Hilary Laks papers
Extent and Medium
folders
3
Creator(s)
- Hilary D. Laks
Biographical History
Hilary Laks (1898-1991) was born on 30 January 1898 in Warsaw, Poland to Henryk Laks (d. 1942) and Roza Dessau (d. 1936). He had at least 3 sisters: Stefa (d. 1939), Flora, Francia (d. 1942). Hilary married Janina Tauba Szamir in 1932. Janina (1907-1995) was born on 28 February 1907 to Jakub and Thekla Rochman. She had several sisters. Hilary and Janina’s daughter Romana (later Romana Laks Kaplan) was born on 22 August 1934 in Warsaw. Hilary worked as a chemical engineer at Adamczewski & Co. soap factory. After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the Laks family fled east to Baranowicze, Poland (Baranavichy, Belarus). They returned to Warsaw in June 1940, and were forced into the Warsaw ghetto in November 1940. In 1942 they smuggled Romana out of the ghetto with the assistance of Bronisław and Katarzyna Miśkiewicz, and she was hidden in a convent. Bronisław was a coworker of Hilary’s from Adamczewski & Co., and hid Hilary in his family apartment until liberation. Janina went into hiding with Hilary’s stepmother Halina with the assistance of Leszek Grzywaczewski, a Polish firefighter. In January 1945 Romana was found in a convent in Stanislawow. The reunited family moved to Sweden in August 1946 as they waited for U.S. visas. In August 1951 the Laks family immigrated to the United States via Oslo, Norway aboard the M.S. Oslo Fjord. Romana later married Howard Kaplan (1932-2020) and they had two children. Bronisław and Katarzyna Miśkiewicz were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1984.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Roma Laks Kaplan in memory of her parents Janina Tauba and Hilary Laks
Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015 by Roma Laks Kaplan.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of a hand-written memoir in Polish authored by Hilary Laks, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, who was also hidden by Bronisław and Katarzyna Miśkiewicz in their apartment until liberation. The memoir describes his family history and life before and after the war, as well as the Holocaust experiences of his wife Janina Tauba Szamir and daughter Romana (later Romana Laks Kaplan), including their survival of the Warsaw ghetto, Janina going into hiding separately from Hilary, and hiding Romana in a convent. The collection also includes a 1968 letter from Hilary to Romana in which he discusses photographs taken by Polish firefighter Leszek Grzywaczewski during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. A donor-supplied English translation of the memoir is included as a supplementary document. The photographs taken by Leszek Grzywaczewski are available in Leszek Grzywaczewski photographs (1992.38).
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged as a single series.
People
- Hilary D. Laks
- Kaplan, Romana Laks.
- Laks, Janina.
- Laks, Hilary.
- Grzywaczewski, Leszek.
Corporate Bodies
- Commission for the Designation of the Righteous among the Nations
Subjects
- Hidden children (Holocaust)--Poland.
- Jews--Poland--Warsaw.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Righteous Gentiles
- Men--Personal narratives.
- Warsaw (Poland)--History--Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943.
Genre
- Document
- Personal narratives.
- Letters.