Borys Kowadło
Borys Kowadło – photographer, was born on December 2, 1911 in a house at 4 Bielska Street, in the family of Dawid and Ruda nee Asz. His father was a ritual slaughterer. Borys Kowadło was a student at the photo studio of his brother-in-law Abram (Adam) Watman, which operated at 6 Kolegialna Street under the name “Foto-Salon”. During the interwar period, he lived at Sienkiewicza Street, in a house at number 31 (now 49 Sienkiewicza Street). Due to the growing antisemitism in Poland, Borys Kowadło left Płock and in 1933 went to Amsterdam, where several of his relatives lived. He was registered as a photographer in 1937. He was closely associated with the Polish-Jewish community in Amsterdam, organized around the Szymon An-ski association. After the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of the Netherlands by the Germans, due to Nazi regulations and deportations to concentration camps, he went into hiding and was active in the resistance movement under the pseudonym “Bernard van der Linden”. He also joined the underground group of photographers “De ondergedoken camera”, who took pictures of many events during the war (unfortunately most of their archives were lost). After the end of the war, Borys Kowadło traveled to Israel several times, where his brother Mojżesz lived. He was the author of many photo sessions from life in Israel. He died while traveling to Portugal and Spain, where he wanted to perpetuate the legacy of Sephardic Jewish life, on May 24, 1959.
