Malgorzata Lanota

This is my daughter Malgorzata Lanota. In this picture she is maybe 30. She was born in Lublin. The photo was taken in Warsaw.

In May 1945 I had my baby, Malgosia. Three months later I went to Lodz. My cousin Ida Merzan was living there then with her husband and daughter.

They had just come back from Russia. I went to see them. I reported for work at the publishing house 'Ksiazka i Wiedza.' When 'Ksiazka i Wiedza' moved to Warsaw, I went with my baby.

That was in 1946, I think. Warsaw was totally razed, it was absolutely unrecognizable. My baby and I lived in the room where I worked.

Malgosia lay on the desk I worked at, and at night we slept on a mattress. I don't know how my friend Marecki managed to get me an apartment in Bielany, on Zjednoczenia Avenue.

My daughter Malgosia was studying at the economy faculty of Warsaw University. She was arrested for participation in riots at the University in 1968, but they let her out quickly.

After that she worked at KOR [Worker’s Defence Comitee], and she was in 'Solidarity', she was very involved in that. A lot of my friends worked for 'Solidarity', but I didn't.

Work for the party was not at all important for me either. I'm not cut out for social work, and even less so for party work. I had nothing against the changes in Poland, but I didn't get involved in it.

I didn't bring my daughter up religiously, because I am a non-believer, but I brought her up to be aware that she is Jewish, and that that is something good, something to be proud of.

My grandsons, Piotr and Jan, whose father is a Pole, consider themselves Jews.

We always celebrate Pesach, and Christmas in the winter, not as religious festivals, but because we like them. The happiest festival is Pesach.