Objects

Leon Prochaska (initially Leon Machauf) was born in 1911 in Krakow. He was son of the bank clark Jakub Machauf and Zofia Gleisner. Leon’s parents separated shortly after he was born. After Jakub’s death, in 1917, Leon’s mother remarried. Her second husband was Johann (Jan) Prochaska. From the family reports, we know that Johann was probably a Sudeten German. On 13 August 1922, in Grodziec (Będzin county), the Jewish boy Leon Machauf was baptised. In 1927, by an official decision, the then sixteen year old Leon changed his surname to Prochaska. Those two decision most probably saved him later from the Holocaust.

In August 1939, Leon was called up for military service at the Warsaw Citadel. He served in the 113. independent anti-aircraft machine gun company, of which he became the commander in the rank of corporal officer cadet. From his memories we know that at the end of September 1939, not seeing any possibility for further fight, the commander stated that the soldiers are "at liberty to decide", which in practise meant the company was resolved.

In January 1940, he managed to escape from Warsaw to Lwow. From the reports of Krzysztof Prochaska, Leon’s son, we know that from June 1941 till the end of the war Leon would use false birth and baptism certificates on which Leon’s father was listed as Jakub Prochaska (combination of his father’s first name and his stepfather’s surname), and the mother’s name from the first marriage was changed from Machauf to the Polish-sounding Machlicka. Beside the false birth and baptism certificates Leon would always carry on him blank forms of these documents, just in case.

In July 1945, Leon Prochaska’s family was evacuated to Poland. They settled in Lodz. In 1946, he got married to Joanna Kramsztyk (Link to Joasia’s note). They had two sons, twins, Janusz and Krzysztof. Leon died in 1994 in Lodz, where he was buried.

About the trunk, we know that it was used by Leon to transport the personal belongings– and so his whole life – from Lwow to Lodz, where he started a family and stayed until his death. The object was important enough for the family not only to keep it but, in time, to donate it to the POLIN Museum collection, as one of the very few memorabilia left after Leon. It is a symbol of the wandering of Polish Jews who were born to live in those tragic times.

Marta Frączkiewicz