A Testimony of Silence… Interview with Jerzy Lewiński, a former functionary of the Order Service in the Warsaw ghetto

Abstract

Jerzy Lewiński was born at the beginning of the previous century (in 1911) in a family of assimilated Jews. Not only did he witness the most important events of that century, but he participated in a number of them as well. The youngest of five siblings, he had two step-sisters and a step-brother, from his father’s (Kopel–Kacper) first marriage and brother Adolf (mother Frajndla–Franciszka). Initially, he lived in the city of Turek, from where he moved to Warsaw in 1922, after the tragic death of his father (murdered in 1920 by his business partner). Here, in 1933, he graduated from law school of Warsaw University. During his studies, he left for several months for a scholarship at the École Superieure Politique in Paris. After completing his studies in September 1934, he was referred to the Cadet School in Częstochowa and completed it a year later as a reserve officer cadet. He passed his final exam before the military commission headed by Stanisław Władysław Maczek (the certified colonel). Following his release from military service, Lewiński moved to Łódź, where he completed judge’s training in the Łódź District Court. He also started his advocate’s training there in 1937.