Stanislaw Wierzba

This picture of me, Stanislaw Wierzba, was taken in 2004, in the Senior’s Club at the Jewish Religious Community in Warsaw.

I met Jozefina -now my wife- and she got me involved in the Senior's Club at the Jewish Religious Community in Warsaw]. I also joined the Children of the Holocaust [Children of the Holocaust Association in Poland], but it turned out that I was too old - by just 3 months. You see, I was born in October [1925], and they only accepted those who were born from January 1926 onwards. Still, I did join, and I am a member now, but without full voting rights, an associate member. I belong to the community, and all the Jewish organizations. I am glad to pay my fees, and to participate in meetings. It's been many years now that I've belonged to the TSKZ [Social and Cultural Society of Polish Jews]. All of that, all four organizations. When New Year comes, Jozefina and I pay all the fees, and in a sense this is a pleasure to me. It's not that I have to pay. And I have no special profits from it. It's just that I want to. Now I want to do it. When I joined the Jewish organizations and then became familiar with all the issues it became a big source of pleasure for me. If it were not a pleasure, no one would force me to do it. But as things now stand, I know I have a responsibility. Today it is the Veterans [The Association of Jewish War Veterans and Victims of Prosecutions during World War Two] - they meet Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. I'm always there for the meetings, and now I also come on Tuesdays and Thursdays because we are updating our files. I am also a guest 3 times a week at the Seniors' club. I like to play cards there or read the newspapers. In any case, I feel good in all this here. And then I also come to eat at the Jewish community dining hall. So that nowadays I do not hide my Jewishness, quite the opposite.