Matylda Wyszynska in her room

This photo was taken in my room in my partents’ apartment in Lwow.

I was a little girl then, I don’t know if I was 7, or 8 years old...

When still lived with my parents, we lived in those large apartment blocks on the third floor, the street was called Na Bajkach.

I don't remember how many rooms we had, I always had my own. I was the only child.

We had a bathroom. There was a coal stove and by that stove a large plastered box. It had a metal door on top and a small door at the side.

Once a week the coal supplier came and poured in the coal and the maid took that coal portion by portion through the small side door.

As a child, I loved to lay on that box because it was so warm there.

When my mother went out somewhere, I went to the kitchen to the servants and had my shakedown on that box.

The servants gave me scale weights to play. There was a weight called 'mother' and another called 'father' and the small ones, the children, and I played with them on those scales.

The Centropa Collection at USHMM

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