Premiere of the guidebook “In the Footsteps of Adam Neuman-Nowicki” on 12 December
The newest guidebook published by the Nobiscum Foundation will premiere on December 12, 2025. Gabriela Nowak-Dąbrowska’s book, “In the Footsteps of Adam Neuman-Nowicki,” is being published thanks to co-funding from the Municipality of Płock.
We invite you to the premiere event on December 12th at 5:00 PM at the Darmstadt House at 8 Old Market Square. Copies of the guidebook will be available free of charge that day!
The author describes her work as follows:
The idea of creating a guidebook to places connected with the life of Adam Neuman-Nowicki (1925–2021) arose from several projects implemented by the Nobiscum Foundation, including the publication “Out of Oblivion: Jewish Families of Pre-War Płock,” dedicated to the descendants of Płock Jews, and “Adam and his Płock,” based on Adam’s memoirs and illustrated by our dear Yaakov Guterman.
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Adam – the author of the extraordinary book “Struggle for Life,” published in Poland in 2008 and which served as the inspiration for this publication. Could there be a better time for its premiere?
In this guidebook, I aim to highlight over 30 locations connected with the lives of Adam and his family in pre-war Płock, which he mentions in his book “Struggle for Life.” These include buildings that can still be found throughout the city, but also places that no longer exist, such as the Great Synagogue on Synagogalna Street, where his parents, Mojsze Szlama Neuman and Frymeta née Goldkind, entered into a religious marriage, and the Jewish Coeducational Humanities High School at 28 Kolegialna Street, where Adam’s aunt, Łucja (Sara Lea) Goldkind, was professionally involved.
This publication is my personal expression of tribute and memory to a man whose life, as written in the foreword to the English edition of the book “Struggle for life During the Nazi Occupation of Poland” (New York 1998), is both a lesson and an inspiration to others.
What was interwar Płock like through the eyes of a young Jewish boy? How did he spend his free time? Where did he study? Where did his loved ones live? Which places were particularly memorable to him? What is their history? I invite you to follow Adam Neuman-Nowicki’s footsteps through Płock. I hope it will be a fascinating journey into our city’s past for readers, just as delving into the archives and his family’s history was fascinating for me.
