- Biography
- Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel is the son of Jakub Weksler, the owner of a big tailor workshop, and Batia Waiskonska Weksler. Though his birthdate is unconfirmed, he was probably born on February, 28 1943 in the Swieciany ghetto near Vilna. Romuald Jakub had an older brother, Samuel, born in either 1938 or 1939. On April 4, 1943, the Germans liquidated the Swienciany ghetto and deported the inhabitants to Vilna. Batia desperately wanted to save her newborn son and entrusted him to the care of a Polish Catholic couple, Piotr and Emilia Waszkinel. The Wazkinels christened the baby Romuald, gave him a Christian education and raised him as their own son. Romuald never knew his true origins. After the war, the Waszkinel family moved to a small town near Elblag, Poland. One evening when Romuald was only six-years old, two drunken men called him a "Jewish bastard". Romuald had never heard the word "Jew" before. Since he didn't look like either of his parents and had a darker complexion, other school children also mistreated him. While he was in high school, Romuald decided to become a priest despite his father's objections. This reaction surprised Romuald as his parents were fervent Christians. However, in September 1960 Romuald entered the seminary in Olsztyn. The next month, Piotr Waszkinel died of a heart attack. Romuald felt responsible for his father's untimely death and wanted to quit the seminary. Yet on June, 19 1966, he was ordained a priest. He also received a PhD in Philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin and became a lecturer at the same university. One evening in February 1978, when he was 35 years old, Romuald asked his mother if she knew any Jews. That evening Romuald discovered the truth about his origin. While her hands started to tremble and tears came down from her eyes, Emilia revealed to him the entire story, that he had wonderful parents who had been murdered and that he had been adopted as a baby in order to escape their fate. But when Romuald asked for his real name, his mother told him she had forgotten it. Ten years later, he enlisted the help of Sister Klara Jaroszynska, a Righteous Among the Nations for having hidden Jews during the war, who was doing research in Israel. She helped discover the names of Romuald's Jewish family. Romuald also learned that his Jewish father's siblings, who had fled to USSR in 1941, were alive and living in Netanya. Thanks to this discovery he was able to reconstruct his past. He learned that his father was taken to a labor camp and his mother and brother were sent to a concentration camp where they were murdered. Romuald then changed his name to Romuald Jakub Waszkinel Weksler to incorporate both identities. He lives and works in Lublin, Poland where he is a renowned professor and writer and an active member of the Jewish and Polish dialogue.
