In the archives of the POLIN Museum there are three family photos and one portrait of Andrzej Wróblewski (1909–1994) – radio and press journalist, author of, among others, the collection of sketches "Fragetowe łyzeczki" (1955), and theatre critic.
The family photos are pre-war photos of visits with his wife and son to his father, Naftali Feigin, in Słupca, where his father lived at that time. The portrait photo, on the other hand, comes from the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the time when a famous interview with Wróblewski was made by a Norwegian journalist – "To be a Jew ... Conversation with Dag Halvorsen about Jews and the anti-Semitism of Poles" (published by the Independent Publishing House) Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1992).
Andrzej Wróblewski's parents were dentists. "They studied together in Warsaw. It was a higher vocational school, as we would say today" (ibid., P. 23). Therefore, judging by the manner in which the studies took place, they studied before 1914. His mother, Berta, née Awerbuch, (1883), died in 1922, at the age of 39. At the end of her life she was treated in Warsaw for a long time, and her son stayed with her. After her death, his father left him with his family in Warsaw and enrolled him in a Jewish gymnasium with Polish. Wróblewski does not mention in the interview which one. He points out, however, why to this type of school: "I think that he just wanted to spare me the humiliations that he himself had experienced at a young age" (ibid., P. 53). It is also significant that he had to send his son – also due to his non-involvement in mathematics studies in Poland – to study medicine in France. "Many foreigners studied in Tours" recalled Wróblewski; "there were Spaniards, Turks, Egyptians, Yugoslavs, Brazilians, Bulgarians, and Romanians. However, Jews from Poland and Romania prevailed, as they simply had limited access to universities in their countries. […] The majority was clearly getting ready to emigrate wherever they could, even to Palestine" (ibid., P. 58). Wróblewski did not complete these studies.
Until the second half of the 1930s, he lived with his wife, Wanda, née Piotrowicz, in Vilnius (for more about his first wife – see the note to the next photo in the collection), but in 1937 (or 1938) they moved to Warsaw (ibid., P. 76). Here they survived a major part of the war. They were active in the underground resistance activities, and Wróblewski was in the top management of the "Wolność" organization (on this subject, see especially Wacław Zagórski's memoirs, "Wolność w niewoli", London 1971; 1st national edition, Gdańsk 2014). They changed their name – from Feigin to Wróblewski / Wróblewska – in mid-1940. As Wróblewski mentioned in an interview: "I remember – in April or May 1940 – the alarm in Żoliborz, where I lived. A dozen or so large police booths/wagons appeared on the central square of the district, several dozen German gendarmes jumped out of them and began to surround house after house. […] I stood at the window and looked stunned. […] The escape was senseless, because everything around was surrounded by the police. They took people out of the basements and attics. [...] The searches ended at a neighbouring house. They didn't get to mine. [...] it was the first Warsaw transport to Oświęcim. My friends and neighbours who were then taken were given three-digit numbers. It was clear that a new phase had begun. […] It was then […] that I decided it was time to change my skin. It was not just my individual decision. The organization decided that I should not stay in Żoliborz, where I was known under the name Feigin. [...] The organization provided me with new papers in the name of Wróblewski, and Feigin's card was withdrawn from the population records "("Być Żydem...", pp. 110–112). They moved to Nowogrodzka Street. |At the end of 1943, they had to leave the city. Among other places, they stayed in Annopol (in the Lublin region), then in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, and finally in Włoszczowa (see ibid., especially pp. 110–142).
After the war, Wróblewski remained in Poland. He did not go back to the name Feigin (on this subject: see a note to the last photo in the collection). He has published in cultural magazines (including "Nowa Kultura", "Przegląd Kulturalny", "Teatr", "Przekrój"), and collaborated with Program III of the Polish Radio (he edited the series of programmes "Mała encyclopedia Wielki Drama"; he published essays in the series with this title in the magazine "Scena").
Przemysław Kaniecki