Student Profile: Karolina Kryszek

Karolina Kryszek appears twice in the Lodz ghetto in habitants. She appears both times with the birthdate of 4 July 1931 and living at Fischstrasse 15 flat 5, Adolf-Hitler-strasse 79 and having changed addresses on 15 Dec 1942 to Basargasse 10. She then appears living at Basargasse 10 flat 27 and Fischstrasse 15.

I agree you have found the person who signed this name in the album. In 1941 she would have been 10 years old, the right age to attend school #9b. If she was still in the ghetto in December 1942, she avoided the major deportations in 1942--I'm curious to see what you discover about her in the next stages.

I had a hard time searching for Karolina's family members. I found three people living at the same addresses, Basargasse 10, 27 & Fischstrasse 15, 5. I found Bajla Ita KRYSZEK born 1872 and died 26/08/1942, Bluma Wajskol Friede born 1875 (she then appears numerous times with the surname Weiskohl) Sura Brana Weiskohl Kryszek born 1905 (she appears with the Sura Brania Wajskol Kryszek- SURA BRAWA WEISSKOHL) Abram Wajskol born 01/11/1917 and Izrael Weiskohl born 02/01/1895. So given that there are over four people who share Karolina's addresses and some share her surname I thought it was plausible that Sura Brania/Brana/Brawa was her mother and perhaps she was married to a different man hence why her name appears as Weiskohl/Weisskohl/Wajskol. However, I did a search on Yad Vashem and found a Submitter by the Name of Sara Chernotzki who submitted a number of Pages of Testimony for her family. There was one for Kreina Kryszek who was 11 during the war (perhaps this could be Karolina?). It doesn't state anything else about her but there is another page of testimony for Abram/Avraham Kryszek who was born in 1898 Lodz and he was killed in the USSR. His wife was Hela Bertheimer and they had one child who was Kriena. This information was submitted by his sister Sara Chernotzki. Now if you go and look at another Page for Meir/Majer Kryszek it states his wife was Bila Ita (perhaps she was Bajla Ita). Also if you look at the page for Mosze Weiskohl it states his was was Sura/Sara Kryszek.

Now I think Bajla Ita was the mother of Sura Brana, and they both were grandmother and aunt to Karolina. There isn't anyway to prove this theory though because there isn't any documentation to prove who Karolina's parents were. I decided to just leave the parents field blank until I can know more. I couldn't find anymore information on Karolina or the other people living with her except for Sura who was listed as a survivor.

This is fascinating information about her family. I agree there's no way to know definitively who her parents were, but I appreciate the depth of your search into survivor testimony to try to find out.