Roman and Eleonora Witoński
Eleonora Witońska was born on September 16, 1939.
Roman Witoński, Eleonora’s brother, was born on June 8, 1938.
The two siblings lived with their father, Seweryn, who was a paediatrician, and their mother, Rucza, in Radom, Poland.
Eleonora was five years old when she was murdered. Roman was at the age of six, when he was hanged.
Unfortunately, there is no known private photograph of Eleonora Witońska.
The only photographs we have of her are those taken by the SS during the 'medical' experiments.
We have deliberately chosen not to reproduce them.
The Witoński family were forced to live in the Radom ghetto.
On March 21, 1943, during the holiday of Purim, there was a raid and they, together with more than 150 other Jewish men, women, and children, were taken to the old Jewish cemetery in Szydlowice.
There, the SS commenced a mass execution.
As the family looked on, the father, Seweryn Witoński, was murdered.
His wife Rucza was able to hide behind the gravestones with Roman and Eleonora.
When they were found, they were not murdered but taken back to the Radom ghetto. Via the Pionki camp, they were deported to Auschwitz at the end of July 1944.
All three had numbers tattooed on their forearms: A-15158 for the mother, A-15159 for Eleonora and A-19948 for Roman.
The children were then separated from their mother and sent to Block 1, the children’s block.
Rucza Witońska last saw her children in November 1944.
The mother survived Auschwitz und spent years looking for the two children.
She emigrated to France, remarried, and adopted the name Rose Grumelin. She had another son, Marc-Alain.
The street Geschwister-Witonski-Strasse in Hamburg Burgwedel is named after the siblings Eleonora and Roman.