Mietek Kalisz and family

Mietek Kalisz and family

This is my brother-in-law, Mietek Kalisz , with his wife Lola Kalisz, nee Piwko, and their daughter Fryda. This photo was taken in some studio in Lodz in the 1940s.

I met my future wife's brother in Lublin. I spent some time in Lublin before I came to Lodz. I lent him some money, because I had money. He was a shirker, he didn't want to work, a happy-go-lucky fellow. He couldn't write. When someone confided in him, he would give him everything he had. He was never rolling in dough. He later went to Lodz. I met him at the Jewish Committee in Lodz. He said: 'Why did you spend so much time in Lublin?' He asked where I lived. And when I came back I first lived at the Red Cross, on Sienkiewicza Street, and then I moved in with one Jew. He lived alone, on 72 Wschodnia. Borower or Badower was his name, I don't remember exactly. Mietek finally invited me to his place: 'Come, I live on Prochnika Street.' I went and that's how I met my future wife. 

Her name was Frymeta Kalisz, Frania. We married in Lodz in August 1945. I didn't want to get married, but she blew me away. We had only known each other for a few months, but I loved her. And I was no carefree fellow. We lived in that apartment on 21 Prochnika Street. My son was born one year after we got married. 

I received this photo from Mietek in 1947. Soon after, but I don’t remember when, Mietek and his wife Lola Kalisz, nee Piwko, moved to Germany and lived in Regensburg. What happened with them after, I don’t know exactly, all I know is that they are divorced.

 
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Centropa Collection acquired by USHMM

The Centropa archive has been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. 

USHMM will soon offer a Special Collections page for Centropa.

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