Biography
Wolf Laudon is the son of Symcha and Maria Frajda Laudon (b. 1882). Wolf was born on November 4, 1903. He had a sister Rywka and a brother Zelig. During the interwar period Wolf worked as a professional photographer. After the German invasion and the formation of the Bedzin ghetto, he became the official ghetto photographer in partnership with his brother-in-law, Josef Goldcwajg. Among their assignments was to take identity photos of the residents of the ghetto. Wolf later went into hiding, but was denounced by a Pole and sent to Auschwitz. He survived the war, and immediately after his liberation, joined the Polish military police, in the hopes of exacting revenge on the Germans and helping his fellow Jewish survivors get out of Poland. While working near the Czech border in the spring of 1946 he met Helen Sztelman (b. February 24, 1923). Originally from Zwolen, Helen spent three years as a slave laborer in the Skarzysko Kamienna ammunition factory camp and eight months in the HASAG-Czestochowa factory camp. After the war she lived briefly in Lodz until convinced by ongoing anti-Semitism to leave Poland. She joined a Bricha group and followed them to the Czech border. When she was stopped by the border patrol, Wolf Laudon stepped in to offer his assistance. The two quickly fell in love and got married in Katowice on May 16, 1946. Their son Lunio (the donor, Lewis Laudon) was born in Nysa the following year on June 11, 1947.
