Given name: Roman Family name: Kowalski

  • YES
  • Male
  • Roman
  • Kowalski
  • 1921
  • Refugee from Lodz. His father died in September 1939. Romek maintained his mother and sister. Pianist in the youth Lodz Artistic Ensemble, which performed to collect money for the refugees form Lodz. Accompanied Mary Berg. He did technical drawing courses organised by the Judenrat. Because of the bad financial situation, he dropped the course and was employed as a supervisor in a Judenrat's enterprise collectnig bricks for the ghetto's walls (June 1941). He endured life in the ghetto very badly (physically), especially limited possibilities to play the piano (in December 1941, his hands were frostbitten in his work - his work was the collecting of bricks and preservation of the ghetto walls). Reciprocally in love with Mary Berg. In September 1941, he was ill with typhus. He was on the opening night of the play 'Love Is Looking for a Flat' ('Milosc szuka mieszkania') on 29 October 1941. In December 1941, he built the wall in Chlodna Street. During the First Action, he was barracked in Niska Street. He sent Mary letters to Pawiak. After the First Action, he moved in to a flat with his cousin and a young girl. On 14 December 1942, he had a very serious industrial accident while he was removing ruins of a house - he was covered with a pile of rubble. As unemployable, he feared that he will be deported to Treblinka or shot on the spot, so he hid from the Germans and cured himself. He hoped to come back to work soon. He worked in the ghetto to April 1943.

  • youth
  • his relative was probably Mieczyslaw Lichtenbaum, son of Marka Lichtenbauma.
    From the obscure hints in Rutka's letter sent to Mary to Vittel, it can be deducted that Romek died during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

  • Berg, Mary; Dziennik z getta warszawskiego (Warsaw Ghetto Diary)

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