Norbert (Natan) was the only child of Zofia (nee Buchalter) and Grzegorz (born 30/08/1897) Lampert who, before the War, lived in Warsaw at 54 Wspólna Street. After the German army entered the city in 1939, Grzegorz, together with Zofia’s brother Monis, fled to Lithuania. There, they endeavoured to obtain visas to the United States for the whole family. Ultimately, he could only obtain a visa for himself and only then to Japan. He left Europe in 1940.
At the same time, in Warsaw, under orders from the occupying authorities, Zofia and Norbert moved to 3 Pańska Street within “the small ghetto”. The boy soon came under the care of his wealthy grandparents who lived on Nalewki Street. Thanks to the money that they had saved, the family did not experience hunger, and held employment office certificates which protected them from deportation. However, the situation in the ghetto deteriorated dramatically. At the end of 1942, Zofia decided to leave the ghetto and, with her son, joined a group of workers leaving for the “Aryan side”.
Zygmunt Laskowski, a friend of Zofia’s from before the War, helped them to organise an apartment. She had probably made contact with him prior to escaping from the ghetto. Zofia and her son lived there as Polish Catholics. When she fell ill, Zygmunt arranged a place for her at a hospital. Under the influence of a high temperature, however, she betrayed her true identity and she was removed. She then decided to return to the Jewish district and was murdered near its walls.
Zygmunt Laskowski took care of the abandoned Norbert. He acquired documents for him under the name of “Leszek Gołębiowski” and placed him under the care of his relative, Władysława Szulc-Koiszewska. After the Ghetto Uprising in 1943, Władysława and the boy shifted from an apartment on Chmielna Street to the “Malinówka” estate in Małkinia, not far from Treblinka. Zygmunt Laskowski supported them financially, most probably from money left him by Zofia Lampert.
Soon after the War, in 1946, Władysława returned to Warsaw with Norbert and handed him over to the Jewish Committee. In the end, the boy was reunited with his father and his surviving uncles, and settled in Israel. Many times, he has visited Poland and the people who helped him to survive the Holocaust.
