Lejb Smietanka

Lejb Smietanka was born in Warsaw on June 16, 1888. He ran a watchmaker's shop at Elsässer Strasse 36 in Berlin-Mitte. Lejb was married to Ester Smietanka, née Weinfeld, who was also born in Warsaw on August 28, 1904. The couple had a son, Saadje, who was born in Berlin on February 28, 1938.
Lejb Smietanka was arrested in September 1939 and taken to Sachsenhausen camp, where he was released in March 1940. In May 1940 an adventurous escape began, which only allowed him to reach his longed-for destination in Palestine in 1945.
He was a passenger on the motor ship Pentcho, which was shipwrecked in the Mediterranean Sea in January 1942 en route to Palestine. He was rescued and taken to Italy, with other survivors, to an internment camp in Ferramonti di Tarsia, in the province of Cosenza.
In March 1945, the internees were allowed to continue their journey to Palestine, where Lejb Smietanka died that same year.