Lucy Wolkowitz. Collection

Lusia alias Lucy Wolkowitz was born on 20 May 1937 in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland, as the only child of Wolf Wolkowitz (born on 7 November 1898 in Piotrkow, Poland) and Laja alias Rosalie Perlowicz (born on 13 August 1900 in Piotrkow, Poland). Lucy’s parents had married late and had no other children. Lucy’s father Wolf had a shop that specialised in bikes and small electronics, while her mother Laja was a housewife who took care of Lucy. Both her parents doted upon her. The Wolkowicz family still lived in Piotrkow Trybunalski near Lodz when Nazi-Germany invaded Poland on 1st September 1939. In early October already, the first Jewish ghetto of Poland was established in Lucy’s hometown. She and her parents were forced to move from their nice apartment into a small room in the ghetto. Lucy’s father Wolf also lost his job. In late 1944, Lucy and her parents were deported from the Piotrkow ghetto to Buchenwald where Lucy and her mother Laja were separated from her father Wolf who was taken away as a forced labourer. In Buchenwald, Lucy stayed with her mother who also had to work, but soon after Lucy and her mother were moved to Ravensbrück where young Lucy was separated from her mother during the day when Laja had to go to work. In January 1945, Lucy and her mother were transferred to Bergen-Belsen. The living conditions there were appalling. On 15 April 1945 Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British army. Lucy and her mother Laja were transferred to nearby barracks formerly used by the German Wehrmacht and now in use as a field hospital. Unfortunately, Lucy’s mother Laja suffered from typhoid fever and she died on 20 May 1945 with Lucy present. Lucy stayed at the hospital until she could stand again by herself, after which she passed through a collection point for orphans of Bergen-Belsen. She was then sent to Malmö, Sweden, on 25 July 1945, not aware that her father was still alive. When Wolf discovered that Lucy was alive and well, he also came to Sweden where they were reunited. In Sweden Lucy’s father Wolf married his second wife, a Jewish nurse who had also lost her significant other during the war. The family lived in Sweden until the nineteen fifties, when they moved to America as Lucy’s father had learned that one of his brothers had survived and that he lived in the United States. The Wolkowitz family lived in America for ten years and Lucy studied sociology there. When her father learned about another surviving brother in Belgium, he and his wife together with Lucy relocated there. Lucy got married and built a family in Belgium.

Lucy Wolkowitz was interviewed in Antwerp by Betty Swaab, volunteer at Kazerne Dossin, on 10 October 2022.

Lucy Wolkowitz, 2022