Born on 18th April 1921 in Zabłocie, Renata Zisman, née  Springut, was a pianist and a long-term teacher. Zisman was a graduate of the State College of Music in both Krakow and Wroclaw.  She spent the war in the Krakow getto as well as in the Płaszow, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück and Neustadt-Glewe camps, living to see the liberation in the latter. After the war Zisman worked as both a school principal and a teacher at the Witold Rowicki 1st Degree State College of Music in Żywiec. She was a teacher in the grand piano and conducting class. Next, Renata Zisman took up another teaching job at the Władysław Żeleński Secondary State School of Music in Krakow where she lived to her retirement in 1995. She was awarded Gold…

Born on 20th March 1900 in Krakow, Estera Hadasa Broder, daughter of  Efroim Schindler and Małka Lea, née Gutwürth, was a teacher and and a botanist. A 1920 St. Jack’s Gymnasium graduate who continued her education at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University, which she finished in 1926 with a PhD title.  Right after her studies, Broder moved to Łódź where she worked as a Biology and Geography teacher. She also worked at the Female Gymnasium of the Association of the Secondary Education for the Jews in Łódź. Between 1929–1930, she passed her academic exams in front of the Central Examination Committee in Krakow for the would-be Botanics and Zoology and Geography and Geology secondary school teachers.  After WWII broke out, Estera Hadasa Broder was…

Józef Michał Rosenblatt, a councillor, lawyer, professor of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, the son of Joachim and Karolina, née Einblid, was born on 19th March 1853 in Cracow. A graduate of St. Ann’s Gymnasium in Cracow and the Jagiellonian University at the Law Department. In 1876, Rosenblatt obtained his PhD title in Law. The government scholarship enabled him to participate in lectures and seminars in Berlin, Leipzig and Munchen. In 1877, after his return to Cracow , he obtained his postdoctorial degree and started  his academic and didactic work on criminal law and criminal trial at the Jagiellonian University. Rosenblatt  obtained the title of Associate Professor in 1884, only to become a Professor in 1893. Between 1877-1882, he worked at a law office, mosty as an…

Sara Polina Gincburg, daughter of Szymon Gincburg and Cecylia Sandberg, also known as Zuzanna Ginczanka, was born in March 1917 in Kiev. A popular poet, blessed with an outstanding talent, wit as well as her extraordinary beauty. She was considered one of the most talented poets of the interwar period. Her works were published in  ”Wiadomości Literackie”, ”Skamander” and ”Szpilki”. Ginczanka released her only book of poems called ”O centaurach” in 1936. Her rapidly developing career was stopped by WWII and ended by her mysterious tragic death. According to Ryszard Kotarba’s  article published in Gazeta Wyborcza on 15th December 2015, entitled  ”Zuzanna Ginczanka: śmierć poetki. Historia okupacyjna” (Zuzanna Ginczanka: the poet’s death. The story of occupation), Ginczanka was most likely shot dead in the first half of 1944…

28 th February marks the death anniversary of Józef Oppenheim (1887-1946). Murdered in 1946, Oppnheim was the Head of the Tatra Mountain Ambulance Service.  His wife, Wanda, was an eye witness of this disgraceful event. According to her testimony, on 25th February someone knocked on their door  and asked about ”the Head of the Tatra Mountain Ambulance”. After being refused the entry, they came back 4 days later, on 28th February. Oppenheim let the people in. They ordered him to lift his hands up, saying ”We are from Home Army. We know your beliefs and we know you are the Head of the Tatra Mountain Ambuance Service”. When Oppenheim was trying to close the door, he was shot dead by Karol Lasak. Following this event, Tadeusz Murańka…

Dawid Grassgrün, one of the first Jews who returned to Nowy Targ after WWII, was murdered on 10th February 1946. Right after his return, he made a lot of effort to rebuild the Jewish life in the city. As a representative of the Jewish Religious Community in Nowy Targ, he signed death certificates. He advocated for the synagogue which was turned into a cinema in December 1940, to be given back to the Jews. According to Grassgrün’s daughter, it was his effort to get the synagogue back that caused his death.  In May 1946, Dawid Grassgrün’s son Samuel sold his father’s wooden house. No one has been charged with the murder. Based on: K. Panz, „Dlaczego oni, którzy tyle przecierpieli i przetrzymali, musieli zginąć”. Żydowskie ofiary zbrojnej…

On 9th February 1944, Tarnów was announced a ”Jew-free city” by the Germans. A city once inhabited by 25,000 citizens (1939), became non-existent. The German army invaded Tarnów on 7th September 1939. Soon after that, in November 1939, all synagogues and prayer homes were either burnt down or blasted. A cordoned off ghetto for 40,000 Jews was set up on 19th June 1942. The ghetto liquidation was a 5-step process:   Approximately 8,000 Jews were transported from Tarnów to the Bełżec camp between 11th-18th June 1942. All people unfit to travel (the elderly, the ill, the handicapped and mothers with small children), a total of  between 8,000 – 10,000, were murdered in the Buczyna forest near Zbylitowska Góra and in the forests of Skrzyszow. This operation cost…

Stella Müller-Madej, the daughter of Zygmunt and Berta, neé Bleiweis, was born on 5th February 1930 in Cracow, in a well-off, assymilated family. One of Oscar Schindler’s survivors, the author of a harrowing memoir „Oczami dziecka” (Cracow, 1991) / („A girl from the Schindler’s list”)  translated into nine languages. In 1941, Müller-Madej got to Cracow’s ghetto,  followed by a camp in Płaszów afterwards. She was transported to KL Auschwitz in 1944, where, as a Jewish woman, was sentenced to death. However, thanks to her uncle’s intercession,  Müller-Madej was added to the so-called ”Schindler’s list”. Together with other prisoners from the list, she was transported to the  Brunnlitz factory in Morawy where she lived to see the liberation day in 1945.  In the USA, Müller-Madej’s memoir describing the…