsaw plays host to a strategically important and historically significant NATO Summit.
Today Warsaw is a flourishing and vibrant city. Today the population of Warsaw is 1.7 million.
Zvi's Testimony
Tzi was born in Warsaw in 1936 on June 17th. He ran away on a horse and a cart before they started to deport the Jews to the ghetto. " I remember the bombing and a few hours after that we ran away to Russia with my parents and older brother. Life was very difficult. we had no money, food and had to hide all of the time". His mother got sick, typhus. They lived on a ranch with some Christians who kicked him and his parents out and sent his brother to the soviet army in place of their own son because his brother had stolen cookies that were meant for their child . They ran away to Kazakhstan where a family took them in – Muslims. They brought them food, a place to sleep and treated them well while risking their lives for them. They knew that if they would get caught, they might be killed. despite the good intentions of the Muslim family, the conditions were very bad. The Muslim family had taken more jews under their protection, so the apartment was extremely crowded. "We had to pee in front of each other, there was no privacy, we still suffered from hunger, there was not enough food" Says Tzvi.
By the time the war ended, Zvi was left all by his own, at the age of 12.
He came to Israel when he was 12 years old in 1948, after the establishment of the State. Here he attended a vocational school for mechanics in Tel Aviv. In 1955 he joined the Army- Ammunitions Core. Then he took a course for tank mechanics- Sherman-for 2 years. They asked to him stay for a year later because he excelled at his position. Then he went to an officer’s course Mifaked Sadnah Gdud 9. then they sent him to study engineering at the Technion. After he finished his degree in mechanical engineering, he became the commander of tank design in the army. He kept getting promoted and climbed his way up. His major accomplishment to design the tank so that it could absorb the energy produced when the tank shot so that it would not be damaged. מחמט 1660. This was so that Israel could design our own tank so we did not have to rely on tanks designed and produced abroad. He was also responsible for not only the design but also for the construction of the tank. But his major accomplishment around 1970, when he was 28 years old ,they decided to build the Merchava I and put him in charge of that project from budgeting and purchasing all the necessary equipment and supplies with which to do that. He was awarded פרס בטחון ישראל by
Moshe Dayan 1969.
After he completed his army service, he went to UCLA to get a Masters Degree in Design Engineering and with a specialty in development of national projects.
He then returned to the army, as a commander of the Israeli equivalent of NASA but on land. נסא- -ניסויים ואבטחת איכות-Quality control which was his last position before he retired. He then became a maths teacher in a vocational school outside Jerusalem which had closed down a few years after he had started teaching there.
Tsvi met his wife Sara, when he was 18 years old in Tel Aviv. He has two sons and 3 grandchildren. Tsvi and his family lived on army bases most of the time. When he was in the army there were different difficulties than there are now- the main goal was survival which caused tremendous pressure. He has 4 things that mean the world to him, first his wife, the love of his life who have a perfect relationship and can not be apart, the second thing is his children and grandchildren. Two most important values are to stick to the target and to win. You should do everything you can not only what is expected of you. Second, be dependable and a friend of the truth even if it hurts.
