Page 65 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Jesteśmy drzewami wiecznymi.

Zbiory prywatne
Private collection

Leon Waintraub (born in 1926) lived with his mother and four sisters in
Solna Street. The family ran a modest linen laundry. In the winter of 1939,
they were forced to move to the area of the planned ghetto, where they
lived in Brzezińska Street and then Jakuba Street. In the summer of 1944, he
was taken with his family to Auschwitz where he lost his mother and aunt. He
managed to escape from Auschwitz and joined a group of workers sent to
Wustegiersdorf, from where he was then sent to Dornhau, where he worked
on the construction of power lines. In February 1944, in the death march, he
was sent to Flossenburg and subsequent camps, from where he was liberated
by French troops. His three sisters were sent from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen
where they lived to see liberation. One of the sisters died in Stutthof. He lived
in Germany until 1950 when he returned to Poland to finish his medical studies
and then worked in a hospital in Otwock. In 1969, he emigrated from Poland
with his family on the wave of the anti-Semitic campaign unleashed by the
communist authorities. He settled in Sweden, where he worked as a doctor
until retirement. He is actively involved in commemorating the history of the
ghetto and family. He founded a monument in Dobra, his mother’s home town,
and visits Łódź regularly.

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