From the mid-nineteenth century, the Kramsztyk family belonged to the elite community of Warsaw integrationists (Poles of the Mosaic faith) whose members had passed from the traditional Jewish world to the Polish intelligentsia circles over the course of two generations.
Izaak Kramsztyk (1814–1889), a graduate and later teacher of the Warsaw Rabbinical School, was an ardent supporter of Jewish involvement in the life of the country "which we should love". In the progressive, so-called "Polish" synagogue at Nalewki Street, where he was a rabbi, he delivered sermons in Polish. He paid for his patriotic activities in the years 1861–1863 with an enforced exile to Siberia. Together with his wife Sarah (Salomea), he raised their daughters and sons to be honest Jews and Polish patriots, participants in the scientific, cultural and social life of the Polish lands.
Izaak’s sons: Stanisław (1841–1906), Marceli (1848–1901), Zygmunt (1849–1920), Julian (1849–1926), Jakub (1850–1891), and Feliks (1853–1918) actively participated in Warsaw’s social and scientific life.
More information about the Kramsztyk family can be read in Krzysztof Prochaska’s book "Józef Kramsztyk. Pasjans rodzinny, towarzyski, literacki i naukowy" [Józef Kramsztyk. A Family, Social, Literary and Scientific Patience], Warszawa 2018.
As exciting and varied as the presented family, the collection has been possible thanks to the generosity of the descendants of the Kramsztyks, scattered all over the world. Initiated by Krzysztof Prochaska, soon joined by his brother Janusz and other family members, the collection already includes several dozen memorabilia. The oldest ones are the diplomas of graduation from the Main School by Stanisław (dated 1866) and his son Stefan’s medical studies diploma of the University of Warsaw (dated 1903). We also hold memorabilia of Stefan’s son Stanisław (Staś) Kramsztyk, born in 1923. In the early 20th century, Ewa and Zofia Kramsztyk (Jakub’s daughters) were students of physics and mathematics at the Jagiellonian University. The collection includes dowry items owned by Ewa, who married the historian Franciszek Bujak. There is also a large collection of items related to Andrzej and Irena Kramsztyk and their daughter Joanna. Among them are two childhood portraits of Joasia, painted by her uncle Roman Kramsztyk; books from her collection, as well as a memento from the years of World War II: a prayer book which Joasia always had with her when serving as a connection with the world for her parents and grandmother (Felicja née Mutermilch Kramsztykowa) who were in hiding. Among the memorabilia, there is also a snuffbox, the only preserved object that belonged to Józef Kramsztyk, Andrzej’s brother.
Renata Piątkowska