Born on 4th August 1906 in Vienna,  Juliusz Madritsch was an entrepreneur who continued to do business in Krakow during WWII. He was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by the Jad Waszem Institute in 1964. In spring 1940, Madritsch decided to move to Krakow as a way of avoiding joining the German army. There, he opened a sewing factory which employed 800  people. He stood out thanks to his ”human approach to the Jews” which was uncommon among other businessmen of those times. Instead, their goal was to take advantage of their employees and make as much profit as possible. Madritsch  however, provided his employees with proper catering as well as good working conditions. In March 1943, right before the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto,  together with Oswald Bosko,…

Born on 1st August 1889 in Tarnopol, Aleksander Bieberstein was a doctor, chronicler of the Krakow ghetto and a social activist. After Poland regained its independence, he started working as a doctor in the Polish Army, followed by a position in the Social Insurance Institution. In 1942, Biberstein organised and managed a hospital for infectious diseases in the Krakow ghetto. He was also a Chairman of the Board of a Facility for the Jewish Orphans. Aleksander Bieberstein  was a prisoner of the Plaszow and Gross-Rosen camps as well. After WWII, he managed the Health Department of the  Provincial Council until 1958. One year later Biberstein emigrated to Israel. Aleksander Biberstein is the author of one of the most significant pieces of work entitled ”Zagłada Żydów w Krakowie” (The holocaust of…

Maria Orwid (Maria Pfeffer ), a pioneer in family psychiatry and family councellig was born on 23rd July 1930 in Przemyśl. A student of a well-known psychiatrist Antoni Kępiński, was both the founder and the manager of the first Psychiatry Clinic for Children and Teenagers in Poland. Maria Orwid  came from an assimilated Jewish family. Her parents gave her lots of attention and cared about her intellectual development. After the war broke out, together with her family, Maria Orwid was moved by force to a ghetto which they later managed to escape from.  Until the end of the war Maria Orwid lived in hiding in Lviv using her fake ”Aryan papers”. After the liberation, she moved to Krakow where she took the maturity exam and started her Medical studies at…

Following the idea to ”increase fitness in the Jews”, Makkabi Krakow, a Jewish sports club was set up on 21st July 1909. In 1932 there were seventeen sections and 1,018 members in the club. The club emblem included the star of David surrounded by a circle with the letter M in the middle while the club colours were white and blue. Any Jewish boy or girl over 18 was welcome. The people behind the idea to set up the club were: Henryk Leser, Ignacy Mahler, Adolf Weissmann, Bernard Lermer, Józef Leserkiewicz, Franiciszek Scheuer, Józef Weiss, Józef Schönberg, Marian Korngold. The Makkabi Krakow stadium was located between Koletek and Dietla street. After WWII it was taken over by the Nadwiślan Krakow club. Sport in the Jewish community grew strong and developed rapidly in…

Born on 20th July 1898 in Krakow, Leopold Infeld, son of  Salomon and Ernestyna, née Kahane, was a theoretical physicist, an author of works about the Theory of General Relativity (he collaborated with A. Einstein), the field theory and electrodynamics, a member of the Polish Science Academy and the World Peace Council. Signatory of the Russell-Einstein manifesto; signatory of Letter no.34. Leopold Infeld was a student of a Kazimerz Wielki Department School and the Adacemy of Trade.  After the maturity exam (1916), he enrolled the Jagiellonian University’s Faculty of Physics. In 1920 Infeld met Einstein in Berlin where he lived for 8 months. After his return to Krakow he obtained his PhD title (1921). In 1930 Infeld became an assistant and an associate professor at the John Casimir University of Lviv. …