Uri Huppert (born in 1932 in Bielsk) about his paternal family in Wadowice before 2WW, about live and his family fate during 2WW (in Lwow, Stryi, Cracow) and about live after war
An English resume of an interview in Hebrew that took place in Israel as a part of the Polish Roots in Israel Project. Interwievee name: Uri Huppert.
Born as Jerzy, 17.7.1932 in Bielsko.
Family: Paternal grandparents were Israel Huppert, born in 1853 in Wadowice and Anna, born in 1852.
Maternal grandparents were Dr Wilhelm Seliger and Klara.
Dr Seliger was in charge of finances in Galicja (lived in Lwow) on behalf of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy.
Parents: His father was Ignacy Huppert, born on 10.1.1889 in Wadowice , and his mother was Teresa Felicia, born on 16.8.1903 in Lwow.
The Hupperts originated from Portugal and as a result of the exodus of the Jews from the Iberian peninsula in the late 15 century wandered to Holland and from there proceeded to Poland where they finally settled in Wadowice. The Hupperts were an assimilated family with a Jewish orientation speaking the Polish language and not Iddish.
Grandparents Israel and Anna gave birth to 9 children in Wadowice; he was a member of town council and chairman of the Jewish local community; Israel was also a wealthy businessman who owned an alcoholic beverages production plant. He bequeathed eight real estates including a large building in the center of Wadowice.
Grandmother Anna was the dominant figure in the family and governed its interests; Ignacy had been enlisted to one of the legions of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski during the last phases of WW1 and in the years to come served in the Polish infantry reaching the rank of captain and managing to study laws. His brother, Bronislaw, served also as an officer in the Polish army. Since he was denied promotion due to his refuse to christianize himself, Ignacy retired from the army. He opened a lawyer office in Biala, and later in Bielsko, which specialized in criminal law; As a Jewish nationalist he joined Betar the revisionist youth movement under the leadership of Vladimir Zabotinsky.
In the course of many years have existed close relations between the Huppert and Wojtyla families who were living in proximity in Wadowice; when the latter's children, Karol and his brother, became orphans from mother they used to come over regularly grandmother Anna who served them with lunch or dinner.
One of Hupperts daughters married Dr Kluger, a local solicitor, and they gave birth to two children, Jerzy and Stefania. Jerzy learned in the same school with Karol Wojtyla and they would be true friends since then through the years to come; with Stefania, the younger, he used to play tennis. Karol, who would in the future be elected the Pope John Paul II, recalled these times and was especially compelling when he visited Auschwitz in 1979 and while paying tribute to the millions murdered in that death camp invoked the memory of and prayed, among others, for the grandmother, mother and sister of Jerzy who perished there.
Jerzy served in the Polish army during the WW2 and fought within the corpus leaded by Gen. Anders in the bloody battle of Monte Casino in Italy. After the war he studied engineering in Britain, returned to Italy and got into engineering business in Rome.
He initiated the resumption of the relations with Karol Wojtyla when the latter visited Rome in his capacity as the Bishop of Cracow and kept in touch through Wojtyla's pontificate. It was published that Kluger was the first to be granted a private audience by the new elected Pope and it was him who was involved in the process which resulted in the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the State of Israel.
WW2: At the outbreak of the war father Ignacy asked mother Teresa and Jerzy to travel to grandmother Klara in Lwow where he joined them later. Because he was a former Polish officer and a current member of Betar, Ignacy knew that his name was on the lists of the NKVD and they were looking for him. He was in hide at the grandmother's home.
When the Germans entered Lwow in 1941 they got the family and placed them in the local ghetto. Jerzy, the thin boy, used to be sent by his parents through the ghetto walls to bring in food. One day on winter 1942 the family succeeded to went out from the ghetto and got hided in the town. Father Ignacy decided to turn back to Cracow to get a fur which he had left behind for a repair. Unfortunately, the furrier who had been acquainted to Ignacy was now an informer of the Gestapo which caught him and imprisoned in the Montelupich prison in Cracow.
In the cell Ignacy identified himself as a Polish officer to a prisoner who was going to be sent free and he ordered him to deliver a note to the family in Lwow. He let them know that he had been handed over by the furrier, named Aksak, and ordered them to leave at once their place since the Gestapo had followed them. Mother and son fled and because their name was well known mother changed it to Halecki.
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