Adela Low

Adela Low

Born: April 18, 1924

Ulanow, Poland

Adela, known as Udl to her family, was one of four children born to a Jewish family in the Polish town of Ulanow. Her father was a landowner and cattle merchant, transporting calves from the Ulanow area for sale in other towns in the region. From the age of 3, Adela attended a private religious school for girls where she learned Jewish history and Hebrew. At age 7 she began public school.

1933-39: Adela came from a charitable family; when her mother baked challah, a special bread for the Jewish Sabbath, she had Adela and her sister Sabina deliver some of the loaves to poor families. The town had a domed synagogue and in it a local artist had painted scenes depicting the Ten Commandments. The synagogue was destroyed when the Germans reached Ulanow in September 1939, soon after the German invasion of Poland.

1940-42: On October 4, 1942, the German authorities ordered Ulanow's Jews to Zaklikow, a nearby town. Fearing they would be killed, Adela, her mother and her younger brother, Moniek, hired a Polish peasant to smuggle them in his wagon to Sandomierz, a town where the Low family had relatives. Not far from Ulanow, the wagon was stopped by a German patrol. The Low's "guide" betrayed them and turned them over to the Germans.

After they were captured, Adela, her mother, and her brother were shot and dumped into a mass grave.

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