Background

Before the Holocaust Being home to over 300,000 people of the Jewish faith in 1910, Warsaw was a very large city in Poland. Across the Vistula river, laid an area of Warsaw known as Praga, and it was here that on May 10th in 1910 that Solomon Radasky was born. Radasky was born into a large family, totaling at 78 people. His parents Jacob and Toby Radasky, gave birth to 6 children including Solomon. His brothers Moishe and Baruch and his sisters Sarah, Rivka, and Leah were all killed later during the Holocaust. Besides his immediate family, Solomon had several aunts and uncles that lived around him in Warsaw.Solomon grew up with a skill for crafting fur coats, and later owned his own shop and became a true furrier. He recalls as a young man how "In Warsaw when a Jewish holiday came, we used to know it was a holiday. All the stores were closed, and the people were in the synagogues"(Solomon Radasky). After entering the ghetto, Solomon continued to work as a furrier at Tobben's shop, as they made lamb wool jackets from German soldiers. His knowledge of crafting helped him at a certain point in his imprisonment at a concentration camp, as he was employed to make a a hat for the kapo, saving himself from the cruel beating that he usually gave out to prisoners.