Kotlewski family collection

Moses Keitelman was born in Mielec, Poland, in 1907. He trained as a doctor, graduating in 1934. In 1938, he married Teofila Vorshirm, who was born in Mielec in 1909 and received a masters degree in German literature. They lived in Kraków and Mielec. When the German army invaded Poland, Moses was called up, but by the time he met his unit, they were already disbanding. He and Teofila decided to flee east, settling in Włodzimierz (now Volodymyr-Volynsʹkyĭ), which was on the Russian-occupied part of Poland. Moses got a job in a hospital working with infectious diseases. One of the nurses in the hospital, Irena Zientalowa, had a brother who worked for the railways and let Irena know that the German SS were coming. The Zientalowa family gathered Moses, Teofila, and several other Jewish doctors and their wives and hid all 12 of them at the family's farmhouse outside of town. They remained there for the rest of the war, cared for by the Strójwąs family who rented the farm from the Zientalowa. The group hid in the cellar for one and a half years, only occasionally able to come out. In 1944, after the Russian army liberated them, Teofila gave birth to their first son, Jurek (now George). Moses and Teofila moved to Kraków, where Teofila gave birth to a second son, Adam, and then to Walbrzych (in the region of Silesia) and subsequently to Wrocław, where Moses became director of the city hospital, even though he was not a member of the Communist Party. Moses decided to permanently change his name and his family's name to the names they used during the war. Moses became "Marian" and the family's name changed from Keitelman to "Kotlewski." He took the middle name "Keit" as a connection to his family name. The family remained in Poland until 1956, when Moses moved to Israel. Teofila and the children joined him later. In 1960, the family moved to the United States on the MS Augustus.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Deena Kotlewski and Adam Kotlewski

The Kotlewski family donated this collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013. Deena Kotlewski, the daughter of George and granddaughter of Marian and Teofila, donated part of the collection, and Adam Kotlewski, Marian and Teofila's younger son, contributed the remainder.