United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Julia Rabinowicz was born June 4, 1927, in Łódź, Poland, to Becalel and Salomea Goldkirch Rabinowicz. Salomea, born on January 13, 1890, was a pharmacist. Julia had one older sister, Krystyna, born in 1922. In September 1939, the Germans invaded Poland and occupied Łódź. They established a Jewish ghetto In February 1940,where Julia and her mother were relocated and lived with Maria Rabinowicz, possibly a cousin. In August 1944, Julia and Salomea were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Julia was transferred to the Kratzau labor camp in Czechoslovakia. It is likely she was put to work in the ammunition factory; children were often used there because they needed small hands to assemble the grenades. The camp was liberated on May 9, 1945, by Russian forces. From Kratzau, Julia returned to Łódź and lived in the Helenowek children’s home operated by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. She stayed at Helenowek until 1949. Both her parents were killed but her sister survived. Salomea had been transferred from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Stutthof concentration camp in Poland on September 27, 1944. She was assigned prisoner number 88171 and died there on December 30, 1944. Julia married Chaim Piotr Gorodecki. He had lived in the Warsaw ghetto until its destruction in summer 1943. He then went into hiding on the Aryan side of Warsaw, and fought in the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. They had one daughter. The family lived in Warsaw until 1968, when the antisemitic policies of the Polish government prompted them to emigrate to Israel.
oversize boxes folder 2 1
The papers consist of a photo album and photographs of Julia Rabinowicz [donor's mother] and her friends in the children's home in Helenowek near Łódź, Poland, from 1946 to 1949; other photographs showing Julia, her sister, Krystyna, and her parents before and during World War II in the ghetto in Łódź; miniature notebooks in a small bag; an autograph book; notes written on birch bark; two documents stating that Julia Rabinowicz has been released from Kratzau (Chrastava), Czechoslovakia, and is returning to her hometown of Łódź; a document issued by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland, stating that Julia Rabinowicz was imprisoned in the Łódź ghetto and in August 1944 was deported to Auschwitz; and other documents.
Olga Lax papers