Franciszka Rabiner lived with her husband Maurycy in Warsaw, where they ran a clockmaker’s shop. The couple were wealthy and committed to social causes. When the war began, their son Emil was drafted into the army, and his wife Jadwiga and their three-year-old son Jerzy moved in with the Rabiners. In December 1939, German soldiers raided the apartment in search of Emil Rabiner and brutally beat Maurycy Rabiner. He died of his injuries two days later.
In the fall of 1940, Franciszka Rabiner had to move into the ghetto. She was eventually able to escape, taking on the false name of Jadwiga Marcinkowska. In 1944 she was taken to Germany, where she had to perform heavy forced labor in a ball-bearings factory in Bad Cannstatt. Like the other Polish forced laborers, she was poorly fed and discriminated against, yet her false identity protected her from persecution as a Jew. Her cover story held out until the end of the war.
In October 1946 she returned to Warsaw, where she died at the age of 65 as early as February 1, 1947.
Discriminating clothing patch for Polish forced laborers worn by Franciszka Rabiner, alias Jadwiga Marcinkowska. Source: Bejt Lochamej haGeta’ot, Kibbuz Lochamej haGeta’ot, 1198, Artifacts Section
Franciszka Rabiner’s factory identity card from the Vereinigte Kugellagerfabriken company in Schweinfurt, Bad Cannstatt works, issued to Jadwiga Marcinkowska in September 1944 (with incorrect date of birth). Source: Bejt Lochamej haGeta’ot, Kibbuz Lochamej haGeta’ot, 1190, Artifacts Section
Franciszka Rabiner’s factory identity card from the Vereinigte Kugellagerfabriken company in Schweinfurt, Bad Cannstatt works, issued to Jadwiga Marcinkowska in September 1944 (with incorrect date of birth). Source: Bejt Lochamej haGeta’ot, Kibbuz Lochamej haGeta’ot, 1190, Artifacts Section
