Biography
Rivka Radzinski was the cousin of donor, Ruth Levine. Rivka was the daughter of Dawid and Miriam (Turetsky) Radzinski of Warsaw. She had a younger brother, Josef. Her father was an activist in the Zionist labor movement, Poalei Zion, and a founder of the Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund) in Poland. He also served on the board of the Tarbut educational and cultural organization in Poland. In the 1930s Rivka left Poland to study at a teachers' seminar in Jerusalem, but in July 1939 she returned to Warsaw for the summer. Unable to return to Palestine, Rivka remained with her parents and a younger brother in Warsaw. The family was forced into the Warsaw ghetto in the fall of 1940, where Dawid was assigned work in the Toebbens factory. Josef Radzinski was deported to Treblinka during the great actions of the summer of 1942. The others were spared until the Warsaw ghetto revolt of April-May 1943. During the uprising the Radzinski family found refuge in a bunker beneath 5 Karmelicka Street, where they were hidden with members of the Betar resistance in the ghetto. The family is thought to have perished in the bunker, though there was a report that Dawid Radzinski was seen later in Majdanek, working as a barber. Rivka's photo album, which was in her possession in Palestine, was retained by a friend in Jerusalem until 1996, when it was given to a surviving cousin.
