Maria and her early life

Maria Weyland (Polish name is Marylka) aged 97 was born in Lodz, a city in central Poland, on 27 February 1920. She is the middle of the three siblings and has older sister Hala and younger brother Marcel. Her father was an industrial chemist educated in Germany and worked in this profession as a representative of a Danish vegetable oil firm. They were affluent. Besides a cook, there was a woman as a nanny or a governess. The family took holidays at the Baltic seaside or Carpathian Mountains. Maria matriculated as the top of her class. However, the situation in Polish universities was not very pleasant for Jewish students at this time, and then she transferred to a commercial school in Antwerp, Belgium. In August of 1939 her father required the whole family to return home to Lodz because he felt indications of war. Early on the 5th of September they heard on the radio that the Germans were approaching Lodz. Then Maria and her parents, older sister and her husband, and younger brother got on a small car Ford Eiffel and left Lodz. Maria thought it would be a short trip until things settled down, but it was the start of a long escape journey and they never went back to the home.

See Maria's story

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