Janina Ludawska was born in the early 1920s in Warsaw. She attended a Jewish girls' school, the Kalecka Gymnasium, where she discovered her passion for theatre and for Swedish culture. Her interest in Swedish culture led her to gain language scholarship to Sweden, just before the outbreak of World War II. There, she worked and spent the war years.
In 1945, she returned to Poland. From 1948 to 1953, she studied theatre studies in Moscow. After returning to Warsaw, she worked in various institutions, including the Scandinavian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Higher Theatrical School, the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Art, the Drama Theatre, and the Central Counselling Service for the Amateur Artistic Movement. She was also a member of the Communist Party.
As a result of the March 1968 events, she was dismissed from her position as director of the Central Counselling Service for Amateur Artistic Movement. With her son, she emigrated to Sweden. After a few years, she began working at the Department of Theatre Studies at the University of Stockholm. She wrote a doctoral dissertation on Gombrowicz's play "Ślub" ("The Wedding"). Regarding her identity, she says, "I am not Swedish - I am Polish and Jewish".
