Julian Gringras and his wife Fela Baum in Lwow

This is a photo of me and my wife Fela Baum. It was taken in Lwow in 1940.

In 1940 I worked in Warkowicze but I intended to go to Lwow, because my wife’s brother Mosze, who had stopped off there and got straight into Lwow Polytechnic, was urging me to go to Lwow.

Lwow Polytechnic was a Polish polytechnic but by that time was under Ukrainian, i.e. Soviet authority.

That Lwow period is the Polytechnic. They honored my Warsaw grade transcript - you have to remember that this was a time when some of the Warsaw professors were lecturing at the University in Lwow, among them Boy-Zelenski.

The food, I remember, was not wonderful - we even ate horsemeat, which at the time was considered unpleasant, because horsemeat wasn't eaten in Poland.

While I was in Lwow a few parcels of clothing came from my parents. They were probably still living in their own houses, but in 1942 we were no longer in contact.

We lost touch with the outbreak of the war between Germany and Russia in June 1941. And after that I no longer had any contact with either Kielce or Warsaw, only with Moscow, with the people who were in the Union of Polish Patriots, who also sent parcels, small ones.

An overcoat, a good, navy blue overcoat - but unfortunately some mice nested in the sleeve and then I had to throw it away, yes, that's what happened.

Photos from this interviewee