Salomea Berlińska | From a Cieszyn Schoolroom to the Kraków Ghetto?

This biography of Salomea Berlińska is featured on my Substack publication.

Note: This biography about Salomea Berlińska is a companion piece to my main article on the Handlówka in Cieszyn Class of 1936, where her signature first appears. Please read that post first, as it gives context to Salomea’s information in this post. This biography is a work in progress. Please check back later to see if there has been an update.

Note: The State School of Commerce in Cieszyn was commonly referred to as the Handlówka.

In 1936, Salomea Berlińska was simply one of many friends in Class III.B. But as I searched the archives of the Silesian Digital Library and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, I discovered a moving and tragic story. Salomea was more than a classmate; she was a young woman with strong faith and scholarly goals, and her life illustrates the broader Jewish experience in interwar Poland. This is the story of how a Handlówka student acted as a symbol of the Vanished World.

This kind of multicultural education was typical for the Cieszyn Jewish middle class: they spoke Polish, valued their heritage, and were ready for modern European business.

Evidence of Another Cieszyn Resident Named Berlińska

Languages Spoken	English, German, Polish, Yiddish.
Religious Education	Attended the Hebrew School named after “Talmud Torah” in Cieszyn.
Graduation Skills	German Language & Correspondence, Economic Geography, English Language, Commercial Arithmetic, Polish Stenography, Merchandise Knowledge, Typewriting.
Voluntary Studies (not known if attended)	French Language, German Stenography, Singing.

What We Know – 1939 to 1940

Note: These registration cards were created by the Jewish Community in Kraków in response to Nazi orders.

I was not hoping to find information and a photograph of Salomea in this context. Sadly, this may be the only image of her as she is not in the collection of photos in my mother’s photo album.

Field (translated from German into English)	Handwritten/Typed Entry (translated into Polish)	Translation into English & Notes
Date	21 Sierpnia 1940	21 August 1940
Person Concerned	Berlińska Sali	Sali Berlińska
From	Cieszyn	Cieszyn
Current residence	Kraków, ul. św Stanisława 10	10 św Stanisława Street, Kraków
Witness	Lehngut Rachela	Rachela Lehngut
Witness Profession	krawcowa	Dressmaker
Witness address	Kraków, ul. Starowiślna 68	68 Starowiślna Street
Witness Identity Document	Dokument tożsamości świadka	Certificate of the Jewish Craftsmen’s Association in Kraków, issued 24 July 1940, No. 7915
Birth Date [Sali]	8.VIII.1919	8 August 1919
Place of Birth	Pabianice	Pabianice
Occupation	Urzędniczka prywatna	Private clerk / Office worker
Identity Document [Sali]	Dowód osobisty z fotogr.	Identity card with photo issued in Cieszyn on 6 September 1938 (No. 469).
Purpose of Application	Prześiedlanie się do Warszawy	Relocation from Krakow to Warsaw
Marital Status [Sali]	wolna	Single / Unmarried

Note: I have a reply on file from the State Archives in Łódź, confirming that Sulamita Berlińska was born on 8 August 1919, according to the entry in the Civil Registry Records of the Jewish Community in Pabianice. The archive lists her parents as Chaim Nusyn and Liba née Tornhajm. See my Researcher’s Note section for clarification of Salomea’s different first names.

Salomea Prepared for Travel To Warsaw

I thought I had reached the end of Salomea’s story in Kraków, but the documents appear to tell me otherwise. In August 1940, she applied for papers to move to Warsaw. This detail (shown in the transcription above) is haunting: she was planning to head toward what would become the largest ghetto in occupied Europe. Her only proof of identity on that journey was her Cieszyn identity card and, presumably, her permission to travel document.

When my mother lived in Cieszyn, she used to visited the Salomea family home. This was unusual for non-Jews. Later, my mother’s address in Kraków at ul. św Sebastiana 18/3 (flat 3, 18 St. Sebastian Street) was a fifteen-minute walk from Salomea’s Kraków residence before her possible relocation to the Kraków Ghetto or to Warsaw. My mother did not know at the time how close she was to her.

After the war, she asked her nephew in Poland to find out what happened to “Salcza” [Salomea]. Her nephew “was not so eager to fulfil my aunt’s dream because I knew all Jewish families from pre-war Cieszyn were sent to ghettos and then to gas.” I am grateful to Kazimierz Ślęczka for providing this valuable information in the comments below.

Further oral history received from my cousin. In the 1990s, my mother asked my cousin to take her to ul. Ciężarowa in Cieszyn (Ciężarowa Street), where my mother used to visit the Berliński family before the war. My cousin says that my mother pointed to the second floor of the building at No. 11 ul. Ciężarowa, and said that is where Salomea lived. While my cousin can definitely state that the Berlińskis lived in Ciężarowa Street, he is not certain, after such a long period of time, that the street number 11 is correct. Today, ul. Ciężarowa in Cieszyn is known as ulica dr. Jana Michejdy (Dr Jana Michejdy Street).

As you follow Salomea Berlińska’s story, you’ll see her name appear in five different forms in the records, while my mother used to refer to her as Salcza when pointing to her signature in the photo album. These differences are not mistakes, but show the various social and political spheres she lived in:

• Salomea: This was her official name. It is found on her official record of the graduation lists of the Państwowa Szkoła Handlowa. It shows her identity as a citizen and student in Poland.
• Sulamita Berlińska: This is her name as shown in the birth records at the Civil Registry Records of the Jewish Community in Pabianice.
• Sala: This was her personal name. In the 1936 school album, she signed as Sala, the Polish nickname her friends and classmates used. It reflects the love of her teenage years in Cieszyn before everything changed.
• Salcza: After the war, that is how my mother referred to her.
• Sali: This was her name on the Jewish Community in Kraków registration card. On this 1940 registration card, she is listed as Sali, a spelling that sounds more German or Yiddish. During the Nazi occupation, these types of Jewish nicknames were used for official records and categorisation.

By recording Salomea’s all five names, we honour her whole life: from a formal student, to a treasured friend, and finally, to someone trapped by the events of the Holocaust.

Conclusion

Bringing Salomea Berlińska’s story out of the footnotes of history has been a moving experience. From her birth in Pabianice on 8 August 1919 to her studies at the Talmud Torah in Cieszyn and her last recorded days in 1940s Kraków, her journey reminds us that the names in my mother’s album were more than ink on paper. They were dreams, families, and futures.

By telling her story here, we make sure she is remembered not as a registration number in a ghetto, but as “Sala,” the bright, ambitious student who stood with my mother in the spring of 1936.

Note: This biography about Salomea Berlińska is a companion piece to my main article on the Handlówka in Cieszyn Class of 1936, where her signature first appears. Please read that post first, as it gives context to Salomea’s information in this post. This biography is a work in progress. Please check back later to see if there has been an update.

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Recommended Resources

The silent film below shows life in Kraków’s Kazimierz Jewish district in 1936. By the time of Salomea Berlińska’s arrival by 1940, this vibrant life would have been no more.

Handlówka in Cieszyn Class of 1936. (Internal link).

Talmud Torah Hebrew School in Cieszyn. External link.

Ganzach Kiddush Hashem website. About the First Bais Yaakov Seminary (External link).

Jewish Genealogy Portal. (Facebook Group). External link.

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