The family memorabilia of Justmans and Włodawers Museum of the history of Polish Jews

Before the World War II, the Justman family consisted of eight people: Aron Justman (born 1884) and Chaja Miriam nee Rozenstrauch (born 1888); Rywka (Regina) (born 1913?), Paulina (Pesa Fajga, born 1914), Emanuel (born 1915), Lejb (Lebek) (born 1917?), Bluma (born 1920?) and Pinchas (born 1922?). In December 1936, Paulina married a clerk, Artur Włodawer (Aron, also known as Artek, born in 1911).

Paulina and Artur Włodawer fled east across the green border in October 1939. Independently of them, Emanuel Justman also escaped from Warsaw. Regina Justman, on the other hand, stayed in Warsaw to look after her parents; also younger siblings remained in Warsaw. This whole part of the family probably died in Treblinka in 1942.

In 1940, the Włodawers were sent from Lutsk to Siberia, to Asino. In 1941, when they were granted amnesty, they worked in educational institutions.

They returned to Poland in 1946. In July 1946, their child was born in Ząbkowice Śląskie. From 1948 Paulina Włodawer worked as a lipid biochemist at the reconstructed Marceli Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, first in Łódź, then in Warsaw (after the institute was transferred there in 1953). In 1966, she was awarded the title of professor.

In the era of March 1968, the couple left Poland for Sweden. They continued their professional work and lived near Stockholm. Then, their son, Aleksander Włodawer, left for the United States, where he became a professor. Today he is a world-renowned crystallographer (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lj6SHEnshQ). He donated the majority of the family archive to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in 2008, in the first months of the memorabilia collection program.

Przemysław Kaniecki