Henryk Tabaksblat was born as Chaim (Heniek) Tabaksblat on May 3, 1922 in Łódź, Poland. His father, Mordka Tabaksblat (1896-1967), was a painter and his mother, Hendla Korn Tabaksblat (1896-1942), took care of the children: Josef Tabaksblat (1919-1941); Henryk Tabaksblat (b. 1922); Rajzla Roza Tabaksblat (1924-1943); and Ruchla Tabaksblat (1927-1943). The family lived at 25 Gdanska Street in Łódź, together with Heniek’s grandparents. Yiddish was spoken at home and they kept kosher kitchen for the grandparents. Mordka Tabaksblat was active in ORT organization and in “Oswiata” Jewish cultural organization, which in addition to education supplied inexpensive food for the unemployed. In September 1939, following the German invasion of Poland, Mordka Tabaksblat with his two sons and his brother with three sons started on a journey to Warsaw to help defend the city. The German soldiers stopped them near Blonie, arrested them and brought them to Rawa Mazowiecka to a makeshift camp. The Polish men in the camp robbed them of their shoes, coats and watches and the German soldiers beat and tortured them. The Jewish prisoners were segregated from the Poles, and the Red Cross meals were given only to the Poles. The Jews were forced to lie in mud and they were threatened by execution. The orders of shooting were reversed and Chaim and his family were transferred to Czestochowa. After two or three weeks Heniek was released because he was under the age of eighteen. After a short while the rest of Chaim’s family returned to Łódź as well. The Tabaksblat family lived at 12 Limanowskiego Street but in February 1943 they moved to 6 Limanowskiego Street. Josef Tabaksblat died in the ghetto in 1941; Rajzla died after contracting typhus in January 1943 and Ruchla died of tuberculosis in December 1943. Hendla Tabaksblat, Heniek’s mother, was deported to the Chelmno death camp during the Gehsperre in 1942. Mordka Tabaksblat worked in the ghetto as a painter in the Supplies office and Heniek worked as a locksmith in the “Metal” resort. In August 1944, during the liquidation of the ghetto, Heniek and Mordka were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Heniek was tattooed with a number B-9067 and after a few weeks in Birkenau he was transferred to Althammer, a sub-camp of Auschwitz. Heniek worked there in an iron nails factory. His father, Mordka, was transferred to Gleiwitz concentration camp. In January 1945, during the so- called evacuation, Heniek was sick in the infirmary. He and other prisoners were forced to stand for many hours at a roll call, but the Ukrainian and German guards finally left and Heniek was free. He walked to Katowice, where he stayed for six or eight weeks after which he returned to his hometown Łódź. He was reunited with his father there. Mordka Tabaksblat died in Łódź in 1967. Heniek worked for many years at a cooperative “Rozwoj” (Development), but in 1969, as a result of anti-Jewish policy of the Polish government he left Poland, together with his two sons: Jurek (b. 1951) and Jacek (b. 1956), for Copenhagen, Denmark. Henryk Tabaksblat started to work in a metal factory in Denmark and upon his retirement he started to paint.
