The following text is not a historical study. It is a retelling of the witness’s life story based on the memories recorded in the interview. The story was processed by external collaborators of the Memory of Nations. In some cases, the short biography draws on documents made available by the Security Forces Archives, State District Archives, National Archives, or other institutions. These are used merely to complement the witness’s testimony. The referenced pages of such files are saved in the Documents section.
If you have objections or additions to the text, please contact the chief editor of the Memory of Nations. (michal.smid@ustrcr.cz)
My parents came from two different worlds. At home, we celebrated Jewish and Catholic holidays equally
She was born in 1950 into a mixed family.
Her father was imprisoned in the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.
Due to her Jewish origin, she was not allowed to take the secondary school leaving exam.
She helped her father organise Jewish social and cultural life in Walbrzych.
She is currently the chairwoman of a Jewish organisation
Sabina Chrapek (née Hoffman) was born in Wałbrzych in 1950. She is the daughter of a Polish woman from Warsaw and a Polish Jew from Drohobych. During the war, her father, Ludwik Hoffman, was a prisoner in the labour camp in Wałbrzych, which was a subcamp of Gross-Rossen Nazi German Concentraton Camp. After the war, he settled in Wałbrzych. He was a local leader of the Jewish community for years. Sabina Chrapek attended a Polish school. The war and the Holocaust were never discussed at home. Due to her parents’ mixed marriage, both Jewish and Catholic holidays were celebrated at home. In 1968, due to her background, she was not permitted to undertake her final school exams. She is currently the chairwoman of the Wałbrzych TSKŻ (The Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland) and an archivist at the Gross-Rossen Museum. Her husband used to be a miner in a Walbrzych mine and now runs a catering company. They have two sons.
© Všechna práva vycházejí z práv projektu: Stories of the 20th century
Witness story in project Stories of the 20th century ()