Wlodzimierz Klamra photograph collection

Symcha Klamra (Klamer, 1906-1982) was born on October 17, 1906 in Płock, Poland. After just a few years in school, the economic situation forced him to start working as a shoemaker. Symcha became active in the Polish Communist Party and since these activities were illegal, he was imprisoned twice. In the mid-1930s he met and married Giela (Genia) Genowefa Litewska (d. 1999), who was one of five children of a Rabbi. Her mother managed a bakery. Giela finished a sewing course at the local ORT and became a seamstress. The young couple moved to Warsaw. After the German invasion of Poland Symcha and Giela fled Warsaw to Minsk, but during the winter 1940-1941 Symcha returned to the occupied territory with the mission of rescuing his father. Unfortunately, after reaching Warsaw he was unable to cross to the Reich annexed area, where Płock was located. He returned to Minsk.

After the German invasion in June 1941, Symcha volunteered to serve in the Soviet Army and after its defeat he tried unsuccessfully to volunteer to the Polish Andres’ Army. Symcha was ordered to work in a military factory in Magnitogorsk, Ural and was reunited there with his wife, Giela. Their firstborn daughter, Lena, died as an infant and their son, Włodzimierz Wowka was born on December 9, 1943. In 1946 the Klamra family repatriated to Poland and settled in Wałbrzych. Wowka’s younger brother, Artur, was born there in 1946. In 1957 the family moved to Warsaw. Symcha was employed in a leather goods cooperative and Giela Genowefa continued to work as a seamstress. Symcha’s father, Szmul Klamer and his brother Jakub perished during the war. His younger brother, Eliahu (b. 1912) immigrated to Palestine before the war. Giela had two sisters: Chaja, who perished together with her husband and children in Płock and Estera, who immigrated to the US before the war; and two brothers: Hersz, who immigrated to Argentina in early 1930’s but resettled to Birobijan, the Jewish Republic established by Stalin in the Far East; and Lejb, who immigrated to the US in 1939.

Wowka and Artur left Poland in 1968 and settled in Sweden. Włodzimierz Wowka Klamra married Maja Orska, daughter of Lodz ghetto survivors, and they have two sons: Jakob and Mikael. Wowka’s brother Artur had three children: Daniel, Caroline and Dawid.