Roza Symchowicz
(1887–1941)²⁹⁶
[1] In one of the rooms at CENTOS, at one of the tables, sat a tall slender woman
with a good-sized head and a pair of large kind eyes which radiated generosity.
She always had a lovely amiable smile on her lips. She was sitting waiting for
the children who wanted to enrol in the day-care centres. But that’s wrong, she
wasn’t waiting. She had no time to wait, because there were too many homeless
and orphaned children today. Thus she was always busy, deep in discussions
with mothers or children.
This woman was Roza Symchowicz, the mother of all the homeless, forsaken
children, but a tragedy occurred. She contracted typhus through her
work. She fought death for a few days and lost. She died, and with her died the
best friend that Jewish children had, especially those who were unfortunate.
Therefore, children should know who Roza Symchowicz was.
Roza Symchowicz was born in 1887 in the former Russian Empire, in
the small town of Slutsk,²⁹⁷ to a distinguished, wealthy family. Her father
was a Russian Jew, a great Talmudist and at the same time an Enlightened
Jew, which means that he possessed the kind of secular knowledge which was
rare in those days. Her mother came from Lemberg,²⁹⁸ which at that time
belonged to Austria. Whereas her father brought spirituality and intellectualism
into the home, her mother brought with her a wealthy worldliness that
elevated the tenour of the house to that of an aristocratic manor.
Her parents took pains to ensure that Roza had both a secular and
a Jewish education. The following incident testifies to the fact that they
succeeded in instilling in Roza’s childish heart a sense of Jewish pride and
human worth.
The incident occurred in Minsk where the family had relocated after her
father’s death (1896). Roza, then still a young girl, studied French with the
296 Title on the cover of the brochure.
297 Slutsk (Słuck; Minsk region, in Belarus).
298 Lemberg (Lwów, Lvov, Lviv) (Lviv in Ukraine).
