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RUTH ELDAR ISRAEL
JERUSALEM

DRZEWKO NR 42
TREE NO.
Ruth Eldar was born in Łódź in 1929 as Rutka Berlińska. She came from
a wealthy, assimilated Jewish family; she spoke beautiful literary language,
quoted Polish poets and wrote poems.
She had a happy childhood. Her father, Izydor Berliński was born into a re-
ligious family in 1899. He learned at cheder, but also in secular schools, and
knew several languages. He joined the Piłsudski Legions. Within his family,
the Marshal cult flourished throughout the interwar period. As Ruth recalled,
her father was an extraordinary orator. “Grandma used to say that “pearls
poured out of his lips”, as she wrote in her memoirs. In 1925, he married Róża
Fajtlowicz who came from one of the oldest Jewish families in Łódź who had
come to Łódź as early as in the eighteenth century. “My great-great-grandfa-
ther, Izrael Fajtlowicz bought land for the old cemetery at Wesoła Street. He
gave money for the construction of the first synagogue in Wolborska Street,
he created the Jewish community in Łódź”, Ruth enumerated with pride.
In Kościelny Square, the Fajtlowicz family had a large imported foodstuffs
wholesale company, where they sold exotic fruits, chocolates and cosmetics.
Izydor helped to run the family business. The Berlińskis, with children: Rutka
and her brother Salek, who was two years older than her, moved to a ten-
ement house at 37, 11th Listopada Street, present-day Legionów Street. It
was a home of culture, with a piano, concerts, and morning concerts in the
Philharmonic Hall. Salek went to the Kacenelson Hebrew school.
In the summer of 1939, Izydor, who was an officer, was called up. He was
taken prisoner by the Germans, and worked as a translator for several
months. In the mid-1940, the Germans let him return to Łódź. The ghetto had
already been set up at that time and the entire branch of his family from
Łódź had to fit into the Fajtlowicz family apartment at 4, Kościelny Square,
next to the church in Zgierska Street, with a view of the bridge. Three more
families were quartered there. “It was a terrible experience for me. In our
house, my brother and I used to have our own room. Our mother thought
about swapping the flat for a bigger one”, Ruth recalled. Gradually, the
situation worsened. Although her father had a good job, hunger started to
appear in their home. Rutka went to school until 1941, then she had to work
like everyone else. Izydor Berliński was a warehouseman in the shoemaking
department. He was mentioned in a poem by a young poet from the ghet-
to, Abramek Koplowicz: “When »Her Leiter« leaves, Mr. Berliński leads. Mr
Berliński is a good boss and calls the shots”. “Dad was a charismatic, cheerful
man - always smiling. Everyone liked him”, Ruth said. Her mother worked in
the hat-making department, and her brother in the electrical department.
Initially, Rutka was employed in the shoemaking department, and then in the

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