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 personal 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 in the Radom ghetto.
The Witonski family, together with more than 150 other Jewish men, women and children, were taken by force to the old Jewish cemetery in Szydlowice.
There, the SS committed a mass execution.
Seweryn Witonski, the father of Roman and Eleonora, was murdered in front of his family’s eyes.
His wife Rucza was able to hide behind the gravestones with their children.
When they were found, they were taken back to the Radom ghetto. Via the Pionki camp, the remaining family members 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.
The last time Rucza Witonska ever saw her children was in November 1944.
The mother survived Auschwitz and spent years desperately looking for Roman and Eleonora.
She eventually immigrated to France, remarried, and adopted the name Rose Grumelin. She gave birth to another son, Marc-Alain.
The street Geschwister-Witonski-Strasse in Hamburg Burgwedel is named after the siblings Eleonora and Roman.