- Biography
- Jadzia Wren (born Jadzia Liwer) is the daughter of Abraham and Eva Chava Liwer. She was born December 4, 1920 in Bedzin and had an older brother, Jacob/Jacques. She attended the Fürstenberg gymnasium, a private Jewish school in the city. After graduating from high school, Jadzia studied economics at a business college in Krakow. The family fled from Bedzin to Warsaw, then Lvov/Lwów on September 2, 1939. Her father managed to escape to Vilna on December 31, 1939, after an unexpected encounter with a worker from his bicycle factory made him fear being reported to the Soviets as a capitalist. On the night of June 29, 1940 Jadzia and her mother were deported by the Soviets to Krasnouralsk, in Siberia. After learning about the availability of Curaçao destination visas and Japanese transit visas, Abraham went to the Dutch and Japanese consulates in Kaunas and obtained one for himself, his wife and daughter. The birthdate he provided for Jadzia on the application was December 4, 1923, making her appear three years younger. The family was reunited in Vladivostok in mid-April, 1941. Once in Japan, they obtained a Polish passport from the Polish embassy for Eva and Jadzia, as well as two Canadian visas. They departed by boat from Japan in 1941. Abraham disembarked in Seattle, Jadzia and Chawa in Vancouver. The three reunited in Albany, New York, in 1943.