Bela Lasocka and Leon Zacharias
Bela Lasocka and Leon Zachariasz grew up in Lodz, Poland.
George, one of their sons, described it as, “a city destined to become famous in Holocaust history a couple of decades after their births. I think of it as the Chicago or Manchester, if you will, of Poland. Where the capital Warsaw had the government and most of the commerce, Lodz was a manufacturing town.”
The Zachariasz family in 1922. Lodz, Poland.
Top row: Henryk, Renia, Srolek, Eva
Middle row: Estera (pregnant with Jurek), Estera’s mother, Genia
Bottom row: Salek, Romek, Leon
Leon’s father was a tailor, working with lower class clientele.
Sy, George’s older brother of 10 years, told me that Leon knew
his family was poor.
Leon’s Childhood
Leon was the second or third youngest in a family of eight. His parents, Henrik Zachariasz and Estera Dobrocynski, took care of them in a small apartment. Here’s what George had said about his father’s circumstances as a child.
According to a community tax document from Lodz, in 1929, 80% of Jews were categorized as poor or very poor, 13.6% belonged to the middle class, and only 1.8% could be described as comfortably off or wealthy.