"My Life--Memoirs by Sophie Weiss"

Document | Not Digitized | Accession Number: 2007.166

Overview

Description: Consists of one memoir, 19 pages, written by Sophie Ritterband Lewartowicz Weiss, originally of Łódź, Poland. Mrs. Weiss describes her family, childhood, and marriage to Zygmunt Lewartowicz. When the Germans invaded Poland, Mrs. Weiss (then Mrs. Lewartowicz) and her family briefly fled to Warsaw before returning to Łódź. In Decemeber 1939, after witnessing the German occupation of Łódź, the family returned to Warsaw and went into hiding as Catholics. The family lived as Aryans outside the ghetto until they were denounced in the fall of 1942, and briefly imprisoned. Mrs. Weiss and her son Kazik (now Cass Lewart) were released and established a new false identity; Zygmunt managed to escape the ghetto and join them, but passed away soon after from illness. Mrs. Weiss and Kazik were separated and reunited several times, as they both went in and out of hiding, both separatly and together. They finally reunited after the 1944 Warsaw uprising, in Milanowek, Poland, where they spent the remainder of the war. Mrs. Weiss and Kazik returned to Łódź for a few years before immigrating separately to Switzerland. In 1955, they immigrated to the United States.
Date: 1984-2000

Conditions on Access: There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
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Holder of Originals: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: Cass Lewart donated his mother's memoir to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on May 29, 2007.