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This is me, Jankiel Kulawiec, with my family: my daughter Roza Kulawiec (second from right), my sons Marian (fourth from left) and Anatol (second from left) Kulawiec, my two granddaughters and my wife Anna Kulawiec of course. This photo was taken in my apartment some time in the 1990s.
I have three children. My elder son Anatol was born in Uzbekistan on 12th February 1944. The next was a daughter, Roza. She was born here in Legnica, in 1947. And my second son, Marian, was born in 1952. All the children knew of my background, and had a similar attitude to it as me - traditional. My daughter went to a secular Jewish school, first to a vocational hairdressing school and then to a high school. The children remember the Jewish holidays, and I even get New Year wishes from my son-in-law at Rosh Hashanah. My daughter has been to Israel with me and keeps in touch with the family there.
My daughter and son-in-law even had trouble once in connection with my daughter's background. It was in 1968, when my son-in-law was working in Lubin in a mining corporation. One day his colleagues asked him if he had any enemies. His department had received an anonymous note that his wife was a Jew. They gave him the note and he took it home to show my daughter. She had a friend, a teacher, who she was very close to. She would come to Legnica to visit me with them, they literally ?ate out of the same bowl.? When Roza saw the note, she immediately recognized the handwriting as Asia's, that friend. Shortly afterwards it turned out that it was her. My daughter and son-in-law went to tea with her, and showed her and her husband the note, and after they left they eavesdropped at the door and heard them arguing and this Asia's husband reproaching her for writing the note. That was that incident.
My wife's name is Anna. We have been together for over 60 years now. We have never had any problems through my being Jewish. Neither of us is religious, so there was never any problem with observing holidays. Today I celebrate the holidays. And before, when Anna was younger and healthier she used to go to the TSKZ with me to various Jewish events, and it never bothered her.
