Objects

This legitimate photograph of Henryk Cender was taken in one of the photography shops in Łódź, after the end of World War II. It shows a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old gentle-faced young man. His facial expression is sad, incredibly subtle and somewhat absent. Undoubtedly, the occupation experience left a very strong mark on him. His dark, thick hair is combed to the right side. Thick eyebrows frame troubled yet accepting eyes. The portrait is autographed: "HCender". On the reverse, there is a dedication to Paula Fedrich: "In memory from Henk 5 II 46".

Henryk (Heniu, Henerle, Hejnisz) Cender was born on 6 November 1929 in Zduńska Wola. His parents brought him to Bojanowo exactly one month after his birth. He attended common school in Poznań and Kalisz. He spent the years of the occupation in the Łódź ghetto and in the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Gross-Rosen concentration camps. After returning to Łódź, he began studying at the Isaac Leib Peretz Jewish School. Harassed by one of his teachers for his "bourgeois background", he tried to change schools without informing his parents. After the director intervened and had a heated discussion with his father, he left the flat. Shortly afterwards, a female neighbour informed his parents that Henryk had committed suicide (APL, Bojanowo City Files, file no. 106, pp. 113–114; letter from Paula Fedrich to D. Czwojdrak, Lüneburg, May 1997). His grave in the new Jewish cemetery in Łódź has not been preserved.