Ludwik Krasucki and his relatives

Here you can see a montage of photos of my relatives. These photos must have been taken in Warsaw in the 1930s.

On the photo, from the upper left: Brandla Wrobel, nee Krasucka, Nikodem Krasucki, Cecylia Krasucka, nee Schoenfeld, Jerzy Krasucki, Jakub Kaferman, Stefania Krasucka, Rudolf Wielburski, Felicja Wielburska, nee Krasucka, Roza Borowska, nee Krasucka, Hersz Borowski, I, Julian Wielburski, Edward Wielburski, Aleksander Borowski.

Grandpa and Grandma Krasucki had seven children. The eldest son, Emmanuel, was a very distinguished engineer who had had a successful career; having completed a technical degree course in Zurich, he later joined the faculty of Zurich Technical University.

He was a very eminent mechanical engineer who lectured on issues to do with various types of engines, and designed several types of engines himself.

Regrettably, his designs were subsequently used by the Germans to build submarines during World War I - a fact of which I'm not proud.

My mom's second brother, Nehemiasz, was an outstanding draughtsman.

He, unfortunately, led quite a colorful lifestyle and ended up with tuberculosis.

For the family, that was a real tragedy, as he was very much liked and loved by everybody.

My mom always claimed that he was my grandma's favorite son.

Just before the start of World War I, he was sent as a tuberculosis patient to his elder brother, who had already become a lecturer at Zurich Polytechnic. Unfortunately, just as in Thomas Mann's 'Magic Mountain', he was treated for his lung disease in Switzerland and died from tuberculosis soon after the end of World War I.

My mom was the eldest daughter. She graduated from the music conservatory in Warsaw and ought to have become a professional pianist, but suffered from stage fright and got so nervous in front of an audience that she never managed to give a decent performance.

Thus, she ended up as a music teacher. Because she graduated from the conservatory with a good reputation, she taught at one of the music high schools in addition to giving private lessons.

My mother's sister Felicja was to have been a physician. Unfortunately, her medical studies were interrupted by her marriage.

However, her husband Rudolf Wielburski, a stockbroker, was very successful, so she didn't do badly by marrying him.

The Wielburskis had two sons, Julian and Edward, who were older than me.

The third sister, Roza, had some pedagogical education, but she was a teacher only incidentally, and primarily a housewife.

Later on, she married Hersz Borowski. The Borowskis had a son, Aleksander, who was younger than me.

The youngest sister - Brandla, or Auntie Bronia, was a lovely girl. As a matter of fact, I was on friendly terms with her as she was the youngest of them all. Bronia was a brilliant artist.

When she made a set of puppets that were exhibited at the Paris Expo world fair in 1936 or 1937, the entire family took pride in her.

Everybody was there: Chaplin and Greta Garbo, political leaders, Pilsudski, and so on - an entire row of wonderful puppets, which received very good press.

Bronia belonged to the jazz generation, frequented cafés and met various people.

In the end, before the war she married a nice, wealthy young man whose last name was Wrobel.

Her husband was in the automobile accessory business. By chance, in that family everyone had Polish surnames; of the Krasucki girls, one married a Wielburski, another a Borowski, and the third a Wrobel.

All of them were Jews, of course. My mom was the only one to marry a man with a Jewish last name, Jakub Kaferman.

Mom also had another brother, Izrael alias Jerzy. He was one of my childhood heroes. Uncle Jerzy worked at the Szereszewskis' bank.

He was a sporty type, a very handsome man.

He played tennis and took me to important matches and other sporting events.