This is a picture of me at the age of 18 or 19. I do not remember why I had this picture taken or if I used it for any ID. I do not remember who saved this picture for me.
Because my parents weren't doing very well financially, I took advantage of my education from that school of mine, the the Artistic Crafts School, and started working on my own. I started sewing, embroidering, I gave cutting lessons. I didn't belong to any organization. I was interested in that, but I didn't have time for that, because I was already doing what I had learned to do, in order to help my parents. How old could I have been? Some 18 to 19 years old.
Yes, already then I thought I wouldn't settle there [Poland]. That I'd never stay there. And I rejected all the marriage offers I got as a young girl. I didn't want to start a family there and to live there. Nobody wanted to talk me into marriage, but I had some heroes. I called them 'heroes,' because when I was talking to one of them I'd say, 'You have to think very well about what you want! Do you know me very well?' But I knew there was no point in starting a family in those conditions. Because what would have happened? A cousin of mine graduated from law school in Cracow; she was my age. She married a physician and what was that for? Did it last long? Occupation came and she went to Treblinka with that doctor of hers. She was a pretty girl this Renia.
Salomea Gemrot
The Centropa Collection at 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.
Academics please note: USHMM can provide you with original language word-for-word transcripts and high resolution photographs. All publications should be credited: "From the Centropa Collection at the United States Memorial Museum in Washington, DC".
Please contact collection [at] centropa.org (collection[at]centropa[dot]org).