Heniek's story
Heniek Ksiazenicki was probably born in Warszawa in the end of 1937 or in 1938. He does not have any personal memories of how he survived the war. He has not been able to obtain a birth certificate from Poland.

In 1997, through the Missing Identity programs on Israeli TV, came the breakthrough in his search for his past: He discovered that before the Ghetto Warsaw Uprising in April 1943, he was given to a Polish lady named Halina Suchocka. This lady cared for him and saved him till the end of the war, through many difficulties and great dangers. She wrote a letter about this on June 6th 1946 while she was living in ul. Krucza 15 B in Warszawa. This letter exists in the ZICH archive in Warszawa. From this letter it appears that Heniek's father was still alive a year after the Ghetto Uprising, and that he in lived in the rubble of the ghetto. In August 1999, through the help of friends, Heniek found the Suchocki family in Warszawa. They told him that Halina Suchocka , born around 1914, had married around 1935, had two sons (one died as a baby), but that the couple had divorced before the war broke out.

Halina Suchocka then lived alone with her son Wacek till April 1943 when Heniek became part of their little family. Heniek was there till the end of the war.
In Dec 1945 Heniek was living in a Jewish orphanage in Chorzow.
Heniek arrived in Israel on February 15th 1949.

Heniek has found Halina's granddaughters in Warszawa
In 1999 Heniek found Halina's granddaughters in Warszawa. One of the granddaughters told him that Halina lived with them and their mother (Halina's daughter-in-law) till Halina died in 1989 at the age of 75. Blessed be her memory! Heniek has met Halina's family and has heard more about this courageous woman. He is keeping in touch with the family.

Halina Suchocka has been recognized as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem
After Heniek knew enough about Halina and how she saved him, he turned to Yad Vashem asking them to recognize Halina Suchocka as a Righteous Gentile.

This was granted in January 2000 and Halina's name is now listed in the Garden for the Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem.

A possible paternal uncle?
From JRI-Poland we learnt that a man named Henryk Heniek Chaim Ksiazenicki, born around 1894, died in Otwock Sept 19th 1937 and was buried in Warszawa. He seems to have had a wife, but no children. So far we see him as a possible paternal uncle. If so, that means that “our” Heniek was born after September 1937.

The excitement of telephone catalogues
Several years ago we found a telephone catalogue for Warszawa for the year 1913 listing one man named Szlama Ksiazenicki. At the time we found it quite interesting that somebody with Heniek's family name had a telephone so long ago.

Warszawa telephone catalogues from 1938 and 1939 showed the following three listings:
Szlama Ksiazenicki, ul. Daleka 13 (Probably the same Szlama from 1913)
Ewa Ksiazenicka, pl. Napoleona 4
Henryk Ksiazenicki, ul. Zlota 63 (Probably the same Heniek who died in Sept 1937)

From so few listings, we gather that Ksiazenicki is a fairly rare family name.

In 2004, after locating a telephone catalogue for Warszawa for the year 1940, we had a real surprise:
Szlama Ksiazenicki is listed as still living on ul. Daleka 13 (near the present day airport in Warszawa), and on that same address, but with a different telephone number, is listed Bernard Ksiazenicki.!

More research must be done to confirm if indeed this is Heniek's father Bernard Ksiazenicki and the address the family had in 1940. If so, it seems likely that Szlama Ksiazenicki is Heniek's paternal grandfather.

Nothing is sure yet, but it seems more and more likely that Heniek will be able to confirm his original identity.

RESEARCH JOURNAL JUNE 2005

JRI-POLAND AND THE JEWISH CEMETERY IN WARSZAWA

According to JRI-Poland   http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/  a woman named Cywia Ksiazenicka, born around 1892, died  in 1932 and is buried at the Jewish cemetery in Warszawa. A photograph of her gravestone, taken in the 1960's,  exists at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warszawa. Perhaps that photo will give further clues?

Was Cywia Ksiazenicka married? Who was her husband?

Was she single? Who were her parents?

Also according to JRI-Poland a woman named Basia-Gorla Ksiazenica  died in 1892 in Warszawa. In this case it is possible to order a copy of this death certificate through the JRI-Poland website.

RESEARCH JOURNAL AUGUST 2005

LIVING IN ULICA DALEKA 13 IN WARSAW IN 1938/1939
Logan Kleinwaks has , among other search engines, made a wonderful search engine for the Warsaw telephone directory 1938/1939 and was kind enough to inform me we could also search according to address.

www.kalter.org/search.php

Logan Kleinwaks wrote:
Knowing that Szlama Ksiazenicki and Bernhard Ksiazenicki both had listed ulica Daleka 13 as their address, I checked and found the following three, all Jewish, living at that same address in 1938/1939:
FRAJD Samuel, handel win i wodka
GOLDBERG Sender, prac. zegarm.
KLEJDMAN Szmul, skl. blawatny

Next step will be to look for traces of these three, first of all through Pages of Testimony.
Perhaps living relatives of these families will remember Heniek's family?

RESEARCH JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2006

WARSZAWA - URUGUAY
The email from Uruguay published  as a comment, is very interesting. As far as we have seen, there were extremely few persons named Ksiazenicki in Warszawa.
Who was the father of  Menasche Ksiazenicki  born 1906?
Could it have been Szlama Ksiazenicki?
Will the descendants in Uruguay be able to find this name, either from a document or from the text on his gravestone?
This could be a really important step for finding out if the Ksiazenicki family in Uruguay is related to our Heniek.

Our rough estimate is that Szlama Ksiazenicki was born around 1870 - 1880 and that his children were born after 1900.