Halina Elczewska

1919-1938

Halina Elczewska née Goldblum was born on November 11, 1919 in Łódź in the Polonised family of Maurycy and Franciszka. Her father was a director at Markus Kohn company at 3/5 Łąkowa St. There, the family also lived before the war. After graduating from Eliza Orzeszkowa secondary school at 21 Kościuszki St. and passing her matriculation exam, Halina started working for the company "Anglo-Polish Trade Association" at 1 Kościuszki Alley.

1939-1940

After the outbreak of war and the creation of the ghetto the family had to leave their flat and move to the ghetto. They lived there at 39 Brzezińska St. For some time, Halina’s father was a postmaster in the ghetto.

1940-1944

Halina worked in the ghetto in the Control Office (4 Kościelny Square) and the Labor Office. After marriage (1942), together with her husband Pinkus Inzelsztajn she moved to 10 Jakuba St.

1944-1945

During the liquidation of the ghetto, she was deported to Auschwitz with the whole family on August 24, 1944. Her husband, parents and her little sister Inka were killed there. Only Halina and her sister Jadwiga and brother-in-law Arnold Mostowicz survived. Halina was transported from Auschwitz to the Gross Rosen camp on 6 October 1944, and from there to Halbstadt, where she was liberated on 9 May 1945.

1945 and Postwar Experiences

From 1946, she lived in Wrocław, where she married Maciej Elczewski, and in 1953 she moved with her family to Warsaw. After her husband's death in 1957, she started working at TVP [Polish Television] in the popular science department, where she worked until 1969. The antisemitic campaign [after the events of March 1968] forced Halina to retire earlier, and part of her family to leave Poland. She is the originator of the creation of the Park of Survivors in which she planted the first tree marked with the number "0".