Roma Nitkowska papers

Roma Drzewiecka Nitkowska was born in Krakow, Poland on June 25, 1938. Her father, Michal Holzer, was an officer in the Polish Army and her mother, Hanna Lamensdorf Holzer, was a seamstress. In September 1939 her family fled Krakow to Lvov, Poland, under Soviet administration. Roma’s father purchased a false baptismal certificate for his daughter, foreseeing its future necessity. The family moved to a small village near Bialystok, Poland. Michal Holzer survived the war in the Soviet Union. Roma and her mother moved to Przemyśl in 1942 and lived there under false identity. After liberation in 1944, the reunited family lived in Krakow and in 1947 they moved to Warsaw, where Roma’s younger brother, Jurek Holzer, was born the same year. Roma married Jerzy Nitkowska in 1959. In 1969 and 1971, respectively, Roma’s brother and parents left Poland for Sweden and in 1983 Roma Nitkowska with her husband and son joined them in Stockholm, Sweden.