Szlamek Szuster (06.04.1926–1943)

Szlamek (actually Szlama Lejb) Szuster was born in Pruszków, probably on April 6, 1926 (or, according to some sources, September 18) in a house at ul. Komorowska 8. His father was a shoemaker Moszek Szuster, and his mother was Bajla. He was the only Jewish student in a class at a primary school in Pruszków (according to the information contained in “Sefer Pruszkow”).

In the Warsaw ghetto, Szlamek supported his family from smuggling – he brought various small items from Pruszków and then sold them with his mother on the street. For some time he worked on a farm in Czerniakow with his sister Hela. In the April Uprising, he belonged to the group of Dror Henoch Gutman in the brushmakers’ shed. When Gutman was wounded on Franciszkańska Street, Szlamek took over the command of the group. On May 8, he left the ghetto through the sewers. When they hatch at ul. Straight and were able to come out to the surface, Szlamka was sent for the rest of the people from the side sewers. They didn’t make it back; the truck with the insurgents had already left. Szlamek Szuster probably died at the hatch with a dozen or so fighters who remained there.

translated by Adam Grossman