Irena Adamowicz. The meeting about the Righteous

, 16 November 2016
"A group of Jewish residents, getting newspapers at the station as usual brought from the capital city, back usually at the station carefully watch a young, petite girl in a Catholic scouts uniform, decorated with trims and stripes". These words were written about Righteous Among the Nations Irena Adamowicz by author Larissa Cain in her book, "The Righteous Irena Adamowicz".

The Centre for Jewish Culture in Krakowski Kazim invites the public to a meeting with the author on 4th November at the Jewish Cultural Centre at ul. Meiselsa in Kraków. Maciej Biskup OP will also take part in the discussion,

Irena Adamowicz, a Polish aristocrat, a girl scout and a, Catholic, was friends with members of the zionist Hashomair Hatzair movement during the inter-War period.  She worked as a children’s home inspector of children and continued in this profession during the War which enabled her to visit the ghetto in Warsaw and to travel all over occupied Poland. There were famous Jewish activists and fighters amongst her acquaintances from the Warsaw Ghetto - Cywia Lubetkin, Isaac Cukierman, , Josef Kapłan, Arias Wilner and Mordechaj Anielewicz.

Larissa Cain, herself, survived the Warsaw Ghetto, and her book is the first and only currently available as a biography of the Righteous.  The author writes about Irena’s life under occupation and of the problems she encountered in the period of the Polish People's Republic, when the fact of saving Jews during the war often become a reason for persecution. 

Larissa Cain, born in Poland, emigrated to France in 1946. She is the author of “Ghettos en révolte ” (“ Rebellion in the Ghettoes”, 2003),  “Une enfance dans le ghetto de Varsovie ” (“Childhood in the  Warsaw Ghetto”, 2007) and  “L'Odyssée d'Oleg Lerner ” (“The Odyssey of Oleg Lerner”, 2006).