Student Profile: J. Kosciuszko

There were no J. Kosciuszko's listed in the Lodz Ghetto Inhabitants Lists, but there was a Josek Koscinszko, born in 1931. This would be the appropriate age for a student in School #20B. Koscinszko could have easily been Kosciuszko, with the "u" simply mistranscribed as "n." Furthermore, those were not common names for Jews, so I am confident this is a match.

I agree that this is likely a transcription error and that Josek is the most likely candidate to have signed this name in the album.

I found one match for Josek Kosciuszko. He was born 1931, which matches the previous suspected mistranscribed match of Josek Joscinszko. Birthplace is listed as "Lodsch." His cause of death was "Tbc. intestini" and his date of death WAS listed as 18 Mar 1943. Oddly, the document was dated as 3 days prior, on 15 Mar 1943. Josek's address is "BD Str. 64." I believe BD Str. in the Hospital Death Records is actually Sulzfelderstrasse, which the address for Josek Koscinsko in the inhabitants list. I found another example of the BD/Sulzfelder match: A Michal-Sz Kac, born 1926, is listed in the Lodz Ghetto Hospital Death Lists as living a "BD Str. 19." In the Inhabitants List, there is a Michal Szulim Kac, born 1926, listed as moving to "SULZF 19." It's just too much of a coincidence. I strongly believe that Josek Kosciuszko and Josek Koscinszko are the same person and that he is the student who signed the book.

I also find it very strange that the date of the document is listed as three days before his date of death. I wonder what BD stands for--we often find strange abbreviations for street names in the Lodz hospital records. Thank you for helping to complete Josek's record.

Josek's father, Zeev Wolf Koshchiushko, survived the war and left testimony about the deaths of Josek, Josek's sister, Rakhel, Josek's mother, Zysl, and the rest of the family. These names match the names of the other residents of Sulzf 64 in the Lodz Ghetto Inhabitants List.

What does his father say about Josek's death? Thank you for adding this information to the record. You can complete a biography for Josek now, if you wish.