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.

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Aleksander Rotsztejn (* 1963)

• He was born in 1963 to a Jewish family

• His father survived a stay in a German concentration camp

• His mother came to Poland from Israel; all of her family had spent the war safely in Palestine

• There was no strong emphasis on being brought up in the Jewish tradition at home

• The family was not affected by the events of 1968

• He has been heavily involved in the life of the Jewish community and the socio-cultural life of Jews in Wrocław since the mid-1990s

• He is president of the TSKŻ (Social and Cultural Society of Jews in Poland) in Wrocław

He was born in Wrocław in 1963. His mother, a Jewish woman, was born in Palestine in 1930. She migrated to Poland in 1950 and settled permanently in Wrocław. His father was born in 1923 in Sandomierz to a Jewish family. Both his parents were killed during the liquidation of the Sandomierz ghetto. His father’s three sisters were deported to Nazi German concentration camps. None of them survived. He was sent to labour camps in Wieliczka, Mielec and Flossenburg, and was later liberated from Theresienstadt at the end of the Second World War. His father returned to Sandomierz after the war but eventually settled in Wrocław. He attended a Polish primary school and a general secondary school. He completed a post-secondary course in sanitary installations. He runs a own business. Although his parents came from Orthodox families, there was no strong emphasis on a traditional Jewish upbringing in his family home. The family was not affected by the 1968 persecutions. Since the mid-1990s, he has played an active role in the socio-cultural life of the Jewish community and the TSKŻ (Social and Cultural Society of Jews in Poland) in Wrocław, serving as its chairman. He is the chairman of the TSKŻ in Wrocław.