Piotr Topiński is the grandson of Hannah Rottenberg, who went by the name Anna Lanota after the war. As he notes, he has always known about his Jewish heritage, but it was only when he confronted the school community and its extremely negative reaction that he became personally interested in the subject of Jewishness. His grandmother was particularly influenced by her mother who, despite religious upbringing, fought for the rights of Jewish women to education and work.
Before the war, Hannah Rottenberg studied psychology at the University of Warsaw, and, later, worked at Centos with Janusz Korczak. At the beginning of the war, in Lwów, she met her husband, Edward Lanota. She then she founded and ran an orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto, maintaining constant contact with the left-wing resistance movement. Most of Hannah Rottenberg's family, from both sides of her family, perished in the Holocaust, though more members of the Rottenberg family, from the Zamość region, survived.
After the war, Hannah Rottenberg, now known as Anna Lasota, opened and ran one of the largest women's magazines in Europe, Przyjaciółka ("Friend"). She was always an atheist, even anti-religious, but she returned a little to Jewish traditions only when her grandchildren, including Piotr Topiński, were born.
Piotr Topiński was an atheist since childhood. However, he has actively participated in the activities of Warsaw Jewish community in Warsaw, and was registered, by his mother, in the Jewish Gmina. As a teenager, he went on a Taglit trip to Israel, where he also met his Jewish relatives. Later, he participated in Jewish youth organizations and is currently a member of the JCC.
