Feliks Puterman and Janet Rogowsky collection

Feliks Puterman (1910-1955, also referred to as Stefan Feliks Samuel Puterman) was born Samuel Puterman on 13 January 1910 in Mszczonów, Poland to Jakob Puterman (1885-1943) and Regina Puterman (b. 1886, née Pomeranzenbaum). He had two sisters, Irena Puterman (b. 1921, later Barbara Irene Sifneos), and Basia Puterman. The family lived in Poznań and Warsaw. Feliks pursued a career in art, and attended the Instytut Sztuk Plastycznych in Cieszyn, Poland. In 1937 he moved to Paris, France to attend the École des Beaux-Arts.

In September 1939 Feliks was visiting his parents in Warsaw, when Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland. He was soon drafted into the Polish Army. Around this time, he also began keeping a diary of his wartime experiences. Feliks and his family were forced into the Warsaw ghetto after it was established in October 1940 by the occupying German army. While in the ghetto he served in the Jewish Ghetto Police.

In December 1942 Feliks’ wife or girlfriend Irena Kołomańska (b. 1919) made contact with childhood friend Stanisław Korwin-Piotrowski. Stanisław was a Polish Catholic man living in Warsaw outside of the ghetto with his wife Sabina Korwin Piotrowska (née Paciorkowska). He was also a member of the Polish Resistance, and agreed to hide Irena and Feliks in their home. Feliks and Irena convinced the family to also hide his mother Regina, sister Irena and her husband Herman Jakubowski, and two other people, Szyja and Inga Rozenberg.

They remained in hiding through the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising which ended in October 1944. After the Warsaw Uprising ended, all inhabitants of the household had to flee Warsaw. Szyja Rozenberg was shot and killed. Feliks was deported to Dachau and then Sachsenhausen, where he was liberated on 3 May 1945. Regina and her daughter Irena were deported to Mauthausen and were both liberated in May 1945. Irena Kołomańska also survived the Holocaust.

Feliks returned to Warsaw after liberation and met fellow survivor Genia Ajzenberg (later Janet Rogowsky). They moved to Paris before both immigrating to the United States in 1947. They married and settled in New York. Feliks continued to work as an artist, but died from a heart attack in 1955.

Janet Rogowsky (1923-2014) was born Genia Ajzenberg on 15 January 1923 in Ostróg, Poland (Ostroh, Ukraine) to Shamai Ajzenberg and Mirla Segal. She had two brothers, Abrasha Ajzenberg and Grisza Ajzenberg, and two sisters, Ania Ajzenberg (later Ania Nowotynska) and Asya Ajzenberg (later Asya Siedlecka). The family was financially stable.

After the invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939, Ostróg was occupied by the Red Army. Janet remained in Ostróg with her sister Asya to continue her schooling, while her parents and other siblings fled to Łódź out of fear of deportation to Siberia. Janet joined her family in Łódź in 1941. Janet’s brother Abrasha was drafted into the Red Army. In June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union and ended the German-Soviet Pact. Łódź was soon occupied by the Germans and the Łódź ghetto was established. Her father and brother Grisza were killed by the Germans shortly after occupation. Her mother Mirla was deported to Treblinka in 1942 where she perished.

Janet and her sister Anya obtained false-identity papers and fled Poland for Germany, posing as Christian workers for hire. Janet lived under the name Genia Rajowska. They separated in Germany and were reunited after the war. Janet first returned to Łódź after liberation and then went to Warsaw where she worked with orphans. While in Warsaw, she met Feliks Puterman, a fellow survivor, whom she moved to Paris with before they both immigrated to the United States in 1947. They married and settled in New York. Feliks died from a heart attack in 1955. Janet became a teacher, and met her second husband David, also a teacher, while they both were teaching at the same school.